A questions for short story writers

[ksmith]

...especially if you write novels as well...

Do you sit down and start that first paragraph, that first scene, is your approach different depending on whether it's part of a novel or a shorter work?

I'm about 4-5 pages into Incident, and I find myself weighing every word and trying to fit every hint and shade into the first few paragraphs. This is going to be a longer short work, 10K or more, so I have a little room to maneuver. And I want to allude to Jani's backstory and meanwhile, the plot itself is happening.

Just wondering.

Comments

Yeah..

[jodi-davis.livejournal.com]

I just write - from whatever muse has kicked me in the head - then when I can write no more, I figure out what it's supposed to be and then re-work it from there. A lot of times I do have a vague feeling on what's in there - but I try not to weigh the thing down with my assumptions. It's always easier to go off on any tangent (back story, whatever) and have it properly layered in there - and then edit it later than it is to shellac it on top - I think.

I think the first draft is the place to allow yourself to be brilliant and prone to flights of fancy AND allow yourself to just stink it up... It's the one truly fun place where you shouldn't be constrained or crushed by expectation.

JD

Re: Yeah..

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm wondering if one goes in with a different mindset with short works because they're, well, short.

Maybe not.

Re: Yeah..

[jodi-davis.livejournal.com]

No - for me it's the same, beginning middle end. I mean, sometimes I do *know* what I'm working on, but I don't process it down... usually any *novel* length work starts out as a bit of prose kicking around itself. I can finish a whole shorty that way and then refine it - but if it starts to feel like a novel there is a time where I have to step away from the doodling and outline and consider for a while before diving back in.

So I guess the difference in process for me starts sometime after the initial blast of 6-15 pages.

JD