How'd You Start Writing Shorts?

Kate Thornton · Jun 12, 2007

I taught a short story workshop over the weekend, and most of the people present were shopping a novel and learning to write shorts during the novel-shopping process.

It made me wonder about other writers.

How did it happen for you? Did you start out writing short stories? Or did you start out with a novel? Poetry? What led you to the Short Story field?

jhtatroe · Jun 12, 2007

I started writing shorts during a college fiction-writing course where length was defined in the assignments. I'm much more comfortable at shorter lengths, in general. I fret so much about individual word choice that polishing a novel is really daunting to me.

Del · Jun 12, 2007

I ran out of paper and my shorts was all I had to write on.

Actually, I don't know. I write a story and it chooses its length. I now have several shorts, some started as novels and some are going to be novels. Well, in the beginning, anyhow. Now I have a bit more experience and it is obvious in the beginning what it is going to be.

Now all I need do is learn to write.

dahosek · Jun 12, 2007

I've always been fond of shorts. I read somewhere that statistically speaking you're more likely to sell a novel than a short story, but I write shorts anyway. I'm back in the game after taking most of a decade off of writing fiction. I look back and realize that the last thing I sent before the break, I got a hand-written rejection from Story on. Then I never re-submitted it anywhere else.

Soccer Mom · Jun 12, 2007

I started out writing shorts and then moved to longer works. I started back on shorts about two years ago as a way to have a "busman's holiday" while working on novels. I've become addicted anew to them, especially flash fiction.

The_Grand_Duchess · Jun 12, 2007

I just recently started doing the flash fiction thing. It's pretty fun

I just started writing one day. And stopped when the story was done. Then started something new. Boring, I know.

Jamesaritchie · Jun 12, 2007

Shorts

For me, it all happened so fast and easy that I didn't know what to think.

I never even dreamed about being a writer. Then I found myself stuck in a manual labor job in order to support a new wife.

I chanced on an article about Robert Heinlein, and he said he wrote his first short story in an effort to pay an overdue bill. Seemed to be that if he could do it, I could at least try it.

So I read a grammar book, and then wrote a short story in a couple of days. I sent it to Far West Magazine, and they sent me a check for almost as much as my day job paid in a month. I quit my day job. I wrote two more quick short stories, and they both sold to different magazines. Then I wrote a novel in three weeks, and the first agent who saw it took me on, and sold it to the first publisher who say it. This all took only a few months.

But it really all started because of the Robert Heinlein article I chanced upon.

Jack Nog · Jun 12, 2007

Jamesaritchie said:
For me, it all happened so fast and easy that I didn't know what to think.

I never even dreamed about being a writer. Then I found myself stuck in a manual labor job in order to support a new wife.

I chanced on an article about Robert Heinlein, and he said he wrote his first short story in an effort to pay an overdue bill. Seemed to be that if he could do it, I could at least try it.

So I read a grammar book, and then wrote a short story in a couple of days. I sent it to Far West Magazine, and they sent me a check for almost as much as my day job paid in a month. I quit my day job. I wrote two more quick short stories, and they both sold to different magazines. Then I wrote a novel in three weeks, and the first agent who saw it took me on, and sold it to the first publisher who say it. This all took only a few months.

But it really all started because of the Robert Heinlein article I chanced upon.

That's just awesome...so what grammar book did you read

eric11210 · Jun 12, 2007

well I'd written dozens of short stories as a younger man and boy. I started writing again around a year ago because the school I was working for kept banning novels I wanted my students to read and I decided to try writing my own novel that would get past the censorship committee. Once I did that, I ended up writing shorts as a way to get some publishing credits while I polish my novel and well, I've written dozens of shorts since I started and seem to be having fun with it.

Eric

eric11210 · Jun 12, 2007

Jack Nog said:
That's just awesome...so what grammar book did you read

I want to know also.

Stijn Hommes · Jun 13, 2007

eric11210 said:
well I'd written dozens of short stories as a younger man and boy. I started writing again around a year ago because the school I was working for kept banning novels I wanted my students to read and I decided to try writing my own novel that would get past the censorship committee. Once I did that, I ended up writing shorts as a way to get some publishing credits while I polish my novel and well, I've written dozens of shorts since I started and seem to be having fun with it.

Eric

I don't understand. How can you keep working for a school that bans books?

eric11210 · Jun 13, 2007

Ironically, I don't work for them anymore, but the novel is done (I'm working on a third draft right now).

They are an ultra-orthodox Jewish school who have some shall we say peculiar ideas about what they will and will not allow their students to read. Among the books that were unacceptable:

Harry Potter
Hatchet
Holes
Cheaper by the Dozen

The other irony is that by the time I finished writing the novel and doing re-writes, etc. on it (I'm working on my third re-write) I realized that it was virtually impossible to write a novel they wouldn't ban without creating characters who were simply not believable.

Eric

eric11210 · Jun 13, 2007

I don't anymore. Though ironically the novel is now done. :Shrug:

Also ironically, I realized I'd never be able to write something they wouldn't have banned and finally gave up on that in favor of writing believable characters.

Eric

Jamesaritchie · Jun 13, 2007

Books

Stijn Hommes said:
I don't understand. How can you keep working for a school that bans books?

