Pros and Cons of Short Story Writing

5 CommentsWriting

As the title indicates, I’ve had short stories on my mind of late.

On the one hand, they’re an excellent way to hone the craft of writing, develop the back history of a world, experiment with different styles and sub-genres, and get the author some name recognition in the field.

On the flip side, the market demands for short stories are different from the novel market, the pacing and plotting challenges may not directly translate, and a writer can sink a lot of time and energy into formating and finding the market niche for each individual story instead of writing.

It can sometimes seem like six one way, half-dozen the other.  But what I’m thinking is:  I should work hard to increase the quality of my stories so they give me the most mileage (duh!), when possible I should use the story to explore my fantasy or sci fi ‘worlds’, and I should instigate a kill-point.  For example, a given story will only go to five places before getting trunked.

Hopefully with the kill-point I can give a story a realistic chance at publication, then give other stories my time and energy so the older story can’t become a black hole.

Share, share away:
error
fb-share-icon
Tweet

5 Comments

  1. Jordan Lapp

    Reply

    Wah! 5??? Mine’s 20. 5 seems a little harsh. Editors are fickle and it costs you nothing but a small amount of time to send it out…. What do you think?

  2. Cavan

    Reply

    I’d agree. I just had a story accepted for publication after it had been out at various markets for over a year. The mag that accepted it was the tenth I submitted to.

    The key, I think, is to send it and forget it. Work on other stuff while it’s out in submission-land.

  3. Suanne

    Reply

    Yeah, okay. So five may have been a bit harsh. I guess I set it there with the assumption that I would then send it to The Rejected Quarterly, and if they didn\’t want it, nobody would.

    Probably short-sighted. But understand, I don\’t think I\’m capable, as I reformat a story to the specs of the new place, of not tinkering with it. They\’re just so glaringly in need of a work-over! Adding to that is I\’m a stickler for reading and triple reading the guidelines, so it can actually take a surprising chunk of time to get a story back out.

    Then when you consider that every moment of my writing time is more precious than native silver, and that my brain is flooded with ideas I just can\’t wait to work on, plus I\’m supposed to be working on the nitty-gritty of my \’world\’, I\’m just not sure that continuing to send out tired old stuff that reflects a prior skill level is really the best use of my time.

    Not that I\’m sure about this…just mulling it over. And I\’m sure the kill-date would depend on how much faith I had in a story, too.

  4. Jordan Lapp

    Reply

    You know, I’ve had that same thought myself about prior work and prior skill levels. It’s especially challenging because I feel like I’m improving so quickly right now.

    I think the key is that any writing credit looks good. So don’t revise. Just send the story out over and over AS IS until it finds a home. If, say, 10 freebie markets don’t accept it… then shelve it. Or post it here!!! We’ll all offer comments that could help you with future stories! That’s what I did with “Leaving the Grand Design” which you can find at http://jordanlapp.com/blog/32/

  5. Suanne

    Reply

    Hey, I like the idea of eventually posting here. I have another online group (passoword protected) that I use for stuff I’m polishing, but it would still be great to get feedback from a wider audience of what worked or didn’t.

    I’m afraid the advice to not revise before sending stuff back out is wasted on me. I’m really not capable of leaving unfixed what I know how to fix–a compulsive twitch, I know.

    However, I can say that so far I’ve honored my rule requiring 24 hour turnarounds pretty good. I’ve only extensively revised when the editor gave specific feedback.

    And you’re right about any credit is still a credit. Feel free to remind me of this whenever you see my head swelling. 🙂

Leave Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *