by Matt Lynn
I’ve just been writing a short story for the Red Bull magazine that goes out with The Independent. Funnily enough, despite having written quite a few novels, both under my own name, and under other people’s, I found it really difficult to get started.
A lot of people graduate from short stories to novels, but it is quite hard to go the other way. I’m used to the flow of a novel. I have the structure pretty much hard-wired into my brain. I know when to speed up, slow down, how to develop the characters, and so on.
But a short story is 2,000 words. It’s hardly any space at all to get a story started, never mind finish the whole thing. It’s more like an anecdote than an adventure.
Anyway, in the end I think I did ok.
But it was a very steep learning curve.
A lot of people graduate from short stories to novels, but it is quite hard to go the other way. I’m used to the flow of a novel. I have the structure pretty much hard-wired into my brain. I know when to speed up, slow down, how to develop the characters, and so on.
But a short story is 2,000 words. It’s hardly any space at all to get a story started, never mind finish the whole thing. It’s more like an anecdote than an adventure.
Anyway, in the end I think I did ok.
But it was a very steep learning curve.
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