: 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

@Alves689

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I often think of different forms of writing as a continuum along a line of compression. In non-fiction you may have a book-length treatment being the least compressed, an article somewhat more so, etc. In fiction a novel is the least compressed, then a novella, then a short story, then a "short short" such as the 50 word challenge pieces. Those shortest pieces often verge on poetry, layering many meanings and significances into individual words and phrases to get the full message across.

In my experience the biggest and most important skill for a novelist who wants to write a successful short story is to be able to compress your story. Your expression needs to be more compact. You have less time to sketch your characters and make me, the reader, care about them. You may have fewer characters to work with. You have less space for conflict. Your climax typically comes relatively later in the work and your denouement is shorter. Your pacing is often faster, ratcheting up the conflict faster than in a novel but not so fast as to leave the reader feeling frantic.

The world of a short story may be smaller than the world of a novel, but it should be even more richly layered with meaning. That's what makes short stories so wonderful to read.

For great examples, get a few years worth of Best American Short Stories. Not only will you learn from what was deemed by an esteemed author to be the best short stories of each year, you'll have a lot of fun reading some great fiction.

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