: Re: Do I need to know anything to write a short story that I wouldn't know by studying how to write novels? For a long time now, I've been reading books on how to get the first draft of a

@Radia543

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I wouldn't say you need to know anything new, but I think you need to know a new side of the old stuff.

Writing short stories is a distinct skill: there are people who are masters at it, and people who are much better with more space. A Gabe says, the basic elements of fiction are the same whether the work is long or short, but the way you use these elements is quite different. Short stories rarely have subplots. They rarely stray from the standard Climax, Rising Action, Climax, Denouement structure. They rarely give much attention to secondary characters. They rarely switch POV. They rarely give a whole lot of back story. The conventional wisdom is that writers have to make every word count even when writing longer fiction; this wisdom is even more important in a short story.

So it's not a whole new skill set, but don't assume that everything you learn from writing short stories will carry over to writing novels, and don't assume everything you've learned about writing novels will be useful when you're writing short stories.

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