I wonder how many of you who have actually finished writing a novel, have written short stories before that. If so, do you think that has really been of help?
I didn't, but my first writing was fanfiction and I posted it by the chapter so I got feedback right away, and I think that was valuable. Really, I think that's the advantage of writing short stories instead of novels to begin... nothing to do with learning technique or anything, but just having the opportunity to get people's eyes on your work as soon as possible. A whole novel is a hell of a long slog.
My first writing experiences were also fan fiction. I attempted to write other original novels, but the only works I finished were fan fiction. Many short stories, and one Star Wars "novel". On one hand, I know that writing fan fiction helped me improve my skills, but on the other hand I keep thinking about how much a waste of time it was, when I could have been doing original stuff. Same with fan art... So torn...
I was in a creative writing class in high school, which was just basically we had to write a short story every week about whatever the prompt was about. I guess I could count those, even though I was working on my book and in that class at the same time, but I kind of don't. I was just writing those short stories for the grade, as I usually didn't care about the prompt. There was no heart in those, and I didn't care about them. Occasionally we got a free choice, though. I put more effort into those, usually.
When I was eleven or so I wrote a thirteen-page 'novel', so ... As far as proper novels go though, yeah, I finished tons of short stories before finishing a real novel. They're different beasts to be sure, but you get a lot of practice on basic writing skills and figuring out how to pace and end things that'll still be broadly applicable to novel-writing, I think.
I'm still working on my novel, but yeah, I've written plenty of flash fiction. It was a useful tool to teach me to rein in my prose. Flash? Quite a few, even got a shiny for one of them. Short stories (1200-5000 word range): Two to date. Novels in progress: One.
Like Iain, I'm still working on the novel, but I did write a lot of short stories before getting my nerve up to take a shot at a novel. Some of them, and one novelette, have been published. It was definitely useful in terms of nailing down the basics of prose and getting acquainted with the submission process. There are notable differences, but most of the lessons learned with shorts are still applicable.
I think it is faster and easier to get feedback on prose by writing short stories, because more people will be willing to read it, even if they don't like it, because it is short. Until you have prose someone is willing to read, you aren't going to get good feedback on any other element. It sucks to make your best effort on 100k words and have all the feedback comeback silent, or be line edits on five pages and nothing after, but that is the fate of most people's first attempts. You can get that kind of feedback on a short story, so you might as well start there.
Stephen King, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein all did pretty well after having short stories published
S-wo: seems that you are one of the very few people that dare to go straight to a big piece of writing. Just out of curiosity, do you also use to read novels a lot more than short stories? I get the idea that writing a fiction novel is a monumental work especially if it´s your first writing work. Thank you very much to all of you for your interesting comments.
Only if you count 200-page notebook fillers that I did as a hobby since I was 10-ish... Otherwise, no. I cannot write if I cannot stick around...
I wrote a lot of short stories when I was young and it made a big difference in my novel writing, I think short stories are essential for writing bigger projects.
Most pople improve with practice . It almost doesn't mater what you write , as long as you do a lot of it . Writing short stories, cheques , reviews , and letters of complaint are all useful practice that can be completed quickly . You can buy the complete works of George Orwell in two volumes . It is interesting to see how a writer developed before writing novels. He wrote lots of essays on subjects that included . Reflections on Gandhi, In defence of PG Wodehouse and Some thoughts on the common toad
I would equate it to running. If you start a marathon without training first, its very unlikely that you will finish the marathon. However, that is not to say you won't discover plenty about yourself as you fail! Personally I know my chops need work, I'm building up via short stories and novellas before attempting in excess of the golden 40K words.
Poetry Short stories Fanfiction Novel I still write short stories now, but the above is my progression to novels.
I haven't completed any novels yet though I did write a fanfiction novella (up to the climax where I then petered out) and an original novella (which is more of a super rough, rough draft of a novel I intend to come back to once I get the changes I want to make ironed out) before writing any short stories. But after finding this site I've been trying to push myself to participate in as many of the short story and flash fiction contests I can. Primarily for the practice of it and that both the deadline and the prompts help a lot. While I can't say that this has made writing a novel any easier, I do think that my ability to write has improved since I started.
It's important to keep in mind that short stories are often structured differently than novels, or at least they're super compressed, even if they do use a similar kind of structure. I've seen people here on the board say they know how to write shorts but they don't really get novels, or vice verse. Just keep this in mind, but it is definitely good advice to write a lot, and by doing shorts you get used to taking projects to completion and doing revisions, all of which is extremely helpful. And of course you get them done a lot faster.
I got one published in some Mensa creative writing magazine when I was ten/eleven. Whenever my dad was alive. Would be interesting to try and find it... Never really been interested in writing short stories... I only attempt conceptual obsessions derived from god knows where these days. Unfortunately, they're all tomes. Nothing helps...
I write a short story every month for my FB page, and I have written many before my novels. I'm 30,000 words into my forth novel and I find myself creating a character arc within the chapter. I constantly have to pull back from making everything happen in 3,000 words.
I did kinda write shorts before I got around to something novel sized. Though I figure a 43 page story isn't bad for a 17 year old kid. (Mind you it was super cringey, but so were the other stories I wrote at that time.) (P.S.: I still write shorts. they're just not as cringey now.)
