Writing short stories or writing novels ?
Posted by HED in articles
People often advise the novelist wannabe to start writing short stories. The length of such works is manageable, and the young novelist gets the satisfaction (and habit !) of "finishing something".
Back in February 2006, I started writing "seriously" and I followed this advice. I wrote several short stories between February 2006 and October 2006, ranging between 2,000 to 16,000 words. And it was wonderful. My writing was improving drastically and I reached my best form just before NaNoWriMo 2006 : I was able to write one 2,000 words story a day and I finished my biggest (and best) short story to date.
To sum up : I had became rather good at writing short stories.
Then, November came. I won NaNoWriMo with a 50,067 words "novel". Not too bad for a first-time novel. But I made a critical mistake : I reached the required wordcount for NaNoWrimo, but NOT the end of my novel.
I began to edit my NaNo novel in December. Then I began to rewrite it. Then it sucked. Then I tweaked my outline. January was here. I made a new draft. I stopped it a 30,000 words because it was sooooo bad. I started again. March, already. The third draft wasn't right. I dumped everything and came up with a good plot. Hmmm... Nay, the result was getting to unnatural. June was starting and I had three or four 30,000-50,000 different drafts behind me. What was I going to do ? Starting from scratch, of course...
...Even if I was successful at writing short stories, I found myself struggling with my novel. Why ? After weeks of pondering, here are my conclusions :
- Short stories need structure. You can't wander from point to point and hope that something cool will emerge. You must already have "the big conflict" and "the unpredictable ending" in mind.
- Character "stereotypes" can fit in a short story. I don't say you must put "the clueless bimbo" and "the 8-years-old genius" in every short story. Here's what I mean : you don't have to over-develop your characters traits like in a novel. You can get away with "Radek was an angsty teenager who's lying to everybody including his future girlfriend" (yes, I made a story with that description). The thing is : we don't care about his troubled childhood or his eating disorders and its psychological repercussions and everything. There isn't room for that in a short story.
- Novels are about the travel, not the destination. No need for an unpredictable ending if your novel has managed to catch your reader's imagination, fears and hopes. Avoid deus ex machinaes and stay true to your characters and you will have your ending.
- Characters are what makes a novel compelling. When I talk about Hobb's Royal Assassin, you think immediately about Fitz ! If your characters are lousy 1-dimensional stereotyped cardboard cliches, your novel will stink !
You got it ? Short stories are about structure. Novels are about characters. Short stories aren't novels in miniature because the creation process is very different.
That was the lesson I got from my NaNoWriMo. Short stories were easier because I am a control freak and like to structure everything (remember that my day job is programming software). But everything I learnt with short stories proved to be near useless with novels. Plotting makes your story unnatural. You begin to spend more time outlining than writing. And when you finally get to that ending, you realize that it doesn't fit. *throws everything*
If you're like me and you desperately want to finish your novel, check Timothy Hallinan's website ! It will teach you everything you must have and everything you must do in order to type these two damn words : "The End"...