Shorts Stories vs Novels

I've decided to become a blogger. This time I'm going to commit. No more meaningless posts or sappy poems. I'll try to post at least a million times a week, maybe more when there's a holiday.

Topic of the evening- Short Stories vs Novels

For the longest time I've been a devout novelist. Writing a novel is rewarding, but man oh man does it consume your life! You spend months working on the 1st draft and when you finally finish, you stare at it and think "Holy mother of cow, I have so much editing to do!" You want people to read your book, but you're terrified they'll think it's a jumbled mess of overused adverbs, exclamation points, and that word "LOOK" that sneaks in to every paragraph.

So you spend countless hours editing, revising, expanding, condensing, then editing, revising, expanding, condensing, then editing, revising, expanding, condensing. You drink lots of lattes and stay up past your bedtime, debating whether to call out sick so you can work on the book tomorrow. (Note-I've only done that once and my throat was a little sore)

Sometimes you change the font of your book so it looks new and refreshing. Sometimes you print hard copies and edit with a pen, the old fashion way. Whatever it takes, the book must be perfect!

And then finally, people start to read your book. It's going to take them awhile to finish, but then again, if your book is truly amazing, your friends won't be able to put it down. They'll call out sick to finish it!

Then comes the constructive criticism. For the most part, I enjoy this part of the process. I get excited when people talk about my characters like they're real people. It makes me feel special, almost popular, like I'm important. Oh, high school.

5 more revisions later, you write the query letter. EVIL, EVIL, EVIL query letter that makes you want to kill somebody just thinking about how EVIL it is. How, how, how can I summarize my 80,000 word masterpiece into a paragraph?

Somehow you get the query done and polished and thus you begin to query agents. You choose the best agents first. Maybe query 1 a day for the first week. All rejections. Or, they don't reply. No big deal! I'll just query more. AND more. And more.

Then reality sinks in. A year has passed since your hands typed the first sentence of the novel that was supposed to change your life. When you wrote it, you imagined your book being read by people all across the world. You chose the actors and actresses that would play your characters when your book became a movie. You fantasized quitting your day job and working as a full time author with a dog and an apartment you could afford on your own.

But that book you slaved over has gotten you nowhere. Sure, you've gotten praise from the 6 or 7 people that took the time to read it, but you need an agent to praise your book and sign you a deal. You need to be published. But most importantly, you need to keep writing. Ideas are still spilling, like a leaky faucet that can't be fixed.

So what do you do?

You write another novel.

OR.

You write a short story.

Now, there's an idea! A short story! 2,000 to 10,000 words! WOW! That sounds much less time consuming than 80,000 words of possible shit! And think how easy it will be to edit! And think how many people will want to read it knowing how short it is! AND! (Drum roll please and I do apologize for the overuse of exclamation points in this blog) And...you don't need an agent to see your work published.

It's true. There are short story competitions and magazines looking for new works everywhere. The only downfall is you sometimes have to pay an entry fee, but it's never more than $20 and I've spent way more money on stamps, paper, and ink querying agents who never reply or reply with the standard "I'm sorry but this isn't for us."

If your short story is published, you get money. Wow! Money? I never thought in a million years someone would pay me for being creative. And, you have something impressive to put in your query the next time you write a novel.

So, this is my dilemma. I've written 5 novels since graduating from college. On average, that's 2.5 novels a year. 5 novels X 80,000-word average = 400,000 words of unpublished material lounging in my C drive. I have another novel in the works, not even 10,000 words left to write, but I don't know if I have the drive to finish it, let alone deal with the editing process. I'm thinking I ought to just move on to another novel. I have plenty of ideas.

Ideas that can be shrunken down to suit a short story.

What are your thoughts? (I realize now I'm talking to two people. I need to find more people to read my blog.)

Short stories or novels?