Young Writers Society

Alright, well, as the title says, I have a small problem. Or rather, a long problem (Pun intended.) I drag ou all my short stories into novels. Which is fine, I guess, but it annoys me so much to have so many unfinished pieces lying around. And yes, they are lying around because I don't like typing up my stories unless it's close to the end of wrapping it up.

So, any advice? Anyone have the same problem? Anything would be lovely, (god, I sound like an old lady there) so post away so I don't have to go completely insane.

Don't come up with so many ideas for one story line? Save them for another story another time....

Can't say much more than that. That's what I'd do.

normally people have the opposite problem that u have. my advice to focus on one story and then keep a notebook just for ideas that you come up with while working on the one story.

i dont have the problem u have but i do tend to come up with several ideas at once and want to work on them all right away. but by writing them down in a journal or notebook im able to go back and look at my ideas so i have them later.

it is also helpful when one of your teachers asks you to write short stories, well i guess i ur case it might help since u said u tend to make short stories longer.

hmm....*stops to think* if you feel you want to shorten one of you stories make a time line, outline, or map out your story in some way. Then pick out the stuff that you feel is most needed to make the story work.

if that doesn't work or you feel everything needs to stay in try mapping out the end of the story that way you can put the story down and write the end later but then u already have the idea so its have the work

after starting my first story with no outline i tended to fill it in with random side stories because i felt the chapters were short and choppy, now im writing a new story and I outline the prologue and the first three chapters,

dont do the whole story at once because when you write you might decide to change something that could effect ur whole outline.

with the outline my story is coming together alot better and i dont have to remeber all my ideas because they are already written down

hoped that helped, oh and for all the papers lying around get one of the felt folding containers and some vanilla portfolio folders, label each folder with the title of the story or a category then place all your papers where they need be. then you can store the containeer anywhere in your room, office, living room, or some place that will drive you parents nuts cause that usually works

anyway goodluck with your problem because when it comes to writing there are now cures everything changes and evolves through ideas and practice

-jules4848-

if you have somany ideas, just make them short stories, or no make them a series of short stories like a collection of short stories that form one long story, a novel if I may say, hence you will not loose as much ideas and you don't have to write so much, either.

You know, the problem with making a short story into a novel is that the single idea a short story can be based around isn't enough meat for a novel's plot, so you have to add more in to make it a novel. Why don't you just try and really make an effort to stop at just a short story. You may find that the happiness and sense of fulfillment at having finished something will lead you to go ahead with more short stories.

I dunno if it would work for you, but it did for a while with me when I did English last year. My teacher made us write short stories quite frequently, so I got the hang of writing a shorter story. It was actually kind of nice, because I could get several done rather more quickly than a single novel.

Maybe you could give it a whack. It might do the trick, it might not. It just sounds like you have the idea for a short story, but the idea just doesn't have enough to carry it through to a novel.

Good luck with all of it!

~GryphonFledgling