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

[mt-yvr.livejournal.com]

Julie's said this, and I've found I agree... just start. At some point the beginning can evolve - if you don't automatically have it. Otherwise you can get caught up in finding that right opening... for a whole novel's worth of writing.

For myself I sometimes like to think that there will be a prelude and I write from the stance that "it'll all get taken care of later". It makes it easier to get off the block.

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

[mindyklasky.livejournal.com]

I'd cast another vote for "just write." I write my short fiction the same way I do my long fiction - I open a word processing file for it, and I type in my ideas. I do *try* to remember my word-length goals, so that I can head myself off at the pass if I start to add a 10K-word subplot.

But, otherwise, the process is the same for me. I don't put more weight on the short fiction words - that weight gets added when I'm editing for space (as I almost always am.)

Does this help? Are you looking for other opinions/information?

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I usually start with a plot device, or a theme with a few details, and I wait until I hear the character's voice before I start -- even if the voice is not the protagonist, but is a supporting/observer character.

I expect to have to go over the story several times, polishing out the scratches and crevices, pruning (if I may mix metaphors) until only the short piece shines through.

But I think I'm writing them differently since I got sick -- the mind is approaching things differently.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

I still need some idea of where it's going, particularly with short fiction. I can't start unless I have an end in mind (this is because I have an untidy head and if I don't have an end in mind, my plot all goes to pot).

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Does this help? Are you looking for other opinions/information?


I was looking for...impressions, I guess. Whether there's something in the backbrain that says, this is shorter/longer, so you need to approach it *this* way. You need to define it *this* way. *This* is enough description.

I used to draw, and there was a difference in how I had to approach gesture drawing--very quick sketches where my eye never left the subject/model and which were completed in a few seconds--and a full-fledged composition. A gesture drawing could develop into a fuller work, but you really couldn't backtrack. At least, I couldn't.

I guess what concerns me now is that I may be fully developing this itty bitty corner over here and not paying enough attention to the rest of the piece. Which may be premature. I think my problem is that I'm writing a story featuring a character about whom I've already written 4 1/2 books. I know what she became, and in this story set 15 years earlier, I need to set this up. And I think I may be trying to do it too quickly.

As everyone has said, I just need to write the thing. I have a bare bones plot, and an end. A few high/low points. I just need to slap clay on the frame.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Julie is Wise.

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.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I'm writing in layers in ways I never did before. Write dialogue, then some business. More dialogue, then more business. I don;t feel as though I'm getting anything done, but the pages still emerge eventually.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I have the barebones of a plot. I know how it ends.

I've heard it so often that Every Word Needs to Count in short fiction that I would be reluctant to write a piece unless I had it well thought out. Maybe that's a good thing, or maybe I'm painting myself into corners.

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

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

For short stories I'm a "taker-outer"--I throw words at the page (screen) and in later drafts I carve a coherent story out of it.

For novels I'm I "putter-inner"--I put down all sorts of stuff in a great hurry to get to the end, and then I go back and fill in.

They don't feel very different to me, but I know I like writing novels more.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

They don't feel very different to me, but I know I like writing novels more.

Yeah.

I've heard Elizabeth Moon and others talk about 'natural length', the length of story you're most at home with, that comes most naturally to you. My natural length is the novel, 120,000+ words. I think of a scene, or garner an impression, and as I work it over it sprouts all over the place. I'm not sure that I could manage a Michnerian multigenerational saga, but I might have a few fantasy chock blocks in me.

The short work is a scene, a chapter. Maybe a little more, but not much.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I don;t feel as though I'm getting anything done, but the pages still emerge eventually.

I am *so* with you there.

[msisolak.livejournal.com]

Well, as someone who has tried to stuff all sorts of things into her short and long fiction, I guess my advice is to relax. Novels have time to develop, and you'll probably end up adding more, while spreading it around. Short stories will most likely end up being pruned, if you've nailed the plot and motivations.

Every Word Need to Count, yes, but that doesn't mean you can't write until you figure it completely out. Most of my short fiction is written until I do figure it out, and then I go back and distill. There's a fair amount I discover I don't need on the rewrites.

Novels? A whole different matter: write until it's so big I can't imagine how I'm going to resolve everything. Stop.

(Eventually I get finished, but it's usually two years on pause before I can face tying knots in all my open threads.)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Well, as someone who has tried to stuff all sorts of things into her short and long fiction, I guess my advice is to relax.

I should probably take this under advisement.

[dandyfunk.livejournal.com]

I was looking for...impressions, I guess. Whether there's something in the backbrain that says, this is shorter/longer, so you need to approach it *this* way. You need to define it *this* way. *This* is enough description.

As a writer of 60 short stories and 3 novels (all unsold, alas), I'd say for a short story you really don't have the space to muck around. No room for extra characters, and you can't have a scene that doesn't show character, plot and background. Heck, I think it was Bob Silverberg that said you can't have a sentence that doesn't do all three. Also, things have to get going fast. Chase your character up a tree on the first page, then throw rocks at them.

If you're looking for guidance, check out some of you favorite short stories. How did the writers of those stories do it?

[(Anonymous)]

I've used short stories, vignettes really to practice writing and to work on various things. I never thought I could write a novel because the size was intimidating and I thought my imagination topped out at 10k words. What I'm comfortable with is a scene, painting it so beautifully and involving so much emotion that it wears me out when I'm done and I don't even want to look at it again. Over the past year or so I've had a few ideas for novels, and have just about completed the first one. While I had the general idea for the story, I've found that I've taken each chapter and written it like one of my short stories. This allowed me, subconsciously I think to not get overly worked up over the size of the piece. Perhaps this could work in the opposite way for you? Think of your short story as a chapter which could be inserted into a novel. One that can stand on its own, especially if you're using a character you already created and are comfortable with.