Ah, the old porn/plot ratio question! My answer is always this: write what feels good for the story. If the characters demand porn, write it. If they don't demand lots of porn, don't force it. Let them dictate where the story goes; sometimes they will surprise you!
And don't be afraid of submitting your story and writing again and again, no matter how many comments you receive. You can only improve, with practice. :D
There is nothing like deadlines to make one write, write, write. I think without deadlines I would probably just bounce from project to project and never finish anything.
The deadlines are definitely a life-saver. :D The themes and word count limits help too. It's much easier to write when my brain isn't screaming "THIS HAS TO BE A NOVEL" at me.
I think that short stories teach authors how to write better novels, tbh. It takes a lot less time to write short stories, so you can get more practice in much faster than with writing novels! And you can discover your own voice/style/whatnot without having the THIS IS A NOVEL thing hanging over you. As someone who writes both short stories and novels, I like short stories much better.
I have a great deal of difficulty writing short stories, because I don't know when to shut up. xD Even with what I'm writing now, I've reached what would be a suitable ending but I'm still like, 'No, no, there needs to be more, there needs to be fluff. FLUFF I SAY.' Still, it's kind of exhilarating to be so close to finishing something. :D Finally.
The thing to keep in mind with short stories is focus: you HAVE to have a specific focus on a specific event, rather than on everything that is happening. Novels tell us about everything that is happening; short stories are brief trysts that are completely focused in on one specific event and the things that surround that event. I think that was the hardest thing to wrap my head around: that I couldn't tell all of everything. I had to leave some things out.
One thing my friend--a fellow SSBB writer, which is actually how I met her!--said that I think will help you: make sure every scene has at least three distinct reasons to be there. If you can't think of three reasons that are different (things like "showing their interactions" and "showing X's attitude" are not different enough to count, in my book) then maybe you should consider cutting the scene.
Finishing things always makes me feel like a million bucks. NAY, TEN MILLION. /cheers you on!
Mhm, that makes a lot of sense. I've split mine into two parts (though one part is significantly longer than the other), with the first half focusing on their first meeting and their initial attraction to each other etc. and the second half focusing on the development of their relationship. I've cut down the second half so that it'll read more like a chunky epilogue though, which I think works better than trying to write it the same way I wrote the first part. It still delivers the necessary emotional kick that it's there to giv and that's all that really matters, I think. c:
That's a good idea. :D I'll see if I can come up with three reasons for each scene when I go through and edit it later. There aren't that many, and I think they're all pretty essential, but we shall see.
The other thing I love about short stories is that you can play with styles that would get fucking annoying in longer works as a writer or as a reader, and it teaches how to be concise. Which is also why I love firm 100/500 word drabbles as writing exercises.
And don't be afraid of submitting your story and writing again and again, no matter how many comments you receive. You can only improve, with practice. :D
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And I think I'll definitely be writing for SSBB again. :D I went from a year of next to no writing, to 15K in a week.
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You can do it :D Keep writing!
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One thing my friend--a fellow SSBB writer, which is actually how I met her!--said that I think will help you: make sure every scene has at least three distinct reasons to be there. If you can't think of three reasons that are different (things like "showing their interactions" and "showing X's attitude" are not different enough to count, in my book) then maybe you should consider cutting the scene.
Finishing things always makes me feel like a million bucks. NAY, TEN MILLION. /cheers you on!
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That's a good idea. :D I'll see if I can come up with three reasons for each scene when I go through and edit it later. There aren't that many, and I think they're all pretty essential, but we shall see.
:DDD
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