When does a Short Story become a Book?

And we're back for part two of the three-part miniseries The Styles I Write In. For part one check out Everyone's a Poet. The winter holidays I'm sure is keeping a lot of us busy, but for right now sit back and let's have a smooth conversation. The topic of the conversation is short stories! Short stories can be the length of a full page to multiple of pages.

Short stories are usually something that is known for entertaining children. But there are many short stories meant for older youth and adults. Like books, short stories come in many different genres and come in different lengths. But like their name suggests, short stories are a breeze to get through. If you're not big on reading books you should give short stories a try. You also can find different authors who write short stories.

I like short stories because of how easy you can get through them. That is not to say short stories lack depth in plot. Because of the length, the story is only focused on the plot and develops to the conclusion quickly. Short stories are not normally filled with a large cast of characters which means you don't have to remember a list of characters. When it gets down to it, I hate it when the plot doesn't get to the point. It feels like the author is stalling and padding the story to get a higher page count. With a short story, this doesn't happen.

I don't think I'm special when it comes to why I like writing short stories. But seeing this mini-series is about me here's my reason. I will get an idea for a story but when I start writing (with a pencil and paper) the story ends up shorter than what I originally thought it was going to be. It's when I'm typing up the story and adding more details that help it get longer. I haven't written a short story that's longer that 10 pages yet. The shortest short story I've written is at least three-fourths of a page. Which isn't that short since I have read a short story that was only half a page.

I feel, when you write a short story you have to know where it ends. Otherwise, you could possibly write yourself in a corner or drag out a section of the story for too long. Although it is hard to judge which sections of a story to extend and which to shorten. An easy choice for me is when it feels like I'm repeating myself. Because when you reread your work repeats of things that are written gets tiresome for you and possibly the reader.

Short story characters are usually simple. The reason for this is because of the length of the stories. An author can pour page after page on the characters. Whereas in a short story the writer has to pick which characters get developed. Even then the reader has to be able to understand the characters in a matter of sentences.

As for the plot of the short stories they can be about anything. You can count the prompts that I did as short stories themselves. I like to think that I'm pretty good at writing short stories. Like what I did with poetry, I write down whatever pops into my head. It's a habit that I'm getting out of. I now prefer to fully think out what I want to write so I won't have hundreds of ideas fighting for attention. I really enjoy feedback because it gives me another view on how my work affects others. Which is why I try to give small nudges to you my dear readers to leave comments. And yes I know that it is your choice but it can't hurt to ask.

To further explain this, the reason for your comments on my writing is for me to become a better writer. The time and effort I put into my projects are more meaningful when you Google+ a post of mine. Or when you leave a comment about how you enjoy a way I explained something. I read the comments that are left because you took the time to write them when you didn't have to. I feel that an author needs the feedback of the readers. So when I have short stories up on my blog, please give me feedback so I can be a better writer.

I do feel that this is a good place to end our conversation. I hope everyone is having a good December and that you all have been enjoying the mini series. Do come back for the third and final part which is called Novels and Book Series, I Want to do Both! This will be posted before the New Year! At least I hope so.