WriYe Blogging Circle: August

Hi all and welcome back for another edition of the WriYe blogging circle.  This month, we're dealing with short stories and I'm going to be highlighting it this month with the various different ones that are out there.  I don't know if I'm going to do this every month going forward with focusing on one theme but I thought it would be fun to give it a try.  Also, I'm not a natural short story writer, so this is going to help me as much as it's going to be fun.

So, with that out of the way, let's get to the questions.

What do you like about writing short stories?
This is going to be silly but I like that they're short.  A novel is a huge effort that takes anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 words to complete.  A short story can be anywhere from 53 (flash fiction) to 30,000 words.  After that, you run into novella territory, which is another kettle of fish, so it's nice that it's short.  That's not to say that they're easy to write.  There's just as much work that goes into forming a short story as a novella or a novel but writing time is cut in half for me.  It takes a lot less time for me to go from first draft to final draft on a short story than a novella or a novel.  So, yes, I like that they're short and it takes me less time from start to finish.

What don't you like about writing short stories?
It's the same answer as above and ties into what I started the post with.  I'm not a natural short story writer.  I like to go on and on and on but then I need to edit it down.  I've had a short story assignment for a class that had a hard line of you will lose points if you go over 25,000 words even if it's brilliant.  I had to edit out about 10,000 words and that's hard.  It is hard to stay within the boundaries, especially if you're coming to the genre as a novel or a novella writer.  It can be done.  You can edit out your words or choose what you're doing for different scenes but I find it to be difficult.

How do you think short stories differ from novels?
Aside from word count, there's times when I wish a short story was longer to show a background character that could have really shined.  I don't think you have the space to go into side characters that could have a bigger spotlight and you need to stick to your plot or main character.  Now, that's not to say that there aren't some short stories out that does everything a novel does in a shorter space but they're few and far between.

Bonus: What is your favorite short story anthology?
One of my favorites, even though it has poems in it, is Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors.  He also has Fragile Things but I like Smoke and Mirrors more.

So, that's the blogging circle post for the month.  Stay tuned this month for more on short stories and, until next time, keep on writing.