Why I write both short and long fiction
Hello, readers! If you’ve subscribed to my newsletter pre-launch you probably already know at least a little bit about me, like that I write SFF and some horror, with a major focus on fantasy. You might’ve read some of my work (thank you!) and if so, it’s most likely the short fiction because that’s what’s published. (Or you’re my mentor or a member of my writing group—hello, all!—and have therefore been subjected to the longform work; thanks sincerely for reading that too and helping me make it suck less!)
So a subset of newsletter readers knows I write both short and long fiction. But do you know why?
This newsletter attempts to answer that burning question.
1. Diversification
Be a writer, or any sort of creative, long enough and you’ll hear that the key to having a healthy, stable career is diversification. If you’re not selling in one area, you can sell in another. If the SF not’s going so well, switch to fantasy. If the game writing’s stalled out, try screenwriting. Multiple income streams means that if one dries out, you have others to fall back on.
That, however, is for well-established writers. My current reality: I now have the chance to be rejected in both short fiction and novels! If the fantasy novel is rejected, just wait! The SF story might be, too! Oh, the fantasy short has clocked seven rejections so far? Well buck up buttercup, the novel’s at nine and can expect dozens more if it’s queried as widely as recommended!
The diversity of rejections in my inbox is truly stunning and gives me multiple avenues to experience despair.
2. Stave off boredom
Brains crave novelty. Check with any parent whose toddler has insisted on playing “Baby Shark” for the gajillionth time and you’ll know this is true. Switching between multiple projects gives me the opportunity to feel the same sorts of thrills I could get from, say, doing indoor skydiving or going spelunking for the first time: the whiplash of a body formerly in stasis being suddenly thrust into an entirely new environment.
In other words, it is dang hard to go from “tra la la, I have up to 120k words to play with because it’s fantasy!” to “If I make this scene 1500 words I’ve used up almost half my story length.”
3. Creativity begets creativity
Creativity is a muscle, so it’s said, and the more you work at fostering and fomenting creativity, the easier it comes. Continually practice finding inspiration in the world around you, in the media you consume, in the people you engage with, and the ideas will erupt like a geyser.
Okay, this used to be true. Then I had a kid and the pandemic happened nine months later and now coming up with ideas and executing them is like gouging my fingernails into rocks and expecting I’ll carve the next David. It might work, but it’ll take a long, long while.
However, since I know the idea-geyser can exist I’m optimistic that it will again one day.
4. I like them both
Yeah, this part is just true. Every time I think I want to focus on only the next novel or only short fiction I get the other calling at me to poke at it just a little more for a few minutes, an hour, days. I love the immersion of a novel; I love the quicker hits and impact of shorts. I can’t quit either one, so I’ll keep working to reattain that halcyon state alluded to in item 3.
That’s it for now! My next newsletter will be a “behind the story” feature of my story “The Blooms of Sorrow,” coming up at FIYAH October 1. I hope you’ll check it out!
-Amanda