“I feel quite at home writing short stories but nervous and anxious when writing novels, as if the bad time of consecutive failures might arise again.” IfsFeelsWritingStoriesHomeMightNovelAriseNervousShort StoryAnxiousBad TimesConsecutiveWriting ShortWriting Short Stories Author:Charles Baxter
“I prefer short stories, but publishers would, of course, rather that writers produce novels, since novels are still more commercially viable.” StillsStoriesCoursesNovelProduceShort StoryPublishers Author:Charles Baxter
“All my writing-life people kept telling me that I should stop writing short stories and start writing novels: my agent, my Israeli publisher, my foreign ones, my bank manager - they all felt and keep feeling that I'm doing something wrong here.” PeopleShouldWritingStoriesFeelingsFeltNovelAgentsManagersShort StoryPublishersWriting LifeIsraeliWriting ShortWriting Short Stories Author:Etgar Keret
“Most people can start a short story or a novel. If you're a writer, you can finish them. Finish enough of them, and you may be good enough to be publishable.” PeopleIfsMayEnoughStoriesNovelBe GoodGood EnoughShort Story Author:Neil Gaiman
“When you write a novel you have to live with the characters for a long time. So I prefer short stories. I never wrote anything more than 250 pages.” WritingLongCharacterStoriesNovelPagesLong TimeShort Story Author:Ruskin Bond
“A form wherein we can enjoy simultaneously what is best in both the novel and the short story form. My plan was to create a book that affords readers some of the novel's long-form pleasures but that also contains the short story's ability to capture what is so difficult about being human - the brevity of our moments, their cruel irrevocability.” HumansLongBookMomentsStoriesFormEnjoyDifficultAbilityPleasureNovelPlansReaderCaptureShort StoryBeing HumanBrevity Author:Junot Diaz
“We like to look out on the world and see ourselves, so we have many, many novels, memoirs, and short stories in Iraq that are largely about Americans in Iraq, doing what Americans do.” WorldLooksStoriesNovelIraqMemoirShort Story Author:Elliott Colla
“Once I had started, I discovered the secret pleasure of writing a novel. It's such an immersive, deep commitment. With short stories, you're continually having to start again from scratch, but with a novel you only need one good idea every few years.” NeedsWritingYearsIdeasStoriesPleasureSecretNovelCommitmentShort StoryGood IdeasScratches Author:Debra Dean
“I don't revise a lot when writing short stories. As far as the novel, I definitely thought more about plot. Honestly, I'm still pretty confused about what "plot" means. I've been reading some of my Goodreads reviews and one reader noted that the The Last Days of California "reads like a short story stretched to the breaking point, padded and brought into novel range..." I don't know what people want, really.” PeopleKnowsWantWritingMeanStillsStoriesLastsReadingNovelReaderHonestlyRangeCaliforniaConfusedPlotReviewsShort StoryLast DayGoodreadsPoint BreakWriting ShortWriting Short Stories Author:Mary J. Miller
“The short story that eventually grew into Constellation was the first fiction set in Russia that I'd ever written, and that was right around the time I was giving up on a doomed, never-to-be-seen first novel. While I saw it could be something bigger, in hindsight fortuitous timing was as responsible as anything.” GivingFirstsStoriesFictionNovelSawsWrittenGrewGiving UpBiggerResponsibleRussiaShort StoryTimingDoomedConstellationsHindsightFortuitous Author:Anthony Marra
“Even while I was working on the novel I would also write short stories as relief, just to be in a wieldier world that could negotiated more easily and more quickly. In the novel, I even changed the narrator from a man to a woman.” MenWorldWritingStoriesNovelChangedReliefShort StoryNarrators Author:Leni Zumas
“One easy mistake to make with the first novel is to expand the short story. Some things are better as a story; you cannot dilute things into a novel. I think the first hundred pages of a novel are very important. That's where you set things up: the world, the characters. Once you've set that up, it'll be much easier.” ThinkingWorldFirstsImportantCharacterStoriesEasyMistakeNovelEasierPagesHundredShort Story Author:Yiyun Li
“Writing is my number one passion. I've written two novels. I've written a screenplay. I also write short stories and poetry.” WritingTwoStoriesPassionNumbersNovelWrittenShort StoryScreenplays Author:Evangeline Lilly
“I never know exactly where I'm going with a story, whether it's a short story or a novel. If I did I'd soon grow bored of it. The fun, for me, is in the finding out and the making sense of it.” IfsKnowsStoriesFunGrowsNovelFindingsMake SenseBoredShort Story Author:Nicholas Royle
“I had a story-telling mother; she's written novels and short stories. So I feel like maybe I'm staying alive by telling tales.” FeelsStoriesMotherNovelAliveWrittenTalesStayingShort StoryStaying Alive Author:Ayshay
“I couldn't sit down and write a novel or a short story - even now - because of my dyslexia. But I learned narration through movies.” WritingStoriesNovelDown AndShort StoryNarrationDyslexia Author:Robert Benton
“Though The Kite Runner was my first completed novel, I had been writing on and off for most of my life, primarily short stories, and primarily for myself.” WritingFirstsStoriesNovelShort StoryRunnersAnd OffKites Author:Khaled Hosseini
“In March of 2001, I revisited the short story, and found that thought it did not work well as a short story, it might work much better as a longer one. The novel [The Kite Runner] came about as an expansion of that original, unpublished short story.” WellsStoriesMightFoundNovelOriginalsMarchShort StoryExpansionRunnersKites Author:Khaled Hosseini
“The novel [The Kite Runner] came about as an expansion of that original, unpublished short story.” StoriesNovelOriginalsShort StoryExpansionRunnersKites Author:Khaled Hosseini