The web-based conversation regarding the short fiction market continues, and I find myself desperately hoping that we can save this faltering genre.
The practice of writing short stories has been tremendously valuable to my own learning curve. A good speculative short contains all the same elements as a speculative novel: world building, character development, plot arcs, action, description, dialog... and of course tight writing.
Writing short fiction is the relatively easy way to learn that you can't afford to skimp on any of these.
I say 'easy' not because writing short fiction is easier than writing a longer work. Writing a strong short story is hard. But the mistakes come more quickly, and they cost less in the process of making them.
If your outline wasn't strong enough, you've learned that in thirty pages, not three hundred. If your opening isn't grabbing the reader's interest, you've learned that in thirteen lines, not an entire chapter.
Even if you don't know when to stop writing, if your biggest problem is trying to include the whole kit and kaboodle and the kitchen sink for good measure, you'll discover it when your story grows past ten or maybe twenty thousand words. You won't end up with an eight-hundred page fly swatter.
Just this past week I finished my shortest work yet, at only 3,400 words, and it feels just as rich as the 10,000-word stories I started out with. Over the past four months, working almost exclusively on short stories, I have cut my writing time in half and my volume by two thirds.
But the best reason for a writer to love the short fiction market isn't even the learning curve. It's the marketing outlet.
I write for the love of writing, but I fully intend to be a working author, making a living in the craft. And that takes readers. You don't find readers by putting your book on the shelf next to R.A. Salvatore and hoping for the best. You go out and find them.
Writing short fiction is a fantastic way to build reader interest in your work--even better if your stories are based on the worlds of your novels, or at the very least if they target the same audience. I discovered Anne McCaffrey, Ray Bradbury, and hosts of others through their short fiction. I discovered Geoff Ryman that way this past year.
On top of Mr. Cohen's subscription drive, I would make another recommendation toward saving the short fiction genre:
- If you are an author, use the short fiction market intelligently, as a terrific way to build your readership.
- If you are a reader, encourage the practice by buying the books of the many wonderful authors you discover in the pages of your favorite magazine.
Writers everywhere, consider this: magazines are paid publicity. Until you're as famous as J.K. Rowling, where else are you going to find a deal like that?
