Short Fiction: An Easy Way to Start Writing

Have you always wanted to write a novel? Do you feel that you wouldn’t be able to stick with it all the way to the end? This is a common problem with aspiring writers, but it is easily cured. Short fiction is just as valid a way to express your writing, and it is much easier to tackle a short story than it is to start a full-length novel. Many short stories end up turning in to novels, so you should look at it as a place to start. You may also get your short story published in a magazine. So if you feel that a novel is too large, start a short story. You may find it is exactly what you needed to jumpstart your writing.

Short stories can be of varying lengths, since the word short is fairly vague. There is a whole brand of storytelling that is told in the form of 6-word sentences. 6 words, and there’s the end. This is only for those who really take their short fiction seriously, and don’t settle for anything that isn’t completely and utterly short. This won’t be necessary for you, but you should still try to keep your short fiction at a minimal length that will keep the readers interested while giving you plenty of time to say everything you want to say.

Short fiction has a slightly different structure than longer fiction, due to the constraints on word count. Instead of having all the time in the world to lead up to the climax of the book, in a work of short fiction you will have to focus on getting to the climax as soon as possible, and explaining the background as the climax occurs. It will get the readers hooked right away, and allow you to interject the story line at your own leisure through the rest of the book. It is a great plot device used by most short fiction writers, and will certainly come in useful for you.

Once you have gotten started on a short fiction work, you will find that it may be hard to keep the length to a moderate size. You will want to include so much background and so much detail that it might become slightly impractical to really call it a short story. If this is the case, you should consider graduating your short fiction into a novel.