Short Fiction

I think I have spent my entire adult writing career asking the same question over and over again: Where should I place my focus, long or short fiction? If you look back at earlier entries on this blog, you will see that question asked frequently. The answer to this question is almost as individual and life searching for a writer as the whole human condition of existence is. There are several reason why I struggle with this question. Of course, the first reason is simple: I write long fiction better. But what are the other reasons?

Short fiction writing is as important to a novelist as understanding grammar is. Short fiction teaches the writer to be brief. Writers are like lawyers, we get paid by the word (generally speaking). Without the structure of plot in a short story, every novel could rival the length of War and Peace, without the tightness of control over the unfolding plot. Point in fact, the unfolding plot would instead become a wandering plot without the understanding of plot that short fiction forces.

Another reason is that short fiction gives faster feedback. A part time writer (aka, any of us who write and work a full time job doing something else, is part time—no matter if you put more work hours in on story writing than you do at the bill paying job) will spend months or years working on a novel. During the whole process, they do not know if they have had a successful story or a big dropping bomb of a story. Short fiction gives you feedback faster.

A final reason is that in short fiction you lean the craft. It is in no way faster or easier to get published in short fiction. In fact it has been my observation and I have heard that it is a shared point of view that short fiction publishers really are looking for writers who are established. This is a chicken and the egg situation for us who are still emerging writers.

Because of these and other reasons, I will continue to focus on both short and long fiction.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for updates to my blogs, articles, stories, and poems I write.