short stories never stay short

Hi,

When I get an idea, I usually know at the start whether it's a poem or a story -- and usually guess to within 1,000 words. Or a novel-length idea that I'm not going to have time to tackle right now.

Stories are not just chapters of novels. They can be very different, with different rules and structures. If the work is story length but full of loose ends, it's a chapter. But a short story should be self-contained and make its point within a reasonable number of pages. A 1,000-word story is even different from a 4,000-word story. You just need to figure the right amount of space for the idea to work. If other factors keep intruding on the story, then tighten the reins and stop letting it flood in.

A short story may suggest a longer work, but it is certainly not true that all novels start as short stories, or that all short stories can (or should) be expanded into novels. Try lots of things, and you'll get the feel of them.

= scott

Well, while I know some short stories have turned into full-length novels (authors Ralph Ellison and Flannery O'Connor come to mind), I'm not sure you should think of every short story as a potential beginning to a longer work.

As Scott says, every story should have a beginning, middle, and end, complete with conflict and resolution no matter what the word length. If you read one of your stories and it seems to lead into something longer, maybe you haven't clearly resolved the plot within the frame of the story.

Just a thought.

I have often run into the problem of sitting down to "write a nice little story" of maybe 4,000 words, gotten about halfway, & counted it out at like 6,000. The "5K barrier" is something that looms over me & I tend to respect more in the breach.

Every once in a great while, sure, you can get a complete (or mostly) short story that has enough legs to morph into a novel. I'm reading Killer in the Rain, a collection of eight Raymond Chandler stories that were all heavily pilfered to create his novels. While he was alive, he refused to allow them to be reprinted because he'd already "cannibalized" them & didn't feel it'd be fair to his audience.

But being very familiar with his novels, I didn't feel in the least abused. In fact, he hadn't simply swiped them whole by any stretch, & each story has its own unique moments that didn't make it to novelization.

dyljos, you're running the risk of "productive-seeming screwing-around" rather than writing & finishing stuff. If you get an idea that'll make it a good short story, then make it a good short story & get it out there. You can always go back & plagiarise yourself later.

I might be having the same problem. I had an idea for a screenplay, but writing it as a screenplay was kind of tough, so I thought I'd draft it as a short story. Now I'm beginning to think that I actually need a lot more events (so far its just a lot of conversations) to make the story more meaninful ... beginning to suspect this may morph into a novel.

For me, most of my short stories stay short. I know, when I get into it, that it is either a short story or a longer piece. The only thing I don't know is how long -- 1000 words? 5000? 10,000? But I don't usually confuse my short story ideas with novels. It's very clear to me whether an idea is fit for a short or a part of a longer work.

When I think of a short story of, say, 5,000 words, it usually winds up to be a 1000. If I think in terms of a novel, I'd probably have a polished version consisting of 5,000 words.

(Just noticed, Maestro, you are dangerously close to 20,000 posts.)

Me bad author. Me no write short stories.

I am novel all the way. I just can't contain my ideas enough to keep them short. But, none of my novels run long either -- my longest so far has been just shy of 90K, and the shortest is a few breaths over 60K.

dyljos said:

I seem to have trouble keeping a short story short! I get to the end of the tale, and the story seems complete, but when I read it again the next day, it seems like it could be a first chapter for something else! Is it wrong to treat all stories as potential novels.. or do many writers use shorts as starting points for longer pieces?

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This is actually how my WIP developed. I sat down to write a short story and discovered the story was much too big to be contained in that way, and have developed it into novel-length.

dyljos said:

I seem to have trouble keeping a short story short! I get to the end of the tale, and the story seems complete, but when I read it again the next day, it seems like it could be a first chapter for something else! Is it wrong to treat all stories as potential novels.. or do many writers use shorts as starting points for longer pieces?

Click to expand...

This is an easy on to solve, don't read the story again after you finish it. ;-)

I've never had a short story turn into a novel, but I have taken parts of novels cut them out of the novel and turned them into short stories.

swvaughn said:

Me bad author. Me no write short stories.

I am novel all the way. I just can't contain my ideas enough to keep them short. But, none of my novels run long either -- my longest so far has been just shy of 90K, and the shortest is a few breaths over 60K.

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You're my evil twin!

Me too. I've never written a short story. I don't read them, either. They're just not my thing. I prefer stories that stretch out over many years, characters, chapters...

