I’m a bit of an anomaly in many ways, but let’s keep this specific to my writing, shall we? I’m a big-picture, grand-stories kind of writer. I’m not talking about the world-building or plot. I’m talking about the actual length of my pieces.
See, whenever I get the seed of an idea for a new story, my mind automatically tries to stretch it out into a novel-length piece. It’s been this for a long time now. When I was just learning to write (circa high school), I, of course, created short works, but once I got serious about my writing (about five years ago at this point), all of my ideas were novels.
This is a curse in many ways. Novels are tough—to write, to edit, to get feedback on, to pitch. But there’s nothing else like them. Long prose is the only way I can convey my ideas and develop my characters to my own satisfaction. That being said, novels aren’t always the best way for a writer to find a readership or make their name in the field. Enter short form, which for most genre fiction tends to come in the form of short stories.
Benefits of Writing Short Stories
Let’s start with the writer and their craft. Why should they write short stories, especially if they are like me and want to primarily pen novel-length pieces? In short, the more succinct the piece, the more solid the writing has to be. To illustrate this best, let’s take this to the extreme—poetry.
Every word in a poem matters. It must serve a function or it has to be cut. There’s no room for fluff or extraneous information. The moment you include either in the poem, that’s the moment it falls flat. The same holds true for a short story. Yes, you have a little more wiggle room, but not much. Writing a short story and limiting yourself to say 7000 words makes you a more discerning writer. Every scene, character, line of dialogue, they all have to serve a function.
If a writer becomes accustomed to this mentality, it automatically carries over to their long-form writing. This is great and goes a long way towards reducing the effort and time usually spent in the editing phase.
Now, let’s talk about the reader. Preferences vary widely of course, but by and large, if someone reads, they tend to read both long and short forms (the exception being poetry perhaps). It’s much easier to commit to reading a short story, and if a reader is considering a new author, they might opt to check out a shorter work by them to see if they fancy their style. Short stories are a kind of fast-track way for an author to introduce themselves to these new readers.
What to Do With Them
I’ve made a decent case for why short stories are useful, but the next logical question is: What does an author do with them? A few options would be:
- Write a collection of stories and publish an anthology
- Offer them for free to readers via an online platform/author website
- Submit them to contests and magazines
I’m going to jump straight in and say forget about option 1. Unless you’re a well-known author or already have a decently-sized readership, very few people will want to read your anthology (if you self-publish) and no literary agent will give you the time of day (if you opt to try for traditional publishing). Besides, each of those stories can do so much more for you standing on its own. Lumping them together is a wasted opportunity.
The other two options have their time and place. Let’s move through each.
Reader Magnets
Your free short stories can serve as reader magnets. You can give these away in exchange for a newsletter sign-up, which gives you a direct connection to your potential readers. A newsletter is an invaluable tool for any author. There’s a reason all the advice says to make an author newsletter. It works. I discussed reader magnets and building a newsletter in a previous blog post here. Check that out for all the details.
I will add that you should be selective in which stories you opt to use as reader magnets. I wouldn’t recommend choosing your absolute best story because whenever you give anything away for free, people intrinsically value it less. You want to save those gems for the other two options.
For my reader magnets, I tend to write short stories specifically for this objective. These are always associated with my novels as a way to entice readers to check out those longer works. Just to clarify, this doesn’t mean I don’t put a lot of time and effort into these pieces. After all, they may be the only impression a reader gets of my work. I want to put my best foot forward in hopes they stick around to see what else I have on offer.
Contests and Magazines
Now we come to where to place your gems. You want to make the most of your most polished pieces, and the best way to do that is by gaining visibility. You can achieve that by winning contests or having your work published in magazines. A word of warning: You have to be discerning. Don’t just submit your work to any contest or magazine. Find the ones that are considered the best in your genre. Send your work to the top-tier ones first. If they get rejected or fail to land a win, move down to the next tier, and so on.
Expect rejection. This is a natural part of a writer’s life. It’s hard (believe me, I know), but the only difference between a “successful” writer and an “unsuccessful” one is persistence. Yes, the skill of the writer matters too, but plenty of amazing writers never have their work appreciated. Keep trying. Don’t give up.
One final word on these two options. If you’re struggling to decide between a contest and a magazine, I suggest going for the latter. My understanding is that contests tend to be particularly competitive but don’t come with the same clout as getting a piece accepted in a magazine. Also, by and large, the wait time is less and the payout is better for magazine publications, at least in speculative fiction.
Do you write short stories? What do you tend to do with them? Let me know in a comment.
Leave a Reply