How to Write Short Stories: Why writers love short stories
You probably picked up this book with a few reasons of your own already in mind. Perhaps there’s an unfinished draft sitting in a folder somewhere, or an idea that keeps nudging at you, or a handful of finished stories you’d like to do more with. Whatever brought you here, discovering even more reasons to love the short form can give you fuel to finish what you’ve started, or to begin something new.
Here are some reasons that writers love short stories.
Creative freedom and experimentation
When you write a full-length novel, you commit to specific choices that will shape your writing experience for what might be months or even years. You have to choose your genre, characters, setting, theme, and so many more elements that you then have to weave into a coherent plot for tens and tens of thousands of words.
Don’t get me wrong, I love writing novels! But one benefit of writing short stories is the creative freedom to try pretty much anything because the time commitment is so much shorter, and you can dip your pen into all sorts of things that take your fancy. You can play, and that creative freedom is wonderful!
I’ve used shorts to write about things I would never risk in a full-length novel.
De-Extinction of the Nephilim is an archaeological story that turns into a religious techno-thriller as the DNA from an ancient, winged skeleton is inserted into human embryos.
Blood, Sweat, and Flame is narrated by a glassblower in the first person, present tense, in the voice of a character who is nothing like me, and it’s set in a world I only experienced through watching a TV show.
The Dark Queen,set on a scuba dive expedition into a sunken Egyptian city, ends with the main character in a situation that would ruin her for any sequel.
I would not have written any of these ideas as novels (although some readers have asked for De-Extinction to be expanded into one!). In general, the ideas in short stories are too constrained to carry a full-length book, and the audience for cross-genre writing can be too small to risk investing a year of work.
But since short stories don’t take too much of my writing time, I get the creative satisfaction of playing without the pressure of worrying whether they will please my readers or not. They usually do, which is great, but they are playtime first.
The experience of finishing a story
Many people start writing fiction, or say things like, ‘When I have time, I will write my novel,’ but far fewer ever finish a full-length book. That’s because writing requires hours of hard work in addition to the briefer moments of flow and creative excitement. Most people therefore never have the feeling of finishing and putting their book out in the world, and that sense of finishing is worth striving for.
You can experience the complete journey if you write and publish a short story, and the lessons you learn in the short form can help you when it comes to writing longer work. Every completed story is proof that you can start a thing and see it through, and that lesson will serve you well over your author career.
Part of your body of work and business ecosystem
While short stories are primarily for creative expression, they can also pull their weight in your author business too.
A short story can act as a free reader magnet to bring readers to your work or be used as an exclusive bonus for newsletter subscribers or a paid community. Stories can earn you money by appearing in an anthology or in your own collection. You can record a story for a fiction podcast or enter one into a competition.
Some short stories even go on to become movie adaptations. The 2002 film Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise, is based on the 1956 short story “The Minority Report” by Philip K. Dick. Brokeback Mountain (2005), with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, is based on the short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, first published in 1997 in The New Yorker and later included in her collection Close Range: Wyoming Stories.
There are so many ways that short stories can be valuable, a topic we will cover in more detail in part 3.
Why are you writing short stories?
Knowing your why can help you decide what to write, how long the story should be, and where to publish it when it’s done. You can decide these things before you write, or you can discover them after the story is finished. There are no rules, but it’s worth at least considering upfront.
If you’re writing for a specific anthology, you’re writing to someone else’s theme and deadline. If you’re entering a competition, you’re writing to a word count and a judge’s taste. If you want a reader magnet to grow your email list, you need something genre-matched that leads naturally to your full-length work. And if you’re writing purely for creative play, to chase an idea because it delights you, then you can do whatever the hell you like!
Questions:
- Why do you write short stories, or want to write them?
- Are there ideas, genres, or topics you’ve always wanted to explore without committing to a full-length novel?
- How might short stories fit into your author business?
