Once More Curious About the Writing Habits of My Friends' List

[queenoftheskies]

How many of you write short stories regularly?

I want to write short stories and I'm trying to train myself to do so. I'm trying to learn to take small events that have a beginning, a middle, and an end...and won't take 150,000 words to write. :)

But, as many of you have probably guessed from my word count meters, my thoughts usually come in epic proportions.

When I sit down and actually try to think of short story ideas, what usually comes to me are over-used, trite ideas, though they might be told from a different perspective and with different characters. I don't want to write those types of stories.

But, today, I started getting some ideas that perhaps fit into a smaller scale. Which is good. I can use them for practice.

The problem--I guess it's a problem--is that these ideas fall into the universe in which I'm writing my novels. Some of them probably wouldn't be a problem in that I haven't introduced some of these characters and details of the universe are unnecessary for these particular ideas I'd like to develop.

However, these characters will be used later.

Here's my first question. How many--if any--of you use the same characters/universes when you write novels and short stories both? How many of you have had work published in both? Or, had one published in one form and plan to publish in the other? What do you think are the pros and the cons of writing both novels and short stories that link/feed into one another?

My second question is about how you folks write short stories. Do you generally find yourself starting and finishing a short story at one session? Or, do you write what you have of it and finish it at a later date? If you finish at a later date, do you have a better understanding for your story? Or have you lost the feel for it? I don't know if this is important or not. I'm just curious.

I'm going to write short stories this afternoon. Wish me luck. :)

Comments

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

Good questions... I am writing both, though as you know, my novels are on the back burner at the moment. But in thinking about your question, I would almost think that you'd have to separate your shorts from your longs. I think that if you set your shorts in the same universe as some of your novels, you might be tempted to expand storylines because on some levels you already associate those characters and those worlds with these sprawling epics. My advice, if you want to write shorts, is to create them outside of those known universes. Create new world and new characters apart from those that you already know. I think that if you start a short story with a clean slate, it might be easier to not let it expand out of control. That's just my opinion though. Short stories use different muscles than novels and I think it's defintely possible to do both and do both well, it's just a matter of getting those different muscles into game shape.

As for whether I can finish a short in one sitting or not? Sometimes. But sometimes it will take me a few days (or weeks) to finish out a short. I just figure it will be finished when it's finished. :-)

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, java_fiend, I'm still waiting for that sci-fi short of yours. Startin' to feel like a jilted bride here...:)

Tade