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Are short stories necessary?
Dec. 21st, 2006 10:09 amJustine asks "Are short stories necessary?"
John answers (as do a bunch of people in Justine's comments and John's comments).
And I have some thoughts, too. Because that's what the intarwebs are for, dammit.
My first response to the question, "Are short stories necessary?" is another question: "Necessary to whom?"
My second response is also a question: "Necessary for what?"
On the career front, the answer is obviously no. (I've posted about the career myth before.) Plenty of non-short-story-writing published authors, including John and Justine themselves, can testify to that. I myself, though I write both, would not say that publishing short stories had any direct impact on my career as a novelist. I.e., I don't think the short story publications had anything to do with my agent taking me on, or with Ace eventually deciding to buy my books.
However. Full stop.
Writing short stories did, and does, have an effect on me, as a person trying to be a writer. (Some days I succeed better than others.) And that actually in several different ways.
1. It's taught me how to handle rejection letters. I've made posts about this before, but it continues to be true. Short story markets may have slow response times, but they are not anywhere NEAR as glacial as novel markets. 5,000 words, give or take, per submission, vs. 100,000 words and up per submission. You can do the math.
2. While hardly lucrative, it's fantastic in terms of getting one's name out where people can see it. You can publish a lot more short stories, in a lot more places, in a year than you can publish novels.
3. When I started going to conventions, it gave me something to say to people like Gavin Grant and Jed Hartman and Ellen Datlow: "You've sent me some really nice rejection letters. Thank you." Which isn't a great conversational gambit, but at least it was something, and I, personally, needed that. Desperately.
4. I enjoy it.
John answers (as do a bunch of people in Justine's comments and John's comments).
And I have some thoughts, too. Because that's what the intarwebs are for, dammit.
My first response to the question, "Are short stories necessary?" is another question: "Necessary to whom?"
My second response is also a question: "Necessary for what?"
On the career front, the answer is obviously no. (I've posted about the career myth before.) Plenty of non-short-story-writing published authors, including John and Justine themselves, can testify to that. I myself, though I write both, would not say that publishing short stories had any direct impact on my career as a novelist. I.e., I don't think the short story publications had anything to do with my agent taking me on, or with Ace eventually deciding to buy my books.
However. Full stop.
Writing short stories did, and does, have an effect on me, as a person trying to be a writer. (Some days I succeed better than others.) And that actually in several different ways.
1. It's taught me how to handle rejection letters. I've made posts about this before, but it continues to be true. Short story markets may have slow response times, but they are not anywhere NEAR as glacial as novel markets. 5,000 words, give or take, per submission, vs. 100,000 words and up per submission. You can do the math.
2. While hardly lucrative, it's fantastic in terms of getting one's name out where people can see it. You can publish a lot more short stories, in a lot more places, in a year than you can publish novels.
3. When I started going to conventions, it gave me something to say to people like Gavin Grant and Jed Hartman and Ellen Datlow: "You've sent me some really nice rejection letters. Thank you." Which isn't a great conversational gambit, but at least it was something, and I, personally, needed that. Desperately.
4. I enjoy it.
