Short Story vs. Novel

January 12, 2008 · Posted in Writing

(Originally posted on http://mcory.wordpress.com/ on 4/28/2007)

I’m trying to come up with something to write, plotting, etc. Ain’t happening very well. I do have a “set of scenes” in mind that could play out well for a novel, but it’s not gelling together very well just yet–it’s hiding quite effectively amid the forests of the rest of my life.

Last year, when I started trying to write seriously, I churned out 4 short stories in a relatively short amount of time. I don’t know what’s happening on that front; I’ve gotten more focused on wanting to write a novel, and I’m finding it much harder to find something that’s worth saying and possible to say in a handful of pages.

That’s crap.

I’m too closely tying “short story” with “horror story”. That was the genre I was trying to get into last year when I wrote those. A short story is great for those, in my opinion: you set the scene, give a slight amount of back story if necessary, and then bring in the ghost/monster/psycho. Quick, simple, marginally effective.

Now I’m wanting to write “fake biographies” (for lack of a better term), or quasi-romance, whatever exactly this stuff is. It’s much harder to generate an emotional attachment to a character in four pages than in four chapters, and, quite frankly, I’m not exactly looking for a challenge at the moment.

At the same time, I don’t have the time (without really moving things around) to get another novel out in short time span here. A short story would be great; perfect. Get up one morning, sketch it out. Next morning (maybe couple of mornings), draft it. Edit. Revise. Rinse and repeat. Start on Monday, by the weekend you have another story ready for the limelight. (in theory, at least.)

With a novel, well… Working on it just a couple of hours each morning it’d take me a couple of months at least to get it knocked out, and that’s assuming the story just falls into place and I don’t have to waste a morning or three staring at a blank piece of note paper counting the lines and then the spaces and then the lines and then….

But, you get what you pay for I guess; it feels pretty cool to tell people “yeah, after I finished my book, I…”

Oh well. I’m going to the rez for smokes now that Patti’s home. We’ll see what’s going on later; maybe we’ll do some music stuff or something. Who knows?