That is the question that Kaolin Fire (owner and editor of GUD magazine) tried to answer over at *Headdesk*‘s blog. He talked about novelists and the short fiction market, especially the big question. Should a novelist get their start in short story fiction before attempting a novel?
I think short stories can really showcase a writer’s talent (if they have any). But not everyone is cut out to be a short story writer. Don’t write them if you don’t love them. There are plenty of bad short stories out there and I don’t want to have to wade through them to get to the good stuff (I’m lazy like that). That being said, when you’re just starting out, competitions are a great option for writers and they are mostly in the short story format. What do you think?
I love short stories, and as someone getting back into writing after working as a photographer, and now as a mother to two young children, I love writing them. I manage to write during the half-hour distraction of Playschool; late at night; with one hand while breaking up squabbles with the other. A novel right now, with my enforced limited attention span feels like just too much of a monumental task. Short stories, I can tackle.