Re: Following the passion
It can be worth writing short work as a separate skill (and to improve basic things like grammar). My reasonaing was that I wanted to get in print more often... there are only so many novels I can write in a year
Can you get into print by writing things you don't love to read and write? And it's a heck of a lot tougher selling a short story than selling a novel. You may have to write a hundred short stories before you're good enough to sell one, and a hundred short stories is like writing five novels. For that matter, it's much easier writing a novel than writing twenty short stories, let alone a hundred. A novel requires one plot, one story, one central problem. Twenty short stories require twenty good plots, twenty of everything. A hundred short stories means a hundred of everything.
Even writers who love writing short stories can write for years and years without selling one.
And if anything, spending too much time writing short stories can injure your ability to write good novels. The forms are just too different. You can do much of anyting in a novel the way you do it in a short story, and if you get short story techniques too deeply ingrained, writing a novel can be tough.
Learning grammar is no easier with short stories than with novels. Short story or novel, each sentence needs grammar skills.
I understand the desire to get into print more often, but the best way to get into print is to write whatever you most love to read. Every minute you spend writing a short story is a minute you aren't spending on a novel, so the question of how many novels you can write in a year depends partly on how much writing time you spend working on novels, and how much writing time you spend working on short stories.
It's hard enough to get published even when writing something you absolutely love. It's darned near impossible when writing something you don't love.
Short is not easier, it's harder. A heck of a lot harder, and the competition is far more intense. A novel has room for flaws, but a short story must be nearly perfect to sell. And just about every paying market for short stories has the best writers in the world trying to fill the very few available slots.
It isn't easy getting anything published, particularly in paying markets, but trust me, you stand a far better chance of selling a first novel than of selling a fiftieth or even a hundreth short story. Even if you love reading and writing short stories, odds are you'll go years before selling one. And if you don't love to read short stories, I'd say the odds of selling one are almost zero.
Nine out of ten writers who dedicate themselves to writing short stories never manage to sell one to a paying market, and most of these are writers who love to read short stories, and love to write short stories.
I see the logic in thinking shorter means easier, that shorter means a better chance of breaking into print, but it just isn't so. Shorter is harder, and shorter means less chance of breaking into print. Partly this is because just about all new writers seem to think shorter is easier, so potential markets are flooded with millions of short story manuscripts each year. Anyone can finish a short story. Most are really bad, but they are finished, and they are in submission.
Not many can actually finish a novel, and still fewer have the dedication to keeo sending one out time and time again. Most stop after a few tries, or resort to POD or self-publishing.
Odds of selling a novel are roughly one in one hundred. Even at small magazines, odds of selling a short story are roughly one in one thousand. And the larger the magazine, the worse the odds. Even established writers can have a very hard time selling a short story, and established writers with recognizable names are your main competition in the short story market.
It can, and usually does, take several years to learn how to write short stories that are good enough to sell, and most never reach this point at all.
Granted, if you can sell short stories to paying markets, agents and editors will pay serious attention to your novels. But they reason for this is that so very few can sell short stories to paying markets. Most who do have already sold novels, in fact.
I understand your desires, but the reason to write short stories is not because you want to be in print more often. It just doesn't work this way. The reason to write short stories is because you absolutely love to read short stories, and find writing them extremely pleasurable.
