Short or long?

Short or long?

Continuing with my reflections on writing – today I am talking about writing short stories over longer ones.

 

Advantages of writing shorter stories (usually around 8-12k):

·       You get it written much much quicker with less writing fatigue! (My quickest to write was Marital Duties in the Men for Hire anthology – did it in three days!)

·       It takes much less time to edit

·       You can get on with another story in quick time – particularly good if you have another story begging to be told

·       They sell for less so it is cheaper for readers

Disadvantages:

·       They sell for less so you get less royalties – particularly as books that sell under a certain amount get an even bigger slice taken off by Amazon before they pay out (something like – they keep 65% on books priced under $2.99 rather than 30% on books priced over $2.99).

·       There is a distinct skill in writing short stories. You don’t have space to tell the whole journey of your characters’ romance from meeting to falling in love so you have to write an episode in that romance so finding that perfect ‘episode’ can be difficult. I usually write about people who already know each other as that takes away the ‘getting to know each other’ part of the story.

·       You may fall in love with the characters and said characters may demand to have more written about them (don’t be fooled – a writer is never in control of their stories. The characters are the ones in charge!). Alien Manhunt was only supposed to be one story but Greg, Taran and Suva – not to mention a few readers – were insistent about me writing Alien Manhunts 2 and 3!

Short stories I have written:

Alien Manhunts 1-3 (Sci-fi/MM)

Kink After Dinner (BDSM/Contemporary/MF)

Marital Duties (in the Men for Hire anthology) (Contemporary/MF)

Naughty Christmas Wishes (Fantasy/Paranormal/Christmas/MFMMM)

Dark Captive (Contemporary/Kidnap/BDSM/MF) – due out in June

Advantages of writing longer stories (I generally write novellas, so that means 20k-36k with one that is 60k but that was a co-authored story so I only actually wrote 30k of it):

·       You have more scope for character and plot development – this is particularly necessary if you are writing menage stories as you need time to development each character such as Collared by Wolves which involved the heroine, three friends who were interested in the heroine and a Dominant who had his sights on the heroine, too).

·       You can add more detail/back story/world building without worrying too much about going over your word limit

·       You get more royalties

Disadvantages:

·       You can get very very tired by the end and are desperate to get it finished and sent off (quite often without giving it a thorough proof reading as you are so fed up with it at that stage!)

·       It takes so long to edit and if you haven’t been thorough before submitting it your editor can fill each page with millions of corrections or things you need to correct which can be very daunting

·       You can get carried away with back story/world building as you are describing your characters’ journeys from meeting – particularly if it is the first in a new series (even I admit that Wife for Three has a lot of world building because it was the first in a sci-fi series)

Novellas I have written:

Just Good Friends (Contemporary/MF)

The Submission Challenge (Contemporary/BDSM/MF)

Friendly Seduction (Contemporary/MF)

Submissive Training (Contemporary/BDSM/MF)

Friend or Foe (Contemporary/MF)

The Sub Who Switched (Contemporary/BDSM/MF)

Wife for Three (Sci-fi/MFMM)

Retraining the Sub (Contemporary/BDSM/MF)

Chasing Emily (Sci-fi/MFM)

Collared by Wolves (Paranormal/Werewolves/BDSM/MFMMM)

Retraining the Dom (Contemporary/BDSM/MF)

Bounty Hunters’ Captive (Sci-fi/MFM)

Torn Between Two Lovers (Paranormal/Werewolves/BDSM/MFM)

BDSM Weekend (Contemporary/BDSM/MFM)

Novels I have written (over 40k):

The Last Werewolf (Paranormal/Werewolf/MMF) – with Susan Laine

So, in conclusion – do I prefer writing long or short stories…. Hmm. Can’t say. I like both for their own reasons!