Short stories keep wanting to be novels

scheherazade · Jun 24, 2009

I've been trying to write short stories lately... but a couple of them, two pages in, I've shared them with my writing group, and already I'm told "this reads more like a novel than a short story". I've already got a novel that refuses to be written (oddly enough, which "so far reads more like a novella than a short story", just based on the pacing, though the plot idea is sufficient to pull it into a novel once it hits its stride) and I want to write short stories just on the side.

What do you do in this situation? Just tuck aside the new novel ideas until you have the time to devote to them? Or try to pull a short story out of the novel that you can explore for the time being? Is there a way to tell your muse to deliver you short story ideas instead of novel-spanning ones?

patrick.colliton · Jun 24, 2009

What do you like to write?

I've tried to force ideas into novels that I think were meant to be short stories. They eventually die though because the story writing always feels strained. Now I just try to go with the story as it comes out and be content with what the end result is no matter what the length. I do enjoy writing short stories much more than novels though.

Maybe my muse just wanted me to write short fiction all along and my attempt to write a novel was just a waste of time for both of us.

qwerty · Jun 24, 2009

Just a suggestion, but if the first two pages read like a novel, you may be taking too long to get to the grist of the story. A short needs to be punchy and into what it's about in the first few paragraphs. There simply isn't time to set the theme, characters and setting as you would with a novel.

heatheringemar · Jun 25, 2009

Patrick has it right: if it wants to be a novel, let it. If it wants to be a short story, let it.

Now, if you're in a writing group that is currently working on short stories, I'd set the novel ideas aside until you can devote time to them.

But don't force the prose into the form you think it should be in.

MumblingSage · Jun 25, 2009

I guess the question is: how big is your plot?

Generally, you can tell from amount of action and timeframe whether a story should be short or novel-length. If you have a short story plot and a novel's pacing, you need to fix the pacing if you want anything to work out properly.

On the other hand, if it's a novel's plot with a novel's pacing, and it swims, quacks, and has feathers like a novel as well, I think you have novel on your hand. If you'll pardon the butchering of the Duck Rule.

efkelley · Jun 25, 2009

I've had this same problem.

I'm getting around it by reading a LOT of short stories. Paperback anthologies seem to be the best. They've been edited and revised down to their most potent form. My suggestion would be to find a couple of stories you really like and 'take notes' on them, as if you were going to study for a test. It helps to boil down the information and show you what's important and what's not.

I discovered that I had been trying to furnish way too much background on my setting and characters. A lot of it is unnecessary. I also discovered that I was trying to put in too many plot lines. It seems you can afford two or three at most in a 7500 word story, and even that may be pushing it.

Anyway, it seems to have worked pretty well for me. I hope that's useful in some way.

Izz · Jun 25, 2009

qwerty said:
Just a suggestion, but if the first two pages read like a novel, you may be taking too long to get to the grist of the story. A short needs to be punchy and into what it's about in the first few paragraphs. There simply isn't time to set the theme, characters and setting as you would with a novel.

This. If the group is saying this after two pages they won't yet have a handle on the size of the plot, etc, but they will be able to comment on the pacing. And if too much time is spent setting the scene early on, then they'll likely say (to be nice more than anything), 'this reads more like a novel.'

An analogy i like regarding novels versus short stories. A novel is a picture of the whole house, and sometimes the yard, whereas a short story is a picture of one room only within the house. And if you write flash, then that's just a snapshot of one corner of one room.

cathyfreeze · Jun 29, 2009

You can also do what i've done with a couple of mine that turned into novel ideas--make that first ch a rounded thing--that is, have a problem, rising action, climax, resolution (of sorts) and send it 'round as a short. I've sold one pro, and it's nice as a short story, but it's the beginning of a larger idea.

Chs should be, really, rounded things, anyway. So it's good practice, imho.

cat

JamieMT · Jun 29, 2009

I'm just starting to write flash fiction (which I realize is probably shorter than what you're writing), and what helps me is to think of it more as a single scene, rather than attach the "story" tag to it right off the bat. A scene, I can wrap my head around as a complete arc that starts and finishes very quickly. I think "story", and I automatically think "must tell the whole thing"...which ends up being much more complex and involved.

Maybe go back to one of your two page shorts, and look at it as just a "scene" of the bigger picture (or several scenes). That might help you see where you can tighten things up into a short, complete story.

caromora · Jun 30, 2009

Do you know the end of the story when you start writing? For me, if I don't know what I'm writing toward in a short story, it'll go long. If you're specific about your writing goal--why am I writing this story? What needs to take place?--it might be easier to keep it short.

Eric San Juan · Jun 30, 2009

qwerty said:
Just a suggestion, but if the first two pages read like a novel, you may be taking too long to get to the grist of the story. A short needs to be punchy and into what it's about in the first few paragraphs. There simply isn't time to set the theme, characters and setting as you would with a novel.

I've certainly had that issue. Taking time to establish setting and characters right at the start rather than jumping right into the narrative has killed several of my short stories.

scheherazade · Jun 30, 2009

That's interesting. The story I brought to workshop seemed to me like it could probably be a novel, but when I sat down to write it my intention was to write an exploratory short story - something I could potentially send out to a lit journal, something I could write an ending for to satisfy my muse for the time being, and then maybe come back to once the current novel is done. The opening scene to me seemed like a short story, but it was backstory, setting up the character's childhood.

I do like the idea of reading anthologies (and more lit journals than I do now!). That's definitely my short term goal... I certainly own a few though I don't read as often as I'd like to.

jhmcmullen · Jul 4, 2009

Roger Zelazny once said something like, "My short stories are just the last chapters of novels I haven't written." I think that's a useful way to think about plot in short stories: cut the first hundred and twenty-five pages and then give the last twenty to your reading group.

Seriously, in a short story, all the material you think is essential isn't. Cut it out. See what you really need to have.

Short stories keep wanting to be novels

scheherazade

Human

patrick.colliton

qwerty

exiled Brit

heatheringemar

lurking behind that corner..

MumblingSage

Inarticulate Herb

efkelley

ow

Izz

Doing the Space Operatic

cathyfreeze

I lost my fever! I need it back!

JamieMT

Lurker in the Corner

caromora

Still alive. Kind of.

Eric San Juan

Boxy But Safe

scheherazade

Human

jhmcmullen