GENREALITY

Howdy folks!  And happy Saturday!

A while back, it was suggested that I write a series of Genreality posts about short fiction.  I’m still getting my feet beneath me when it comes to blog series and I’m never really sure if I’m giving you all anything new to work with, but I’m happy to oblige.

So for the next several weeks (excepting our theme weeks here, of course) I’ll be talking about short stories, how I write them…and why.  Please know going in that this is really for you all, so if you have things you’d like me to speak to please drop me a note or comment below and I’ll incorporate it into the Living Document that this meandering series is bound to turn into.

I get asked pretty frequently about whether it’s better to break into print with novels or with short fiction and, really, the answer is going to be different for every writer.  I think both paths can work just fine but I think which path works for YOU is something only you can sort out.  Queue music for my first digression….

DIGRESSION ONE:  A lot of times, this question is being asked along with a whole pack of other questions that come down to that Mystical Quest for the Magic Bullet of How to Get Published Quickly and Well.  And there are really aren’t any magic bullets.  Most of the time, it’s a simply LOT of writing in the midst of rejection, learning in the midst of trying, meeting people who help along the way because of their experience or their work in the biz, and just staying at it.  Eventually, you write the right story for the right market and the right editor at just the right time.  And sometimes, you get to the point beyond that where the editors ask YOU for stories.  But the hard truth is, some just won’t get there.   Others will.  There’s no way to tell which one you are until you either achieve your goal…or quit (and even quitting is sometimes just a long break.)

END DIGRESSION MUSIC.

So that aside, I broke in through short fiction.  I had sold probably a dozen small press sales before I won Writers of the Future in 2005.  I had probably twenty or twenty-five stories out by the time my first novel came out in 2009.  Why did I go that route?

I can assure you that it wasn’t a well-crafted strategy on my part.  It started back in 1982 or 83 when I read Ray Bradbury’s essay “How to Keep and Feed a Muse” and knew I had to be a writer.  I idolized Bradbury, and he’d broke in during the pulp age with…short stories.  And many of the other gods in my pantheon were also short story writers.  So in my youngish Trailer Boy brain, it seemed to me that Real Writers started out with short stories.  It’s obviously not true.  But that’s what I thought and I started writing out short stories, first in longhand and then, later, with my little blue Royal manual typewriter.  I’d already amassed a handful of rejections before I wrote my first stories on my Dad’s TRS-80 and his Apple computer.

I used the library’s Writers Market and even ordered sample copies of some of the magazines.  I read Writer’s Digest.  I wrote, revised, submitted, wrote, revised, submitted.  Then, at 17, I gave it all up to join the ministry, sometime after burning my D&D books (gasp) and before tossing my S&G LPs (oh my).  By the time I quit, I’d gotten my first  rejection that read “if you can find a way to address the issues in this story, I would like to see it again….” (a rejection that stung at the time but in later years, I saw it for the rewrite request that it was….)

So initially, I came to the short form because it’s how my heroes did it.  Later, I stayed because I enjoyed the trick and game of it.  And even later, I stayed in those comfortable waters because I was TERRIFIED of anything longer and was convinced that I couldn’t write novels.  Now…I do it because I enjoy it, can use it to point toward my longer works, and– from time to time — make a little money from it.  In the beginning, though, it was just the love of storytelling.

So if you enjoy it, I think it can be a great way to break in.  I don’t know that your goal need to be so focused as that initially, but I do think the extra time I spent in short stories really did help sharpen my novels.  So I say write them if you love them.  Invest the time in learning how to do it as well you can.

QUEUE MUSIC FOR SECOND DIVERSION:

But…when you’re just starting out, you really can’t expect much in the way of money.  I think most of us out there know that already, but just in case….  I came back to writing as an adult in 1997.  That year, I invested very little — paper and stamps and ink cartridges and time — and made nothing but gained skill.  In 1998, I wrote even more but also invested in attending two conventions — World Fantasy and Orycon.  My investment grew but no sales meant no money; I gained skill.

I made that first sale in late 1999, followed by a second and third in 2000 and 2001.  A fourth in 2002.  All the while continuing to invest in hitting local conventions, giving readings, being on panels, meeting people, making friends.  I spent far, far more than I made in payment, but what I gained in relationships and experience was priceless.  And the cash side of it stayed pretty much the same until Writers of the Future.  After that, better paying markets started buying my work.  In 2006, I wrote my first novel on a dare, riddled with anxiety and convinced it was The Worst Novel Ever (TM).  And in 2008, I signed my contract with Tor for all five volumes of the Psalms of Isaak.  The writing provides pretty regular income now as long as I’m producing and these days, I write far fewer short stories but when I do, they’ve nearly always been asked for by an editor.  But I absolutely still need a dayjob and I’ve invested myself in my writing career for fifteen pretty solid years.  I have no idea when I won’t need that dayjob.

This isn’t a complaint whatsoever.  And money can be made by writing.  But the love has to come first because that’s what keeps you at it before you’re seeing much return on your investment.

END DIGRESSION MUSIC

So if you enjoy short stories, write short stories.  Invest the time and energy — the practice — to get good at them.  And if you don’t really know, you might tackle both.  Spend half a year writing a novel and half a year writing six short stories…or a dozen if you can.  But for the next several weeks, let’s pretend that you’re going to write short stories for a while.

Here’s YOUR homework:  Post a question to comments that you’d like me to tackle.  Or if you’ve read any of my short fiction, post which story of mine you’d like me to dissect as we ease our way into how and why I do what I do when I’m writing a short story.

That’s all for now.  Trailer Boy out.

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Related posts:

1. Writing Short Stories for Fun and…What? (Part the Second)
2. Writing Short Stories for Fun and…How? (Part the Third)
3. Writing Short Stories for Fun and…How? (Part the Seventh)