All schools, every last one, has a whole list of books they won't allow in the library. This is not banning a book. That's silliness.

Jamesaritchie · Jun 13, 2007

Book

Jack Nog said:
That's just awesome...so what grammar book did you read

Can't remember the name. I think it was a Harcourt, Brace something. Small hardcover. Very common. Yellow cover. Still see them around in used bookstores, etc. It worked well enough to let me start selling, but after a year or so I realized I still had my jr. high grammar book, and it worked much better because I knew nothing about grammar. Didn't know a comma from a coma.

Then I discovered Strunk & White, plus a bunch of others. I still read grammar books and style manuals.

Adam Israel · Jun 13, 2007

I started off with grand plans, intent on writing a novel. I realized quickly that my storytelling skills were not where they needed to be. Short stories, by their brief nature, let me work through the process of telling a story in weeks rather than months or years.

Some of the mechanics may be different in terms of pacing, plot, etc., but overall I think the skills will transfer.

CaroGirl · Jun 13, 2007

I started out with shorts. I got an idea in my head one day about four years ago, and just sat down and wrote it. Several more shorts followed before I got the idea for my first novel (now trunked). I continued to write and sub shorts while I wrote my second novel and now my third. At first, I found the prospect of novel writing daunting compare to writing shorts. Over time, writing novels has become easier (if any of them are any good, I don't know). Perhaps the next one with be The One. I've had no luck selling any of my short fiction, not for lack of trying.

Provrb1810meggy · Jun 13, 2007

I started writing shorts in third grade. Then, I tried my hand at writing novels in about seventh grade.

drachin8 · Jun 14, 2007

I actually started off writing Pants, but I found they were a bit too long and didn't allow me to hone my skills as much...

-Michelle

Anthony Ravenscroft · Jun 14, 2007

I started off by reading short stories voraciously from an early age.

There's something to be said for an epic work, but in the end I find almost as much "wow factor" in a great story as a great novel -- & I can read & savor dozens of the former in the time it'd take to get through the latter.

I wrote articles, & after a few years started getting ideas that were too big. Same for fiction. It's far easier to learn the basics of the writing craft from short whole pieces, because a beginner can crank out far more complete failures if they're brief. That lends huge recency effect to crit, which means learning is less a struggle.

ap123 · Jun 15, 2007

I started writing short fiction as a child, then went to poetry along with shorts, now novels, though I still write shorts.

illogical · Jun 18, 2007

During my freshman year in college I took a Short Fiction course and was introduced to a lot of great works. I always wanted to write a short fiction piece, but felt I wasn't prepared enough. This past year, while volunteering at a high school, a co-worker suggested that I use flash fiction in a book group I was leading. Instead of doing that, I felt compelled to write one myself. That was the first and only piece I've had published thus far.

Needless to say, I've been hooked ever since. Now I just need to get better.

DragonHeart · Jun 18, 2007

When I first started writing seriously I wanted to go straight into novels, but I eventually figured out that I don't have nearly enough experience with writing long fiction. So I'm working on short stories to hone my craft more. I do enjoy writing them, and it's definitely challenging me to rethink the way I write. In a good way, of course.

~DragonHeart~

valeenc · Jun 18, 2007

I have always preferred reading short fiction and my favorite writers tend to be excellent at crafting them. So after I'd created storylines for an improvisational theatre company I worked at for more than a year and journaling at the same time, I began to realize I might be able to write. Then in grad school I got into a short fiction writing class taught by Barry Hannah and I never looked back.

JeanneTGC · Jun 18, 2007

While I love short fiction, and read it voraciously when I was growing up, I"m a novelist, first. The novellas, short stories and humorous essays came later -- much later.

I find writing short very difficult -- I tend to think in "epic" and so pulling it in to make something very short but also good is hard for me. Editing novels is also, to me, much, much easier than editing a short. As Mark Twain said, If I'd had more time, I would have written a shorter story.

But I feel so good about being able TO create something shorter that's readable that I've come to enjoy the process.

How'd You Start Writing Shorts?

Kate Thornton

Still Happy to be Here. Or Anywhere

jhtatroe

Del

Sky isn't falling, ground is rising

dahosek

Soccer Mom

Crypto-fascist

The_Grand_Duchess

I record everything.

Jamesaritchie

Jack Nog

Brain-farts are useful too.

eric11210

eric11210

Stijn Hommes

Know what you write...

eric11210

eric11210

Jamesaritchie

Jamesaritchie

Adam Israel

Formerly known as StoneTable

CaroGirl

Living the dream

Provrb1810meggy

drachin8

post-apocalyptic bunny

Anthony Ravenscroft

Scribble, scribble, scribble

ap123

Twitching

illogical

DragonHeart

Oerba Yun Fang

valeenc

Still Defiant!

JeanneTGC

I am Catwoman...and Gini Koch

How'd You Start Writing Shorts?

Still Happy to be Here. Or Anywhere

Sky isn't falling, ground is rising

Crypto-fascist

I record everything.

Brain-farts are useful too.

Know what you write...

Formerly known as StoneTable

Living the dream

post-apocalyptic bunny

Scribble, scribble, scribble

Twitching

Oerba Yun Fang

Still Defiant!

I *am* Catwoman...and Gini Koch

I am Catwoman...and Gini Koch