I'm thinking of doing a fantasy series and was wondering if just doing a short story to start it was a good idea, I was thinking it would take less time, could introduce characters without having to worry about overall plot and if people don't like it, it wouldn't be a waste of time like a huge novel, Thoughts?
I think it is a good idea for probing the general plot and characters that one have in mind. Specially if those aren't very clear at first. A short story can help to clarify doubts or discover subplots you may use later in the novel. Sometimes I like to start a short story from scratch and see what comes out.
Let me stop you there... Plot is even more important in a short. Y0u may not have time for complicated sub-plots and twists, but your readers definitely want to know that they have read a story not just an introduction to a few characters. That said, shorts do generally take less time and so, yeah, you can get measurable results more quickly. I am planning a few shorts with some of the characters from my novels as "give-aways" to try to show readers what they might expect if they commit to buying the novel (c:
So, I wrote a failure of a short story. It was one I spent a lot of time with and really tried to make work. But I wanted it to work as a short story. Anyway, a few years later I started my novel and I worked a few things from that story as a spring board. It wasn't the same story and I never tried to make it such. A character that was mentioned, but never made an actual appearance in the short story became a main character in the novel. I took another character from the short story, but allowed myself to write that character completely differently. I had a new focus. A novel focus. POV is completely different. The story occasion from the short story isn't even a part of the novel. I think there can be something to learn from this. But you've got to really give the short story a hard try and be willing to scrap 99 percent of it when it comes to the novel. That's my experience with it. And it took a really long time before I even thought about writing this novel. I am a short story writer by trade.
