Are Short Stories Worthwhile for Novelists?

By R.M. Archer

You’re a novelist. You thrive on long storylines and large casts… or maybe your word counts just have a tendency to get out-of-hand and you write long stories no matter how hard you try.

But you’ve seen your author friends share short stories, or you’ve seen short story contests crop up, or maybe you’ve just been watching this month’s Kingdom Pen posts and you’re intrigued.

Whatever the case, you’re thinking you might want to try out this whole “short story” thing.

But is it worth it?

After all, won’t these small projects take time and energy from your novels?

Will short stories really benefit your pursuits, maybe even your career, as a novelist?

Yes. In fact, there are several ways that short stories can support your novel-writing endeavors.

Short Stories are Great for Practice

Is there a particular writing skill you want to practice? Maybe you want to strengthen your themes, or you know you write too much dialogue and you want to learn to balance it out, or you struggle to get into a character voice.

Short stories are perfect for practicing

First, they don’t take a whole lot of commitment. It’s a lot quicker and easier to write ten pages of a short story than to write a full-length novel, and there’s a lot less to lose if it ends up not working.

Secondly, short stories require brevity. Because short stories force you to put as much meaning as possible into each element and each word, they’re perfect for honing in on a particular writing skill.

Short stories help you learn how to make every word count. You can make those words count toward your theme, toward an emotion, toward character voice, toward setting… Whatever it is you want to practice, short stories allow you to focus every word toward that goal.

Some of my favorite short stories, of those I’ve written, have been short stories with a goal in mind. Stories in which I was exploring a particular setting, or using as little dialogue as possible, or seeking to emulate a more classic writing style.

Goals strengthen a story, and in short stories those goals are honed to a fine point.

Short Stories Give Your Brain a Break

I know you love that novel. I know it means a lot to you.

And that is why you need to take breaks from it.

In order to do your best work, you have to keep from burning out. You need rest. And sometimes short stories provide a great mental break from a long, time-consuming novel.

Short stories allow you to jump into a different story, maybe even a completely different genre, and shift your mental focus to something new. They allow you to take your creativity in a different direction. Sometimes that’s just a helpful break; sometimes it might even get you thinking differently about your primary project!

If you’ve been working on the same novel for ages and it’s starting to feel old, a short story might be just the jumpstart you need to get it moving again. Maybe you’re growing bored with your setting, but as you write this short story you find you really enjoy the atmosphere of a sci-fi café in space and that sense of community is just what your novel is missing.

Beyond creativity, short stories also serve to provide a bit of “instant” gratification. If you’ve been toiling away at a novel for months on end and it’s still not done, it’s incredibly satisfying just to be able to say you’ve finished something.

Since you can write a short story in as little as a day, it’s easy to remind yourself you can finish a story and you will eventually finish the novel you’re working on.

Short Stories Allow You to Explore

Let’s say all of your novels are fantasy, but you want to try your hand at horror. Or you write a lot of contemporary and you want to dip your toes into sci-fi.

Short stories are an easy way to try out a new genre and find out if you like it. If you start writing a space opera short story and find out that writing stories set in space is really not your thing, you’ve only lost a couple thousand words and a few hours.

Or, on the flip side, maybe you find out you love writing about distant planets and now you want to develop a whole planetary system to write about. Now you already have a full short story to serve as a launching point!

Maybe it’s not a whole genre shift. Maybe you just want to try out a new character type you’re not sure if you’ll like, or you’re considering a setting to add to your novel and you’re not sure if it will work, or you need to figure out the backstory of a particular side character.

Short stories are great for exploring any new concept you want to try. They’re quick, low-risk, and packed with potential.

Short Stories Can Inspire Novels

Let’s say you take the dive. You set aside your novel, or you decide a short story will be the perfect project between drafts, and you write a short story.

And you love it.

And the characters and the world hint at so much more beyond these few thousand words.

And suddenly you have an entire novel concept.

If you’re in the middle of a novel draft, this might be something of a challenge—you’ll have to learn how to care for this new plot bunny without derailing your current project—but whether you’re in a position to work on this new project now or not, you’ll have a new concept to explore later.

Short Stories Can Expand Your Worlds

Short stories not only strengthen your writing skills and give you whole new ideas for your novels, but they can also expand the world and story of your current novel.

When you’re starting out, this will likely be for your benefit alone. Maybe you write a short story to learn a side character’s backstory, or to figure out the history of the city in which your novel takes place, or to try out a new setting.

As you progress and look toward publishing, short stories can get readers interested in your novels—or provide them with bonus content if they’re already fans. An origin short story might raise hype for your upcoming superhero story, or a sequel short might give your readers an exciting peek at what your characters get up to after your novel ends.

 Short Stories Can Get You Started

If you’re seeking publication for your novels, having published short stories can be an asset.

As a self-published author, short stories published on websites or in magazines can give you more credibility with readers when your first novel comes out. Or maybe you can publish your own short stories as a way to reach readers while your novel is still in the works.

If you’re looking to go the traditional route, the effect is much the same. Short stories published in magazines or websites will gain you an audience that you can show an agent and will give you more credibility both with them and with readers.

Short stories are a great marketing tool, as well as a great exercise and simply a fun pursuit.

So if you’re a novelist wondering whether short stories are worth it, the answer is “yes”! Whether you’re a beginning author wanting to experiment or an experienced author looking to market your novels, short stories are a powerful tool to have in your arsenal.

Which of these reasons most resonated with you?

What scares you most about trying short stories?