tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post5683490246162945909..comments2024-03-22T03:59:39.188-07:00Comments on Dive into Worldbuilding: Short Stories vs. Novels - "natural length" and the fractal structure of storiesJuliette Wadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post-22996964657620228942011-04-14T11:42:57.968-07:002011-04-14T11:42:57.968-07:00Stuart, thanks for your comment. I think the probl...Stuart, thanks for your comment. I think the problem with expansion isn't so much length as the larger-level structure required.Juliette Wadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post-38256955227183589222011-04-13T21:18:54.127-07:002011-04-13T21:18:54.127-07:00danbracewell, I'm not sure what you mean by tr...danbracewell, I'm not sure what you mean by trap. I originally attempted short stories thinking they would be my entry into the market (and they were/are), but I've found they've taught me a lot that I can apply to my novels. I don't consider that a trap at all, and now I enjoy writing them just because I enjoy writing them!Juliette Wadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post-78759509411013566802011-04-13T18:57:46.969-07:002011-04-13T18:57:46.969-07:00I tend towards short novels/novella lengths as wel...I tend towards short novels/novella lengths as well. I've written some short stories, but it is always hard for me to do. I've thought about turning a novel idea into a short story and vice versa, but it usually fizzles pretty fast. To be truthful, the only reason why I wrote short stories was so I could publish in magazines, get some name recognition and eventually move up to novels. I wonder if other people fall into this trap?danbracewellhttp://danbracewell.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post-55490553706311959032011-04-12T09:17:05.731-07:002011-04-12T09:17:05.731-07:00I think I'm definitely more of a novel writer ...I think I'm definitely more of a novel writer although I have tried my hand at short stories. I have a couple of ideas for shorts I want to have a crack at but I'm finding that one of them has too many ideas to be a short short and that it will probably end up being a novelette. It's like you said, I think it depends on the amount of ideas trying to be expressed. You can always condense down. It's not so easy to expand.Stuart Clarkhttp://www.stuartclark.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post-19816749854872544802011-04-11T13:57:24.506-07:002011-04-11T13:57:24.506-07:00I've never heard of this concept haha Guess I&...I've never heard of this concept haha Guess I've been living under my rock too long ;D The ideas come to me at their set length. I know which ones are for short stories and which ones for novels. I get more of the full stories than short stories. The very first time I tried to write a short story the idea was too much and it came out a novelette that I still need to finish. Practice made me better at short stories :)<br>http://writermeetslife.blogspot.com/M. G. Pereirahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16265137936350289579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post-33143699493729516592011-04-11T13:41:34.985-07:002011-04-11T13:41:34.985-07:00I just wrote a flash fiction piece for the first t...I just wrote a flash fiction piece for the first time; the brefity is really a shock! There is so much to fit in, every word counts. I found it helpful to establish an editing eye for the larger story I'm writing.Stephscohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06328839483008086049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post-84494280293408040632011-04-11T12:52:46.988-07:002011-04-11T12:52:46.988-07:00I do believe in natural length, but it's not a...I do believe in natural length, but it's not a matter of the author. Rather, the story you're telling has a natural length. Sometimes it takes experimentation to find it though. I have a number of short stories that when I looked them over I realized they were just long synopses in narrative form. That said, I have other stories that fall in the ghost length of 1500-2000 words (too long for flash too short for a short story), and pretty much every other length possible. The one hole in my lengths was novella, but I'm currently working on a story that fits nicely in the 20k-30k range (Exact numbers coming any day now :)). I wanted to write a novella for a call and looked at what story would fit there. Could I have dragged this story out a bit more? Maybe. Could I have brought it in shorter? Not really. It's a natural novella. Just as a good number of my short stories fall in the 5k-6k range but then there's the ones that like 8k-10k. I can write whatever length the story calls for now. Couldn't always though.Margaret M. Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00537558539259791284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post-60946079641885283972011-04-11T06:37:08.104-07:002011-04-11T06:37:08.104-07:00I think I'm more of a novel length writer. Not...I think I'm more of a novel length writer. Not that I can't write a short story, but when I get a plot idea, it generally doesn't fit short story length. (I've got 4 or 5 going right now.) My zombie story began as a short story for a forum challenge, but even from the beginning, the plot and premise didn't fit in the 3k max length of the challenge. And as I kept working on it, the plot developed new twists that kept adding to the length, though still keeping to the premise idea that spawned the whole thing. It just didn't want to be short. <br><br>However, my Red Riding Hood story will probably stay short because of its structure. It's just tabled for now because of the movie that came out recently. (Though my friends on the WD SF/F crit forum are encouraging me to go back to it anyway and never mind the movie.)Jaleh Dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04942272578488986874noreply@blogger.com