Top 10 reasons why you should write 25 short stories before you write a novel

Ed Hoch passed away on January 17th at the age of 77. For those who don’t recognize his name, Ed was one of the pre-eminent short story writers of all time. He wrote close to 1,000 short stories, most of them in the puzzle mystery genre. For over 35 years, he had at least one story in every issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. He was certainly one of only a handful of authors in recent years able to make a living strictly by selling short stories. Those who knew him found him to be a very kind, likable man. Having spoken to him briefly and seen him on panels at mystery conventions, I would add that he was quite informative as well.

I speak to a lot of aspiring writers, and I find that a majority of them want to write a novel (or are already writing one). In Ed’s honor, I thought I’d list my top ten reasons why short stories are a better choice - especially for a new writer.

10. Writing a novel can take a year or more. A short story can be written in a short time - a month, a week, maybe even a day. You can write a lot of short stories in the time it would take to write a novel.

9. The most important part of any great novel or short story is the characters. When you write a novel, you’re stuck a long, long time with a few characters. You may find you don’t like them. Or you may find they don’t work well for you. If you write short stories, you can invent new characters for every story. You can try a lot of different kinds of people. Or aliens, animals, even rocks that talk…

8. Every story and every novel need great openings. When you write a novel, you get one opening. You might end up rewriting your opening fifty times, and then throw it out in the end. When you write short stories, you can try a variety of different kinds of openings and see what you like and don’t like.

7. When you write a novel, you get one plot-line. If it doesn’t work, too bad. When you write a number of short stories, you can try a variety of different genres, different kinds of plots, and different resolutions.

6. If a short story isn’t working, you can just toss it into the trash without feeling you’ve wasted too much time and energy. If a novel isn’t working, it’s a lot of investment to throw away.

5. A short story can later grow into a novel if you find you really like the characters and see that the plot could grow. You might even use the original short story as a scene or chapter in your book.

5. Most people write to say something they feel is of importance, whether it’s about their faith, saving the environment, or encouraging everyone to practice safe sex. Because new writers often don’t know how to send a message without having it take over, some novels become very little more than propaganda. Writing a number of short stories, each with a tiny aspect of your message, will not only help you learn how to include a message in an acceptable way, but also help you find markets for your work and readers with similar interests.

4. Some people are natural short story writers. They have tons of ideas, like to work quickly and finish things up, and don’t have the patience to spend a lot of time on one thing. You can read what Ed said about why he wrote short stories here. On the flip side, some novels are really short stories with a whole lot of unnecessary padding. Better to learn how to trim and streamline than how to add unnecessary verbiage.

3. Unless you’re really, really famous, more people will read a short story in a magazine or on an internet site than will ever read your novel.

2. Writing a novel before you’ve written some short stories is like marrying the first person you date. Usually, it’s better to meet a few people before you make a commitment. Writing a number of short stories in a variety of genres will help you hone in on both what you enjoy and what you write best.

1. It’s possible to spend a great deal of time and energy writing a novel without learning a great deal about the craft of writing. Time and effort alone don’t equate with gaining skill.