Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Short story as a technique

This is topic Short story as a technique in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by TaShaJaRo (Member # 2354) on :

I've been pondering something for a few days and Benskia's intro post made me decide to post a thread about it.

In case you haven't noticed by my uber-long posts, I tend toward wordiness. I do not write short stories unless assigned to in a class. I find them difficult to write. However, considering that my WIP novel is going all over the place right now, I'm thinking of writing it as a short story just to get the idea down but more so, to learn how to be more concise with my words.

Have any of you ever done this and if so, did it help or hinder you?

[This message has been edited by TaShaJaRo (edited March 08, 2005).]

Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :

I always kind of cringe when people talk about taking a piece that's one length and doing it in another length. It just seems wrong to me.

If you want to learn to write short, then write a totally separate short story, see what you can learn, and apply the lessons to the novel. If you try to squish it into a short story you'll be trying to deal with all kinds of artificial issues that will distort what you learn. Plus it would probably be easier to be detached and experimental on something that you're not so involved in as your novel.

Posted by TaShaJaRo (Member # 2354) on :

Beth - I wouldn't keep it as a short story. Just do it for the purpose of getting the idea down and for practice being more concise. I do not want to make it into a short story permanently. Just as an exercise. Does that change your opinion or do you still feel the same way?

But I like your point about the emotional involvement. That's a good point.

Posted by rickfisher (Member # 1214) on :

The only way I could see writing a novel in a form short enough to call it a short story would be as a synopsis.

Why don't you try taking an incident from the novel and making a short story out of it instead?

Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :

It is impossible, IMO, to write a novel-length work as a short story. How often have you seen it done? I haven't. The closest you come is the synopsis--which certainly lacks the impact of a story.

Many novels start as short stories, but once you make the world large enough to fill a novel, it's very difficult to go the other way.

What is the purpose of writing short stories?

1) To get publishing credits. It is fathoms easier to get a short story published for a first-time writer, than it is to get a novel published. And, with most book publishers from what I understand, a resume that shows you can write and sell your work is important. Short stories build that resume for you.

2) Short stories are a classroom that helps prepare you for the larger career of writing novels. It takes training of all kinds. It is a marvelous exercise, for example, in plotting and the conflict/resolution cycle. If wordiness is your illness, writing shorts will surely help cure you of it.

I wrote the entire first draft of my novel (well, it was so huge it's now going to be three ) without writing a single short story. In fact, I hadn't written a short story in over a year, and hadn't written one before that for many years. MNAY YEARS! But I have gained the most training as a writer from studying the microcosm of writing on the smaller scale of the short story. When I gain the courage to tackle my novel's rewrites, I'll be much better prepared because I took the time to learn how to tell a story well by learning how to write shorts.

So TaSha--write shorts! And what better position could you be in than to have all these great folks at Hatrack to help you through it. I ABSOLUTELY could NOT have done it without them.

P.S. You and Jaina and Jeraliey are becoming Larry, Mo, and Curly to me. I think it's great how well you and Jaina have hit it off with Jeraliey. You guys have a lot in common.

Posted by ScottMiller (Member # 2410) on :

TaSha: I'm always nervous about offering advice, because I'm a newb and not really any more experienced than anyone else here.

Still, here's two thoughts I had:

1) I agree that you shouldn't try to squish a novel into a short. There are too many differences between the two. But,
2) That isn't stopping you from taking rick's idea and separating an incident out and doing it as a short story.

And you could always try to write a separate story, but in the same world; or just a short story about something you've observed, or a personal experience (altered to protect the innocent ), in case you can't think of anything else.

Posted by JBSkaggs (Member # 2265) on :

You can though approach a novel as a series of independent shorts. Where each section of three or four chapters is essentially a short story. Several published authors use this method. It also makes the creation of a series of novels much easier, because your working finished units.

JB Skaggs

Posted by TaShaJaRo (Member # 2354) on :

I appreciate all the great comments, even yours ScottMiller. Your opinion is just as valid as anyone else’s. I agree that it would be impossible for me to condense the entire story down into a short, even if only for an exercise. It would end up being an exercise in futility.

I like the idea of practicing with shorts unrelated to this story. It would be good for me to practice writing shorts again and it might provide me with the much needed break from this story when necessary.

I also really like the concept of making a series of shorts that link together into a novel. It might be less overwhelming to take it in smaller steps like that rather than looking at the entire skyscraper.

Thanks guys!