Is the short story dead?

The novel is exciting. It's the big adventure, the ultimate goal, to publish a best-selling novel. It's not sensible, no, to jump straight into crazy attempts at a novel before learnign the art of writing, but it's fun.

You're right, of course, if people wanted to be practical.

No, the short story isn't dead. I actually have plenty cool ideas that would fit more into short stories or novellas. I write tons of short stories, many of them through contest, whether it be YWS or somewhere else.

However, I think I know a few reasons that a majority of people try to write novels instead of short stories. Besides the reasons listed above (I agree with all of them), novels provide more recognition. Short stories aren't really that popular, and most young writers aspire to be famous and published.

Also, when you've been working on a novel for a really long time, you grow attached to the characters. I've been working on my novel for the past year, and there is no way that I'm giving up now. Being with one story for so long really helps you grow, both as a writer and as a person, in my opinion.

Just my two cents.

Interestingly enough, I started off trying to write novels and have since settled for shorter stories. Mainly because I never have the patience to finish novels.
But I agree with the rest, a lot of young writers- or any writers, attempt to jump straight into novels. In my whole life I think I may be able to count the books of short stories I have read on two hands. They were great, but it's just not something you see often, and even then they were mainly from authors already established with novels.
When the main goal is getting published and recognised, a lot of people see the novel as their key to get what they aspire.
Although, what novels I am working on I do not post on here,because I remember how I would skip over chapters if I hadn't already the earlier ones when looking for something to critique. That may just be me being lazy, but if I ever finish, I'm going to stick it in the novel section.
XD

For one thing, most people don't read short stories unless it's required reading in a textbook, or maybe someone subscribes to a writing magazine.

Short stories are much harder to pull off, since you have to cram both complexity and depth into such a tiny little thing. Themes have to be developed on a more condensed level.

Anyhow, every short story I've tried to write the past two years has ended up about thirty pages longer than I intended it to be. Oopsie!

–antimelrose

true that novels are more famous and more well known than short stories...but short stories seems to have some twist on it.
because of its short range, short story writers tend to create some writing style or plot that is somewhat different than novels. I had read a number of short stories for some time and i had found that each one uses a different style than the other.

Novels may also have their own different styles but due to its lenght, it would be hard to prolong it....while short stories with their short length can easily do it.

i had been writing short stories for some time and i had discovered great styles and twists that may attract a reader...

Short stories are good, but i notice a lot of them end up being series with like 50 books in them. i love them but i notice there usually ends up being quite a few pages to read if you get them all. Or maybe im just not reading enough short stories :p
i have tried to write short stories but they don't usually turn out well. they seem to take on a life of their own and get really really big... i think its kind of equal though. a short story is "harder" to write, but a novel is such a longer process! Many people just aren't willing to work that hard for something that wont get as much attention. It is true that short stories are not dead and you can become famous off of them but even if it is an amazing short story, a decent novel seems to get more attention.

As a reminder to people in this thread, capitalize your I's.

I think short stories are harder to write then novels, but since few people actually write a full novel themselves it is more of a rush to write spark that dies out. Everyone has had a great idea and it make sense in their head. Though when it comes to writing it down it eventually sounds far-fetched, drawn-out, and boring.

Many real novels have less go on in five pages then most YWSers, but that is a good thing. A lightning pace ruins novels, despite our quick-reading culture, the nature of writing has changed as well as interests. Just wish there were more of either completed ones on here.

I write short stories more often than novels or novellas. I naturally quickly lose the drive to continue them after a while, which is why I like to stick to short stories more.

I actually really want to write short stories, but I feel like I can't. My ideas have always been for novels. Maybe it's because on average I really prefer reading novels. But if anyone has any advice for switching from novels to short stories, let me know.

I find it hard to write short stories, probably because I don't read many. On the rare occasions I do write them, they turn out very... open ended? To the point where I'm almost unsure whether it's a story or a sort of freeform poem.

We're studying them in English, though, so perhaps I'll get some inspiration. I certainly envy those who can effectively convey a story and characters in 500 words (it's hard enough in 50 000!).

