La Vie Boheme

Short stories are harder to

Short stories are harder to write than novels. I've reached this conclusion. Never mind that I reached this conclusion after a fairly stinging rejection, and that I've yet to actually submit a novel anywhere. Allow me my wallowing.

I rewrote "The Girl Behind the Counter" for the Minions, and then, being me, couldn't resist sending it off again, to somewhere with a fast response time. Honestly, I knew it would come back, but NFG tends to give pretty good comments with their remarkably fast rejections, so I thought it would be worth it.

It was, in that "here are all the major flaws in your story" sort of way. Here are the opening words:

This is a pleasant tale, but perhaps rather unexciting. There's an old saying that goes something like 'if your character is a writer, kill them off on the first page; then burn that page'.

It went downhill from there. She liked my main character (in spite of the fact that he was a writer, apparently), but thought his actions were driven by the plot rather than by his character. The bitch of it is, I think she's right. And I'm tempted to say screw the whole thing, because even if I rewrite it UTTERLY and make his actions more character-driven, there's still the whole "oh, we never buy stories about writers" stonewall--which I've heard in nearly every rejection that wasn't a form.

Part of me wants to email the Minions and tell them not to bother with critiquing it, but on the other hand, what if I'm wrong? What if the first reader at NFG is wrong? Gah. I haven't been this bothered by a rejection in a long time.

So yeah. Short stories are harder to write than novels. With a novel, you've got room to take an idea and expand on it, add detail that makes it less predictable, less 'overdone'. With a short story, there's more focus on the idea. There's no room for a weak idea, no room for something that might be even a touch cliche, things you can get away with in a novel to some extent.

Finding solid ideas is my weak point. I think, honestly, "Rhythm of the Tides" is the most original, fresh twist on an idea I've had. And golly, that's the one I sold. I know I can write. I'm a damned good writer. I just can't come up with a short, pithy, brilliantly new idea often enough to be much of a short story writer. So I turn out stories that come back with comments like, "There's some lovely writing here, but..."

If I get comments like that on The Exile's Daughter, I think I'll cry.