You're a writer. But do you write short stories? And is there any reason why you should write short stories?
“Writer” is an extremely broad term; after all, there are dozens of genres and categories you might write in. Poetry, novels, memoir, historical fiction, picture books, cookbooks, instruction manuals, fan-fiction—all of these barely scratch the surface of what you can do with your talents. No matter what you write, though, there are significant benefits to writing short stories that will help you learn and grow within your craft.
5 Reasons Why You Should Write Short Stories
If you’re a novelist or someone who focuses on longer works of writing, short stories may seem strangely daunting to you. I know I’ve definitely felt restricted at times when it comes to how much space I had to tell a story.
But trust me, there are so many ways that writing a short story can help you as a writer. Here are just five benefits.
1. It keeps you in a regular writing habit
It can be so much easier to sit down at your desk knowing you only have to write a little bit of a short piece than it might be if you were faced with the daunting task of continuing a 300-page novel. No matter how much—or how little—progress you make, progress is progress. As long as you’re getting your butt in the chair and typing away, you’re strengthening those creative muscles.
2. You finish more projects
The curse of most writers is having all of those half-finished, abandoned projects taunting you from the edges of your mind. Sometimes you might return to a project to finish it, often times only to abandon it again. This is especially common of longer works, like novels.
With short stories, though, it’s an easy practice in learning how to finish a draft, and then later on in how to revise it. Plus, finished projects are great for contest submissions! You can’t exactly win a contest or be in a publication with an uncompleted draft.
3. The stakes are low
If you do decide to trash a piece you’ve been working on, with a short story, you haven’t thrown out all that much. It can be disheartening to leave a story behind and feel like all of that work was for nothing, but don’t be too hard on yourself. Anything you’ve written can only help you make your next pieces better.
4. It lets you practice storytelling
Of course, any form of story is good practice for storytelling, but short stories are an excellent crash course in every single element of fiction. In just a few thousand words, you have to include a strong plot and character development, a setting, dialogue, polish your prose, and so much more.
Once you’ve finished your short story, it’s also an easy piece to reread to figure out which elements of storytelling you might need to brush up on. By glancing at a few pages, you can pinpoint which parts are the weakest and why.
5. It eases you back into writing
If you’ve gone through an especially bad bout of writer’s block, you may not feel like going back to your creative work at all. Getting back in the saddle after an extended break is one of the hardest things you can do as an artist. But short story writing is a good way to do that.
Listen to some advice from Anne Lamott and take things “bird by bird.” Short stories are a gentle way to ease yourself back into writing. By the time you start one, it’ll be over before you know it. And once you’ve tackled one story, the rest will come so much more easily.
And who knows? You might love your stories so much you want to get them published in literary magazines!
Other Short Forms
Though I've focused on why you should write short stories here, I should also mention that short pieces of any kind can be beneficial to you: flash-fiction, articles, poems, or anything else that only lasts for a few pages. What matters if that you’re writing anything that lets you continue to practice.
What has writing short stories done to help you as a writer? Let us know in the comments.
PRACTICE
For fifteen minutes, write the beginning of a short story. It can be about anyone, set anywhere, so long as you commit to those fifteen minutes of writing. You have no obligation to keep your work afterwards, but this is a good way to practice writing for writing’s sake, as well as the various elements of storytelling.
When you’re finished, share your creative writing in the Pro Practice Workshop. Don’t forget to give your fellow writers some love, too.
Not a member yet? Join us here.
Have fun!
The Magic Violinist is a young author who writes mostly fantasy stories. She loves to play with her dog and spend time with her family. Oh, and she's homeschooled. You can visit her blog at themagicviolinist.blogspot.com. You can also follow The Magic Violinist on Twitter (@Magic_Violinist).
I used to write short stories, but when you consider it takes just as much publisher-hunting and submitting as a full novel, but only gets a one-time payment vs. possibly-continuing royalties from a novel, the ROI starts looking better to go book length, or at least novella. Right now, I’ve got a half-dozen shorts from when I first started getting serious about writing that have collected nothing but digital dust after I got tired of searching out publishers to send them to, while my first self-published “shook” is still bringing in a few bucks a month, even eight years after publication.
Current score: 4 shorts–0 income, 10 books–2 producing consistent income
Dear Magic Violinist,
Thanks for your views on why one should write short stories. Let me tell you something in this context. I consider myself as a short story writer. I started writing in my early thirties. It is difficult for someone from Asia to establish himself/herself as a short story writer as there are literally thousands and lacs of writers in the West honing their crafts in this genre. I am talking about the tough competition here.
I have written many stories. Some of them were published. Most of them were not. I am a very disorganised man. In the 20s, I was contributing regularly to a biweekly writing contest organised by the Flash Fiction Writers Group, if my memory serves me right. I must have contributed more than 50 stories. I left the group when I felt that my co-writers were focusing more on my English than on my stories.
Next time, I tried to get back to the group, it was gone! I could never find out what happened to the stories I authored!
Secondly, I write with the sole intention of being published. I did not submit any stories to StoryAday, when I learned that the site did not want my finished, complete stories.
Writing short stories had helped me immensely. If I have some published works to my credit, some recognition- it is mainly due to my love for writing short stories. I know that rejections can be a great deterent, spirit-dampener of sorts, yet I write short stories habitually, almost ritualistically to be alive! I keep writing all kinds of short stories ( Romance, Ghost Stories, Horror Stories, Crime and Detective Stories etc) to be alive as nothing provides me a greater pleasure or happiness. When my stories get published, my joy is doubled as I feel that I have done my bit towards making this amazing world of ours a little better, brighter and beautifuller.