One advantage of writing a short story would be you'd (hopefully) get to the end sooner than a novel - I'm so blocked right now just because novels take sooo long to write even a single draft, so I'm kind of... bored. And looking for prompts. Hey, maybe one of the prompts will make me write a short story!

I remember there being a Writing Gooder entry on something similar to this (though I think it was about starting out your writing career with short stories versus novels.

My response then:

I think it’s that the short story is undervalued in the reading circles. Most writers are also readers and their first introduction into writing was reading books. So the logical next step is to write a book, right? How many kids grew up reading oodles of short stories? Most of us read novels growing up and that influenced us.

At least, that’s my story. I wrote a “book” at age 11 (probably a total of 30 pages, but with chapters and everything) and spent a few more years after that frustrated with two other novel projects before I finally discovered the short story as a writing medium at age 16-ish. I just didn’t really think about it before because I didn’t read many short stories before then.

I still stand by it, methinks. Most writers, thinking ahead to publication, don't see much of a mainstream market for short stories. I'm not saying there isn't a market at all, just that if you walk into your local library, the bulk of what you will see are novels or novel-length works.

I just wish that there was a length between short story and novel. A novella, I guess, but something that was allowed to be, like, five chapters or something. It'd be an uber-long short story, but a ridiculously short novel or novella. It would allow for some of the elbow room of a novel, but keep the beautiful conciseness of a short story.

Nate wrote:I think I'm going to start an anti-novel crusade... the amount of chapter 1's and 2's on YWS is getting simply too ridiculous.

Lulz. I'd suggest a "pro-short story" campaign instead, though I do agree with your sentiments. We don't want to crush the idea of the novel (I, myself, aspire to write a bestselling novel, as I'm sure many on YWS do, and I'd be upset if someone told me not to try for it), just emphasize the pure win that is the short story.

Nate wrote:As a reminder to people in this thread, capitalize your I's.

Curiously, the five subsequent posts all began with "I"...

Also, a brief check through the story forums showed sixty nine threads containing the one of the first five 'chapters', and only nine threads contained chapters beyond that. Rough and probably faulty math gives me 11.5% of novel threads contain something that is likely to be finished (there are many duplicates no doubt influencing this number). While that's most definitely inaccurate in some way, I think that it shows that the short story's competition on YWS is not the novel, but the unfinished novel.

Novels are huge, almost too big to fit in the regular forum of YWS, in an ideal world, more people would really try to put together a complete, 5000 word short story before attempting any of the heavy lifting required by a novel.

I've written 6 short stories all about the same characters because I love them too much. And those stories were each about 5000 words. I guess I feel that after investing all that time planning characters and writing backstories, it would be a shame to not explore them to an extent that can only be achived in a novel.

I'd say the main reason people stop posting novel chapters after number 3 or thereabouts, is that no one reviews them because they need to know what's happened previously. To get high chapters critiqued requires collaboration with other people, to establish a "you review mine and I'll review yours" agreement. Either that or a gripping story that people will stick with because they love it so much.

The problem doesn't seem to be unfinished novels, so much as unfinished critiques. If somehow you could give an incentive for reviewers to stay the course of an entire novel, there'd be far fewer chapter 1s and 2s.

Hmm. I definitely agree that this is an issue. However, I personally tend to shy away from pieces that are parts of a novel when I am looking for something to review. If there is any of that "Part 1," "chapter 36," or even "part 2 of 3!" business in the post, I probably won't even view it. I only want to read stuff that I can finish in one sitting and review without getting bored.

Personally, I don't tend to post my many failed novellas on here. It's embarrassing; I feel that the stories get boring for the reading. In an attempt to make the novel-thing longer, I add in all these useless details. When I proofread it I actually end up getting bored!

Most of the kids who post novels on here tend to bore me. The novels all start out with the same thing: Some amazingly attractive teenage girl getting ready for school. They all give way too much detail, involve highly attractive guys who fall for nerdish but attractive girls, and more often than not they incorporate vampires in some way. Ironically, even though this is the most cliched plot-line-thing, its the one that all the kids on here seem to want to write about.

Short stories own. Nuff said.