What are your thoughts on recommending short stories as a beginner writer’s project? (Pros, cons, short-story-specific struggles, tips, etc. )

As a writer and a writing teacher, I would highly recommend beginner writers start out with short stories. It may sound fun to just write a full length novel at first, but there could be problems in doing so. Here are some reasons why I would recommend starting with short stories.

• Style – When someone starts writing, they won’t have learned their personal style, which is fine, but if they try to write a novel, their style will most likely change causing issues. However, if you start with short stories, you can write each one in a different style. Try a short story in the style of your favorite author, try a style you don’t think you’ll like. Try first person, third person, try another style.
  
  
• Character Development – Often, if someone has never written a story before, their characters will be flat, boring, and fake. Writing short stories gives the writer a chance to practice writing different characters, developing them so they sound and feel real, and learning what makes a character in a story come to life.
  
  
• Setting – How many times have I read a story from a beginner writer only to find no setting? If you try to write a novel and don’t have any setting, you either have to rewrite it to put in setting, or you have to try and squeeze it in which often feels fake and out of place. Short stories, however, allow you to try all sorts of settings. You can practice describing them in first or third person, you can practice dropping in little bits of description as your characters talk and move, and you can practice painting word pictures of a scene.
  
  
• Plot – Oh, the plots! Which is worse, writing a full length novel and not being able to end it because you have no idea what the plot is? Or writing a short story and finding out you don’t know what the plot is? Answer: Novel. One reason is that short stories can just be a scene, a conversation, a simple event that happens. A novel, however, needs a larger overarching plot with little sub-plots along the way that keep the big plot going. Practicing on short stories helps you develop your plot muscles and gives you a chance to try things without worrying about a big plot.
  
  
• Conversations – Most new writers love conversations. They are easy to write and you can get a lot of words in quickly. But there is a difference between conversations and conversations. One just has people spouting words but not moving, living, or anything else. The other has people talking while the live and move like real people. Yes, there are times to do a quick back and forth about something in a book, but think about your conversations. Do you sit or stand perfectly still and talk for hours? Of course not. You move, you notice something out the window, you scratch a mosquito bite, you get excited about something. Practicing living conversations in short stories helps a writer learn how to make them real.

Those are some of the pros of writing short stories for beginner writers. But what are some of the cons of doing it? Most of these feel like cons, but don’t have to be if you look at them from a different perspective.

• Nothing to Show – Probably the biggest one would be the complaint that they have nothing to show for all their writing. This is not true, but it can feel like it. Friends are writing novels and you are just writing dozens of short stories. However, if you are actually finding your style, your voice, and learning how to make your characters live and speak in a real place, your novel will be much richer and better written than if you’d started with a novel.
  
  
• Left with Stacks of Short Things – Yes, if you write short stories, you will end up with a stack of them. Sometimes you don’t know what to do with them and feel it was all a waste of time. But, you could repurpose them. Put some into a published collection, take some favorites and try turning them into something longer like a novella or even a novel. Or maybe some are just worth filing and reading now and then to see how far you have come.
  
  
• “I Can’t Write Short Things.” – I’ve heard this complaint before, but it’s not true. You can. And if you are writing a story to submit to an anthology or a collection, chances are, they will have a word limit. So practice getting a story in a certain amount of words. That might mean cutting, and trimming, and refining your story to fit that length, but you can do it, and it’s good practice!

So, would I still recommend starting with short stories? Absolutely! And even if you are already writing novel length stories, get some practice with short stories. I still write short stories for a number of reasons, some is because the plot is just a simple thing that won’t last 60k words, or maybe I want to try a different style, or I may just feel like writing a conversation that has nothing to do with the story I’m writing. Here are some tips on How to Write a Short Story.

What about you? Have you ever written a short story to practice something? Do you feel that short stories are a waste of time or do you think they could be helpful?