Not long ago, I announced that one of my short stories—“Hemogoblin” was to be published in the winter 2021 Issue of Sirens Call, a “Dark Fiction and Horror Ezine.” I was also thrilled to be included in the anthology Asinine Assassins, which includes my story “Dumbass.” For these two successful submissions, I was paid the total of $20.00 (for “Dumbass.”) Given the effort that writing these two short stories took, you might ask is publishing short stories worth it?
Why Write Short Stories at All?
Before answering the question is publishing short stories work it, I’d like to go back to why we write short stories in the first place. In my case, I write one novel a year, using the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) format, though seldom in November. This means I crank pretty hard during 30 or so days, writing between 70,000 and 75,000 words, then take a break. But beyond the editing and re-writing process for my novels, that still leaves many months where I have a hankering to write, but not a full-length novel. Short stories fill that need well. And I’m not the only writer who feels that need.
Hannah Kowalczyk-Harper of Writing Cooperative provides her 6 reasons to write short stories (though only includes 5 in her article). She focused on the fact that short stories are easily shareable and that short stories highlight what’s really important. That’s true. Developing a story with a beginning, middle and end in only 1,000 words isn’t easy, and really stretches a writer’s “muscle.” And that exercise carries over into our other writing as well.
Skill Development
Caleb Stephens offered advice as he reflected on eighteen months of submitting short stories for publication. He insists that writing and submitting short stories for publication “ups” the writer’s game.
“Listen, if you only wrote one short story per month, you would have twelve different works in a year. That’s twelve opportunities for publication. Twelve opportunities for feedback from your critique group/writing partner/writing coach/loving spouse/whatever. Twelve opportunities to figure out if you write better in first-person, present-tense or first-person past-tense. Maybe it’s third person. Maybe it’s second. Who knows? But you’ll have time to figure it out. Oh, and don’t forget about all the improvement going into your plotting, dialogue, prose, pacing and character development skills.”
These benefits had little to do with economics, but much more with improving the quality of Stephen’s writing. So, skill development is Stephens’ answer to is publishing short stories worth it?
An additional benefit of writing short stories is sharpening a particular technique or specific writing skill. That’s what I did in 2018 when I took on the 2018 short story challenge. I worked on several skills I wanted to develop, including writing more succinctly, and stretching myself to write outside my primary genres. Kelly Lindberg of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers agrees. Beyond working on new skills, she also offered that being shorter, these stories can be submitted for publication more frequently. This can result in a publishing credit, which matters whether it’s for a novel or a short story. She also says that writing short stories help writers to “focus on focusing.” This allows writers to focus on specific areas for development, such as point or view, scene building or character development without having to do it for 60,000 words.
Short Stories Matter
Holly Lyn Walrath shared her reasons for writing short stories, perhaps the most important being that short stories may be our “voice.” I attended an author webinar a few months ago, and one of the authors described himself as a “short story writer.” He found that he could best express his voice in the short story format. Walrath also reminds us of some of the giants of American literature who also wrote stories, such as Shirley Jackson of “The Lottery” fame, Isaac Asimov and Ursula K. Le Guin. Who could deny that their short stories, in addition to those of authors like Flannery O’Connor have had a significant impact on the writing landscape?
Even Rejection Matters
While we as authors don’t like rejection more than anyone else, Stephens embraces it. Rejection encourages us to try a new approach, whether it be with cover letters, pitches or their general approach. Rejection may also help us refine what we really want to write. Stephens realized that he didn’t want to write in the literary genre, and learning that has eliminated a lot of potential heartache.
As I write this, I’ve submitted stories for two different anthologies, both of which I wrote especially for the anthologies. But whether these stories are accepted or rejected, I’m going to focus on the positive and the benefit of these short gems. I mean if giants like Shirley Jackson and Isaac Asimov did it, why shouldn’t I? And why shouldn’t you? If you’re game, check out these writing opportunities from Writing Cooperative. Now if someone asks is publishing short stories worth it, you’ll have the answer!
