So I've sort lurked around the forums a while and finally have gotten the nerve to post, so please let me know if this sounds like a relatively good idea. I'm a huge fan of fantasy novels and particularly those with more nitty gritty feel (think vietnam vs. camelot) and came up with a concept of an inverted plotline. The idea being a series of short stories that focus on various characters who are subcharacters to the main characters of a novel I'm writing (think short stories that follow the supervillains cronies). Basically the book of short stories is a way to introduce the wider universe I'm trying to establish by basically telling the origin stories of each of the sub characters. Ok while that sounds convoluted, I do have an easier way of explaining it. Short Story Collection: Story 1 - Subcharacter 1 Related to Antagonist 1 Story 2 - Subcharacter 2 Related to Antagonist 1 Story 3 - Subcharacter 3 Related to Antagonist 1 Story 4 - Subcharacter 4 Related to Protagonist 1 etc.... So, has anyone seen a collection like this? Possibly have a title so I can read it for some inspiration? Any comments are greatly appreciated!! Thanks, J
A new writer has about a zero chance of selling a collection of short stories. Trying to make it one novel-sized story probably won't work either, because it's still a bunch of stories, not one cohesive story, All the origin stuff would be extraneous to just about any unifying story you could pull together. Of course, anything's possible. Maybe there is a story that you could create that would weave the origin stories together in an integral unit. But you'd be better off startin with one story instead of trying to weave all those separate pieces into one.
I could possibly suggest doing what I am currently doing. Do not throw away the stories, build upon them. I am currently in the process of writing short stories for each one of my characters while my novel takes a place on the shelf for the time. This way I can really get into not only my world I have created but the personalities of the characters, how they feel, act, speak, think, every aspect that defines a person not just a character. So, when it comes time to pick my piece back up again, I'll be more connected with the characters. I do have to agree with Cog here. I have read thousands upon thousands of pages of Fantasy and quite frankly I would find a book that is just a compilation of mini stories even if they are connected with the main character boring. I would lose track of the book and the mini stories prevent the reader from forming an intimate connection with the story because each one has sort of an ending and cuts out short. If you can find some way to string these along as Cog put it, cohesively, now thats a whole other ball game because then you have something the reader can dive into and keep their focus on.
Duly noted! Thanks for the feedback guys! I'll continue with the short story concept, but shelf it for once the main story is done. The short story idea came from the fact that I'm zero published and just wanted to test the waters on kindle/amazon (saw someone else asking a similar question about short stories on kindle). It was also a naturally occurring product of how I develop my larger novel. Again appreciate the feedback and glad that I asked.
Well, self publishing is a slightly different kettle of fish. You can publish anything you like on kindle, but be careful in case it hurts your chances of publishing the full length novel with a traditional publishing house, is that's your eventual goal.
