This week: Short Story, Preface, or First Chapter? Edited by: Annette  
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| “A short story I have written long ago would barge into my house in the middle of the night, shake me awake and shout, ‘Hey, this is no time for sleeping! You can’t forget me, there’s still more to write!’ Impelled by that voice, I would find myself writing a novel. In this sense, too, my short stories and novels connect inside me in a very natural, organic way.” – Haruki Murakami |
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Short Story, Preface, or First Chapter?
Short stories are a great way to get started with creative writing. They usually take less time to write in comparison to a novel. In general, a short story has a simpler structure, which gives you a chance to find your voice as a storyteller in a manageable way. It has to be said though that short stories are not simply short novels. There are distinct differences.
Where a short story is an intense experience, a novel is a journey. That goes for the writer, the reader, and the characters. As a writer, you should decide whether you're looking at a long-haul project or want something faster.
Just because a novel is longer, does not automatically mean it needs several parallel running plots and subplots. Both the short story and the novel benefit from a logical plot. The difference here is that the novel will take more time to develop events and give more details.
The conflict in a short story can be complex, but it needs to get resolved quickly. A novel can afford to have a conflict that is easy to understand, but the conflict might be bigger and take more effort and time on the character to solve.
Fictional time can be any length desired, but it's more frequent that short stories will capture a moment in time. A novel will take more fictional. There are many examples that go against that because it's not a rule.
Short stories can contain a great deal of meaning and deep thoughts, but a novel has the option to explore the thoughts of more characters. Those thoughts and the actions of the characters can be narrated in more details and a novel also lends itself to multiple points of view.
Many short stories have the potential to turn into novels. As long as there are events that can branch off and there are characters that have an interesting past to explore. Mystery short stories for instance, can become a novel when we start asking questions about the characters. What was their relationship? Why did one commit a crime? How is the person who solved the crime involved?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a great classical author to investigate if you are curious how to take a short story and turn it into a novel. He wrote 56 short stories and four novels about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.
Have you written any short stories that were really the first chapter of a novel? |
|  | Thank You (E)
Story about thanks and re-uniting with an important part of their life
#2289007 by Jordi  |
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#2288793 by Not Available. |
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Replies to my last Short Stories newsletter "The Longest Night" that asked What kind of stories do you come up with when the night is long and the day is cold?
brom21  wrote: I did not know this. It is fascinating, how seasons and times contributes to our storytelling. As a writer who prefers fantasy, it is typical to assign magical activity and enchantment to the seasons, especially solstices and equinoxes. Thank you so much for the NL!
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Paul  wrote: The same ones I come up with when the nights are short and the days are hot.
I don’t get mood swings according to the weather.
Very practical.
And a reply to my previous Short Story newsletter "by: Artificial Intelligence" that asked Are you going to let a robot tell you how to think, love, and live?
Jimminy Jingle!  wrote: The fact that robots will successfully take over all forms of art and other things is in its own way, exciting. Sure, the first feeling is to say not and be totally against it. Really, AI will allow us to connect in ways no one yet is able to comprehend! Humanity will evolve because it is in our nature to grow...Thank you for an awesome newsletter!
We will adapt to it. Not sure if all adaptation is good. Students have now handed in dissertations written by AI instead of making the effort. What is our education worth if we can just do that? |
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Short Stories: February 08, 2023 Issue [#11777]
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