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Long story to short.

edited September 2010 in - Writing Problems
Hi everyone I would like your advice because I am trying to write a novel in which there are numerous short ones attached to it via the minor chaarcters. Also on ideas on how to write short stories would be useful I am trying hard except my main characters don't seem to go anywhere. phil.

Comments

  • If you use the search facility on Talkback, key in short stories, you may find several other threads on how to write them all ready exist phil.
  • I have to say the book sounds too ambitious, Phil. Readers prefer either short stories or a book, not both. Do you really want to tell it this way?
  • I agree with Dorothy. With the novel I'm working on that is taken from a series I wrote last year, I found that to make a novel out of a series of shorts you really do have to strip everything down and then build it up again. It's a proper arse-ache but'll be worth it so that no chapter sounds like it could be a stand-alone story. It needs the fluidity and be seamless. I'd put it to one side for a couple of weeks and then sit down and re-read it with a fresh eye, bet you come up with ideas of how to make it work.
  • [quote=magic15]my main characters don't seem to go anywhere[/quote]

    This sounds like the main problem to me. What genre is it? What problem/conflict are the main characters trying to (re)solve? Do you have a beginning and an ending? If you haven't worked these things out, then see if you can. If you can't, then maybe you'd better let your minor characters lead, and write several short stories. Of course, the same questions apply to short stories!

    For ideas on how to write short stories, why not look at a collection/an anthology by an author/authors in your preferred genre, and see how he/she/they manage(s) it.

    Best of luck!
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