Eneh Akpan Writes: Short Story: Best Route to Mastery of Fiction

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Short Story: Best Route to Mastery of Fiction

‘Young writers shouldn’t kid themselves about learning to write. The best way to do that is to train yourself in the short story.’

– Ray Bradbury

Writing stories is the same as trying to create a universe off-the-cuff. The game of fiction writing can be a trifle seedy sometimes. What’s more? Plenty of times, a writer gets stuck in a work with a goodish length, loses the rhythm that set the story in motion in the first place and then quits, altogether.

Here’s a tip, if you’re new to fiction writing, the short story would be a good place to start. The reason is simple enough: a novel requires more energy and skill, more commitment and time. But a short story can help you get a taste of story structure.

A novel is a series of short stories lumped together to create a bigger piece of literature. Many things happen in a novel–many lives erupt and must settle into a rich and meaningful stew by the time the script arrives at the resolution. Only a writer drilled in the tool of fiction can achieve such feat.

‘A novel is like running a marathon. Would you run a marathon if you’d never successfully run around the block?’

– Steven Barnes

Nevertheless, the basic concept of story remains the same for both forms of fiction. Description, narrative, dialogue, character development and other intrinsic aspects of plot, which are curtailed in short fiction become magnified and refined in a longer project like a novel.

Photo credit: Flickr

You can better teach yourself the art and craft of story while experimenting with plot, dialogue, theme and character development if you exercise with the short fiction.

Without a foretaste of the shorts, you might very well quit half way through your novel manuscript. In point of fact, starting with a novel might be an excuse to avoid writing anything to completion.

You’ll learn greatly if you stick with short stories. Going for lengthy jobs like novels might mean setting yourself up for disappointments–you may come to despise fiction as a whole.

Save yourself the time and the trouble.

Keep your pen bleeding.

Akpan