Who reads short fiction? Is it easier or harder to write?
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Re: Who reads short fiction? Is it easier or harder to write
- MaiaCer
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I just love to read and write. I am most happy with a book or a blank computer screen I can feel with words that paint images for me.
I have sallied forth into the realm of flash fiction, and I am enjoying the challenge. But I think I love the novel more. I love living in the world of the book for the month or more it takes me to write it.
- EPark
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I think this is exactly why I find short stories so much harder than a full novel to write, my brain just doesn't want to condense in the way one must to make a coherent story from start to finish in such a brief format. I admire those who can make that story come to life so quickly, not an easy feat.Fran wrote:I disagree ... a really good short story can give you an entire character & set of circumstances. In the best short stories every word counts but there are no superfluous words and a single sentence can encompass an entire character or atmosphere. If the quality of the writing is good enought the pausity of detail is not as issue. I have read short stories where one word can give you the entire essence of a character and I have read novels that haven't achieved that in an entire paragraph.taylorhudson310 wrote:Short stories of course are amazing to read but due to the fact that they're short you can't get as much detail from them as you would from a long novel.
There is no margin of error in the short story that is why it is such a difficult genre to get right.
- pjswink
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- DarkestbeforeDawn
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I honestly think that short fiction is easier to write. The story and the plot aren't bogged down by descriptions and the readers aren't expecting them because they know that short fiction is supposed to be succinct. I like writing short fiction because it reminds me of a written form of The Twilight Zone, where characters are introduced and the story is underway and a unique idea is still expressed in a short amount of time.
- skizarefun09
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Happy reading and writing~
- jandsmommy2611+
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I try to read more short fiction lately (those past 3 years), because as you say, it is under-appreciated. As for wether it is easier or harder to write, I'd say harder. It seems much harder to find the right balance of story, development, characters, and lenght.
- Tsveti-Slava Asenova
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Short stories are maybe suitable for people with very dynamic lifestyle and because of that most people think they are easy to read, in my opinion this depends on the story itself. There's a books that don't drawn the reader in their world but there's sentences from 6 words that can make you cry or motivate.
Writing is both easy and hard, depends on the author and his skills. It's easy on one hand because it can take less time to create less protagonist and backstory than for a novel and to be written but is also hard due to the fact the good short story should be full and completely developed idea with all needed to the reader to feel the flames in the burning building where the protagonist is , for example.
- DATo
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The Twist EndingFNAWrite wrote:"Short Fiction would be harder to write as you need to include an unexpected twist at the end"
Sez who?
I agree. A twist is not a necessary component of a short story, but it seems to add a dimension to a short story that works better than a twist at the end of a novel - at least in my opinion.
Let me put it this way: a short story is like an antipasto or an hors d'oeuvre. It is a small but tasty meal in itself. A novel is more of a full dinner. The novelist has a lot of real estate upon which to build and, employing the previous analogy, the end result of a good dinner is the complementary manner in which all of the courses arrive at confluence.
The short story, in contrast, is a lone statement, and much like a tasty hors d'oeuvre for it to succeed its sole flavor must pack a punch. The twist is what one may call a special seasoning which adds that punch and if properly employed concentrates the satisfaction of the reader immediately.
All of my own short stories contain twists. For me that is the fun of writing a short story. My latest story, Moment Of Truth, (you can read it here in the short story section if you want to) was a particularly difficult piece to write but I think it succeeded. In this piece I had to constantly put myself into the shoes of the reader at each phase of the story and ask myself if the conclusion I was building toward was being properly paced, made sense, and was not in contradiction to what had been previously written.
As Fran mentioned in one of the other posts, a well written short story can be just as difficult to write as an entire novel. In the case of a short story with a twist the writer must pursue the challenge with the same dedication as writing a crossword puzzle - all of the pieces must fit perfectly for the twist to succeed.
― Steven Wright
- Kiarrapreston
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- victoria48
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I find that a well written one puts you through emotiions on a quicker pace,like a quick fix.
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