Mindset

I write both short stories and novels.  This is not unusual for a writer because different ideas play themselves out at different lengths.  Indeed, the division is artificial.  Edgar Allan Poe famously opined that a short story should be unified by mood and short enough to read in one sitting.

A novel is a long-term commitment.  Or at least an affair that lasts more than a one-night stand.  Your characters have time to get to know one another “on screen” and the tale might get very complicated.

It is difficult to come off of a novel into a short story, I find.  Going the other way around isn’t nearly so much of a let-down.  A story, after all, may develop into a novel.  Few novels can exist in the few words allotted to the short story.

I’ve been working on my Medusa novel.  I’m about to start sending more letters of inquiry, and I’ve pretty much finished with the current round of polishing.  During my daily writing time, I turn back to stories I haven’t finished.  My mind is stuck in novel mode.

The problem with being a novelist is that it takes months, or years, to finish such a long work when you’ve got a demanding day job and long commute.  Short stories can wrap themselves up in a couple days, or a week.  You move on.

I used to try to keep an inventory of my short stories.  There are too many to do so.  I have finished maybe fifty or so, fifteen of them published in some form or other.  Beyond that I have at least twice that number in progress at any given time.  I’ve written millions of fiction words.

Now I just want to concentrate on novels.  Problem is, if you don’t publish your stories, nobody will be interested in your longer work.  And it is all a matter of getting in the correct frame of mind.  At four in the morning, that’s not always easy.  But it’s what I do.  I write.