Want to write long? Try short

I always say to anyone thinking of writing their first novel, experiment with some short stories first.  As with much of my advice, I guess it’s blindingly obvious but short stories are a wonderful opportunity to try out different voices and styles until you find one that you really like – one that feels like the real you.  There’s just something so much less daunting about the process when you know that a couple of thousand words, or even fewer than that, will be fine.

That’s how I started when I shifted from writing television scripts to novels.  I honestly never thought that I’d be able to produce enough words to attempt a novel – and certainly not finish one.  A script for a television drama only involves scene headings, action and dialogue.  For the most part, all of that rattles along and isn’t too hard to write.  But the kind of detailed description that you need in a novel?  That always felt tortuously slow and dense to me (even to read, sometimes).  Plus, for better or worse, working in television is a collaborative process – you’re part of a creative team with input and advice readily available.  Prose writing?  Unless you’re already hooked up with an agent and an editor, you’re on your own.  The thought of churning out a huge number of words, with no help or support, was just too daunting a prospect.  And that’s why I started with short stories, the baby steps of fiction writing.

A few months ago, I looked again at the short stories folder on my laptop.  I was genuinely surprised at how many I’d churned out.  I was also shocked at how bad some of them were on reading them again.  But a few of them were okay – old and possibly past their read-by date but okay.  So I decided that rather than waste them, I’d put out a short collection.  It’s called OFFCUTS (because quite a few of them were meant to be something longer or part of an extended piece of writing) and I’m going to publish it sometime in early-November.  The purpose is not to flex (as teenagers might express it) but rather the opposite: I’d like readers to go “Bloody hell!  I can do better than that!” and then actually do it.  “I can do better than that” is a great motivator in life. 

So anyway, whether you read any of mine or not, have a go yourself.  You have nothing to lose by experimenting and maybe a new career as a novelist to gain.

As always, happy writing!