Why I Write Short Fiction

I know I’m not the only writer that has many characters and many stories floating around in my head at the same time. When I get an idea for a character, I will sit down and write them into a scene. It doesn’t have to be a book or even an idea for a book. I just plop them into a random circumstance and get to know them.

It’s the best way that I know to see what a character is made of. Sometimes that scene turns into a short story. In the case of Leslie Kim, I was inspired and I brainstormed this character with my husband. I wrote out a long list of attributes and story ideas. I knew I wanted him to be in a mystery.

The first scene that I wrote Leslie into was actually in modern day, in a mystery in New York City. It was brief and allowed me to explore. I really liked Leslie as a character and every time I sat down to write him, I could see him clearly in my mind. It was like watching an episode of TV. So, I decided to put him into episodic fiction.

I wanted to write a serial where he could appear in many different circumstances that didn’t have to be directly tied to each other. And I decided to write him in the future, so that I could create my own world. For me, he’s kind of like Sam and Dean from Supernatural. I watched that show for many years and the plot was more or less irrelevant. I really only care about how they responded to the plot. Episodic fiction gives me more freedom to do that with Leslie.

The short answer to why I write short fiction, is because it’s what comes most naturally to me. When I want to see if a character is worth keeping, I’m more likely to put them in a short story than I am to write an entire novel about them.

I enjoy writing poetry because it captures a moment in time. It might be an intense emotional moment that is pulled from the story and placed in it’s own world. That moment has to stand on its own without context or preparation. It can be powerful and interesting. It can be cringy and inaccurate. And that’s okay, because it just has to capture a singular moment that will connect to an audience.

Short fiction is also easier for a modern day consumer. There is so much content out there and most readers don’t have time to sit down for a 600 page story. Life moves fast in 2020, we want to get to the next story, explore the next world, and get to the point.

There is value in a slow story with a lot of details. And there are some books that take a little bit of work that just aren’t for everyone. I enjoy heavy fiction and reading large fantasy novels, but I don’t always have time for it. So, short fiction can fill the gap for a reader that just wants something to entertain them without making them work for the pay off.

From an indie author perspective, it’s also faster to write and edit a novella than a full length novel. It is also cheaper to pay for an editor to work on it.

There are also some negatives to writing short fiction. you can’t sell a short book for as much as you would a full length novel. Short fiction doesn’t serve every story well. I think it would be much harder to make it work for fantasy, for instance. And mostly, there are a lot of readers that won’t touch short fiction. They want to invest in a story and they don’t necessarily trust a writer to be able to tell a full story if it’s short.

In Leslie Kim, I was careful to bring resolution to the main mystery in the book. I also have an over arching story line that will encompass the entire series, so I am able to use that as the lead in to the next story without leaving a reader feeling ripped off.

Finally, I enjoy reading short fiction. I love reading short stories by Flannery O’Connor and Ernest Hemingway. Often times, I am able to read and reread those short stories and learn from them. I like being able to read three or four stories in the time it would take me to finish a novel. It can be difficult, as a reader, to find satisfying novellas. So, part of me wants to fix that as a writer.

You can find my novella, Mythically Investigations, on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. The second book in that serial is going to release on November 20! You can pre-order it now.