Short Stories

“Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.” -Ray Bradbury.

Bradbury knew a thing or two about writing, and he makes a good point here, but until such a time as I quit my job, I probably won’t be following his advice.

Anyway,

I think it’s important to let a manuscript sit for a while between drafts, to allow your thought process to change a little bit before editing again, so you can approach again at a new angle. This is what I’m doing again with Deathless, and it gives me quite a bit of free writing time that I normally would have spent on the manuscript. I’ll be using most of this time to write a few short stories.

Short stories are important for novelists to write for a few reasons. Aside from building a portfolio or a reputation as an author, they present a good change of pace from novels, which makes writing them an effective way to let your thinking change between drafts. Writing short stories also helps a writer develop skills that can be applied to longer writing pieces. Learning how to develop characters and settings in a short story can certainly improve these areas in a novel.

I myself have only ever written a few short stories in my time as a writer,  and those weren’t completed with any real goal in mind other than to tell a story. This time around, I’d really like to use them as an exercise and concentrate on strengthening the skills that I think need work. I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Let’s see how it goes.

-Sal

P.S. I’ll be using some of this newfound time of mine to do some more reading as well, which means there’s a book review coming soon. Keep your eyes open!