Getting in and Getting out of Short Stories

One of my greatest pleasures is writing short stories. There is no better outlet to practice the art of novel writing outside of writing and reading novels. In the last month or so I've penned 3 short stories and I'm about to complete the fourth. One was bought and paid for by The Horror Zine, and the others will be published in Creepy 2 and Creepy 3. But so what. That's not why I write short stories.

Among other training methods, writing shorts is one of the tools I use to improve my craft in characterization, pacing and dialogue. I'm not under pressure to create complex plot structures, or twists and turns, or sub plots. I do include those, although on a less significant basis. I use short stories as a self-coaching mechanism, but I have discovered that I really love reading as well as writing the "get-in and get-out" that only comes in condensed fiction.

If you've been slaving away at writing novels and would like to try a quick, gratifying exercise, try writing a 4,000 to 5,000 word short story -- no plot outline, just the idea -- and see what happens. I've been doing this for a month now and I'm excited to put some of the lessons I've learned into practice when I get back on my WIP, book two in the Twisted series.

Here are a few benefits of this practice:

• Dialogue - I've worked hard on matching dialogue with each character, insuring that each voice is unique, real, and bent to create atmosphere, flavor, and texture. It's easy to write in a monotone voice when my characters words are spread out over the course of 70 to 80,000 words, but writing short fiction is training me to improve my vernacular skills in my novels.

• Concept Trial - Another thing I've noticed is that when I brainstorm for short story ideas, I'm actually creating concepts that will work for novels as well. This has been an accidental result, but one that I think will pan out over the long haul. Of the four short stories that I've written in the last few weeks, each one could be developed further into a novel length plot. What's great about this is, if my shorts approve to be appealing to my readers, I will already have an audience that could be looking forward to "the rest of the story".  

• Characterization - Characterization is more than just dialogue. Creating varied personalities that respond differently, think differently, move differently and look differently is the fun part of writing. And although I have less time to develop characters in short stories, I am forced to bolster their differences in a short span of time. It ain't hard to show yee har much I ain't one a dem city slickers by de way I tawk. But then again, I want my characters, all of them, to speak to my readers and to stand out as unique and rounded people and dar ain't much time ta do it in a shart stary. And that's why it's a great method for study. 

I hope you choose to follow up on this post by reading Creepy 2 coming in August. If you'd like to read an excerpt, go HERE. This collection is an amazing mix of true ghost stories and several short stories by me and other excellent authors -- over double the content that's in Creepy. You'll enjoy short, satisfying thrills and the suspense of some really creepy ghost and supernatural encounters.

Jeff Bennington @TweetTheBook is the best-selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance, and The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe.