I am really excited about this month’s theme. But Nicole, you’re excited about every month’s theme. That’s true, but this week is especially great, because I get to talk about short fiction.
That’s right, short fiction, what I consider one of the most important things in the writing community. You should be writing short fiction at every stage of your career.
When you’re first starting out, you write short fiction for a lot of reasons. You do it to practice, because nothing is better practice than writing a whole lot of short stories. You do it to start getting publishing credits, because it’s easier to sell your short fiction without an agent than it is a novel. You do it to build up momentum, because writing a fifteen page piece is a lot less daunting than a whole damn novel. You do it because it’s fun.
When your career is starting, and you’re working on novels, you do it because it’s a palate cleanser after writing a longer piece. You do it to keep building your name, because one or two novels is not going to make you much of a fan base. You do it because you’re going to have days when you are sick to death of your main character. You do it because maybe you’ve always written Historical Fantasy, and now you want to try Science Fiction. You do it because you want to experiment with a new pov. You do it to be experimental. You do it if there’s a character that you like, but you don’t really know if you want to devote a whole book to. You do it because it’s still fun. You do it because it’s still something new.
If a novel is a landscape of a mountain, a short story is a snapshot in a coffee shop.
All month long, we’ll be taking an in depth look at what a short story is, and how you can use it to make you a better, and better known, writer.
What do you think about short fiction? Let us know, in the comments below
February
Paper Beats World 
Leave a Reply