My usual
advice to beginners is not to strike out for the Great American (or
British) novel but instead to concentrate for a considerable time, maybe
as much as a year, writing short stories and doing exercises. I’d like
to try and carefully outline why I think this is a solid and justifiable
ideal.
Beginning Writing — Short Stories vs. The Novel
Writing short stories allows the writer to experiment and find
himself. Beginners very rarely have their natural voice when they begin
writing. By learning about themselves, through writing many separate
pieces, they find those styles, points-of-view, viewpoints, and language
that are more natural to them. Commonly, beginners try to write like
those authors they admire or authors who have written books similar to
the kind they hope to write. Often this style may not be the one best
suited to the particular writer. It is also common to see beginners
change styles WITHIN books.
Burn Off the Autobiographical Urge
A common failing with beginning writers is that they write too close
to themselves, producing autobiographical or near-autobiographical work.
Though some great autobiographical novels have been written, most
creative writing teachers are well aware
that the autobiographical urge needs to be spent before the beginner
learns that good writing needs to be generalisable. The writing of many
short stories usually burns off this rarely desirable tendency and
should some of the material be noticeably special it is still available
as the basis for a longer work.
Variety of Experience
If students are writing a single novel, perhaps two in their first
year, though this would be rare, they can, at the most, explore writing
in two genres. If, on the other hand, students are writing, say, one
short story a week they can try many many genres, styles, viewpoints;
they can explore the terse hard-boiled Ford/Hemingway approach, the
lyrical styles of Laurie Lee or Dylan Thomas, John Irving, and many
points in between. This is not the case if they are writing novels.
Beginners Get Used to Completing Tasks.
One major advantage of writing short stories to begin with is that the one or two thousand word task seems
less intimidating than the novel and far more achievable.
Quicker, Better Feedback.
It is easier to get proper feedback on a short story because it is a
complete entity. Thus, by writing many shorts the student gets repeated
feedback and learns more quickly about his strengths and weaknesses.
Easily Focused Teaching/Learning.
A
sympathetic teacher can design short story tasks to develop those areas seen as weakest. This is virtually impossible if the student is writing a novel.
More Meaningful Cross-criticism
Students writing short stories can be encouraged to exchange works
and learn by cross-reviewing each other’s work. Though this can be done
with novel extracts, the story, by being complete, being finite, is more
easy to judge. Further, where same-subject shorts are being exchanged,
it is easier and clearer to understand how different approaches to the
same initial subject alter the final work. With differently-titled
novels, approach may well be obscured by subject matter.
Comparison and Identifying Voice and Style
In classes, getting students to produce shorts has the advantage of
compare and contrast. This is obviously less easy with novels on often
vastly different subjects. By creating a single subject task, the
teacher has the advantage that all students are working in roughly the
same area, and, since the initial subject matter is the same, s/he is
more easily able to note the student’s individual characteristic set
against a constant.
Discipline
The discipline of the short story, the need to say as much as
possible in a few words as possible is an excellent teacher. The ability
to paint briefly is not wasted but makes the eventual novelist a better
one. John Gardner was very keen to emphasize the usefulness of small
focused exercises in which the student could concentrate on selected
areas of his art. Teachers can shape and point far easier when the
target is an exercise or short story.
Less Waste, More Material
A wasted novel is for most beginners a wasted year. A wasted short
story is typically a few days or a week. Though it is true that
theoretically a student could write 52 consecutive wasted short stories,
experience tells us otherwise, since, after every story, finite,
complete, the student has usually learned something. In the
case of the novel the student does not learn much until he has completed his long and arduous task and submits.
Nothing Wasted
Novels are rarely honed down to short stories. The reverse is not
true. Short stories have been made into novellas, short stories made
into novels, and short stories have been made into films.
Short stories contain all the major elements of good writing.
Beginning, middle and end, dialogue, characterization, conflict and
change. It is easier to teach for example, the idea of premise/theme on a
single short than on a novel. A student can be asked to write a 2,000
word short illustrating a proverb without ever referring to it or
proving a statement such as “All men are pigs”. It hardly needs saying
that a teacher cannot realistically ask students to produce a novel to
do the same.
Why Learn to Paint While Painting the Sistine Chapel?
Let us just imagine a student with a truly great idea for a novel; a
story idea that might change the world or earn the writer fame and
fortune. Why, why on earth would that writer embark on the great novel
and
IN THE PROCESS OF WRITING IT,
learn his skills? Why not first make sure of those skills before risking
a great concept to inexperience? Every single word he writes before he
embarks on the precious expansion of that wonderful idea makes it more
likely he is a competent writer and less likely that the fabulous idea
be wasted. Imagine if Michaelangelo had STARTED by trying to paint the
Sistine Chapel!