Honestly, we're similar right down to the minimum and maximum lengths of our books.

My main focus is novels, but short stories are a good diversion for me, especially when I feel stuck with my NIP. They keep my creative energy flowing.

scarletpeaches said:

You're my evil twin!

Me too. I've never written a short story. I don't read them, either. They're just not my thing. I prefer stories that stretch out over many years, characters, chapters...

Honestly, we're similar right down to the minimum and maximum lengths of our books.

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Add me in to that group.

I don't care for short stories at all. This is, understand, a failing on my part and not the part of the short story form.

I just don't really understand how to write them. After grad school I stopped reading them, mostly because I began to see the few magazines that publish them (The New Yorker, The Oxford American, Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, etc.) were really just publishing chapters of novels from big-name authors.

scarletpeaches said:

You're my evil twin!

Me too. I've never written a short story. I don't read them, either. They're just not my thing. I prefer stories that stretch out over many years, characters, chapters...

Honestly, we're similar right down to the minimum and maximum lengths of our books.

Click to expand...

Wicked! So, can we like substitute for each other at public events?

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one. Never did like short stories...

Dyljos,

There ain't nothing wrong with feeling how you're feeling. It could just suggest that you're more suited to writing novels than short stories. I have a very hard time milking story concepts to suit novel-length (i'm a natural short story writer). Generally speaking, if you often find yourself thinking "How the Hell am I going to get this down to 5,000 words" then you're a Novelist.

I am not speaking for anyone but myself when I say this, but I don't often feel dissatisfaction over the length when I finish a short story. I often feel that there possibly _could_ be a longer piece somewhere in the Story Concept, but I don't often feel that there should be. I know that sounds odd, but there is a distinct difference. Short Stories should be self-contained. Even if all the loose ends aren't tied up there should be a feeling of completeness to the tale that everything that should be explored in the story has been. If you feel a vague sense of dissatisfaction when you generally finish a short story and think "damn, this truly could/should have been a novel" then I'd focus more on writing novels if I were you.

And, yes, in a pretty fair number of cases the story concepts a writer has explored in a short story can often become a starting point for a novel.

-BS

both of the YA books i've got publishing contracts for grew out of (adult) short stories. they both felt complete as short stories but i just found that i kept thinking about them and the characters and wanted to return to them... and then they grew and grew... so yeah, i can relate to this!
-cassidy

dyljos said:

I seem to have trouble keeping a short story short!

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It sounds like you're more of a natural novellist than a short story writer. I had this same problem -- all my shorts (except for one or two) contained an idea that needed a novel to express. I found they were too complicated for shorts and any simple ideas quickly became even more complicated than the already-complex ones.

Novels it was, is, and always will be. (^_^)

I have found the best way to keep my short stories short is to find a common ending, a recurring theme that seems quite appropriate. Most of my shorts end with a character/some characters walking away from something: a dead body, a closed door, their host for the evening, some physical object pertinent to the text.

dyljos,

Glad I could help. ^_^

It's not a bad thing to sometimes have a partially unresolved short story ending. I, myself like to use that style now and again. Its not considered good policy to have all the loose ends neatly tied up by a short story's resolution point (at least according to a number of popular editors of short story mags I've heard interviewed). One possible reason for this is that given the average length of short fiction, attempting to patch up all the conflict holes before the ending paragraph can appear contrived. This being said, in vogue or not, ambiguous endings for their own sake can wear thin very quickly.

The ambiguous ending has almost become a cliche' in itself and its important to know when that style of ending will add power to the story, and when it is just being 'cutesy' for its own sake-- there was a time when all of my stories wanted to have them.

But even with the unresolved/ambiguous ending, there should still be a feeling of 'completeness' both to the tale and the author's emotions upon completing it. Just because a Story Resolution leaves a partial question mark doesn't mean that it could or should be any longer than it is.

Vague Endings in and of themselves don't necessarily mean the story is suitable as a longer Work. I feel like I'm being inadequate in my explanation.

I think a short story needs a definite ending, not just a cessation of action. Without that ending, you have the beginning of something, not the whole of it. And the resolution, while resting in the psyche of the writer, should be satisfactory to the reader.

Oh, and just because you have the beginning of something, it doesn't follow that it necessarily becomes a longer work - it could just be the notes for a longer work.