Have you written short stories before your first novel?

How old are you now? And I'd like to see those cringey stories.

 

Be 34 on Thursday. IDK, where those stories are at the present,
and gonna take a petition or something to release that festivus
cringicus.

 

Well I’ve attempted novels, but I started my hobby writing many a short story. It felt like the natural thing to do as the short format is so much easier than novels.

 

My short stories were a way to finish something. I could start writing a story, but once I figured out the ending, I couldn't force myself to finish.
Also, I am/was dealing with attention deficit disorder and several other maladies, so writing short stories helped me push that envelope until I had written a few unpublished novellas around 40,000 words. From that, I went through my work and found one that would be my first novel, and three years later I finished it.

 

I recommend starting with shorts. You can move through the process quickest that way. Then you can look at the final product dispassionately, see what works and make adjustments.

Most of the unpublishable stuff I see fails at the paragraph level. I think that's why when you pick up a new book and you ask yourself if it's worth reading, just one paragraph is all that's needed for an answer. One full paragraph shows you who you're dealing with. The voice, impact, presence on the page. Now that's not to say that a book can't fail at the level of story. Short stories will teach you that too, in miniature.

(Caveat! Plenty of terrible writing gets onto the printed page. It even wins Goodreads Book Awards. This year was an atrocity.)