"When you get an idea, how do you know if it's a short story idea or a novel idea?"
I loved the answers to this question over at the Odyssey Workshop blog http://odysseyworkshop.livejournal.com/37874.html
Of course, I never have a problem with that! Every idea is a short story. :) How would you answer that question?
Over at Criminal Brief this morning, James Lincoln Warren writes about short story structure. There's also a link there to a podcast if you'd care to have a listen. http://criminalbrief.com/?p=13576
Jason Sandford answered a high school student's questions about Literary vs Genre over on his blog. http://www.jasonsanford.com/jason/2010/08/a-few-words-for-high-school-students-on-genre-and-literary-fiction.html Be sure to click on the links in the comments for more about this topic, especially the link to Hal Duncan's blog post where he answers the same questions. I especially enjoyed the comment by C. Nicholas Carlson who suggests that the pulp magazines were the basic reason for the division. Oh, I can't resist, here's the link http://notesfromthegeekshow.blogspot.com/2010/08/literarygenre-questions.html
4 comments:
All ideas are short stories. When I'm thinking about the novel, I sort through ideas until I find one I think I can sustain the length of a novel. This includes consideration of subplots and Bo's personal life.
I usually have an idea of the length of the story before I put the first words on the page. Otherwise, how would I know what details to include and what to leave out?
It's the subplots that always throw me, Clair. I see a straight forward story and I don't want to wander sideways just to have a novel. I love the old mystery novels that came in around 150 pages because they told a story without a lot of side stories going on, so when you got to the end, it was done and everything wrapped up nice and neat.
For me, since I started with short stories, then moved on to novels, then back and forth, I struggle sometimes with which is which. Then I take a deep breath and ask my heart if there's enough "story" for a novel.
Yes, that's the perfect question, Conda! When I think a story should be longer, my brain comes up with all these convoluted ideas that just make a mess of the basic story. At that point, everything falls apart and I have to put the story aside until I can look at it with fresh eyes and see where it needs to go.
Post a Comment