Message Board Topic 11/23

[Comsie]

One thing about writing a longer story, or a series/mini-series, is the idea of a cohesive plot and an overall theme holding it all together. It sorta keeps readers from feeling like it's just a collection of random events that don't have any real connection to each other. There's a center to it all. A premise or a problem that runs throughout the entire storyline. So you can ask someone, "What's this story ABOUT?" and there's actually a way to sum it up in a few sentences.

 

But what happens if you get excited, and have a great premise for a story or series...and then find out that it's too small to actually carry a whole story on its own? What if you want to write five chapters, and only have two chapters of material. Sometimes 'boy meets boy', and that's all there is to tell. You can't really drag it out without completely changing (or possibly 'ruining') the original idea. So how are you able to spot a limited premise from a distance before you even get started? After all, you don't want to write two chapters and then just decide to leave it without an ending, simply because you ran out of things to say. So how do you know when to stop? And when to not even START until the idea is fleshed out a bit more? Let us know your thoughts!

[Graeme]

Since I write lots of short stories, I don't have a problem with a premise resulting in something short. Everything doesn't have to be a novel. It can be a short story, a novella or an epic -- they are all valid forms of stories.

 

Yes, some stories don't have a lot of 'legs', but that's fine as long as the story is complete. I see nothing wrong with that.

 

If it's particularly short, I'd suggest posting it all at once, rather than as a serialisation, but that's only a recommendation.

[Nephylim]

I've never had a problem with short

[KiwiShadow]

I think a story is told when it is told, it's like writing an essay, you shouldn't check the word count after every 5 words. If you only have 2 chapters worth of material then just make the story 2 chapters.