#Should iwrite short stories or novel how to#
#Should iwrite short stories or novel series#

I think the best advice I’ve heard on this comes from Jo Walton, who speaks about world-conjuring rather than world-building. How do you make a world comprehensible and relatable? To offer up a distinct view of reality that questions the foundations of what we assume to be self-evident. What can speculative fiction do that other genres can’t? The ability to literalise what must otherwise stay in the realm of the metaphorical. What is it about speculative fiction that appeals to you? In general, I think the shorter the story, the less room there is for 'background work' and the more the writer has to rely on the reader to fill in the blanks. I think all themes and ideas can be explored in any form, regardless of length, but the approach and perspective will necessarily be different due to the difference in scale. Are there themes and ideas that you feel work better in a short story? What doesn’t change, however, is my voice. The shift in scale means that everything, from the tools I use to the amount of continuity-tracking that I have to do, from the themes I want to tackle to the characterisation techniques I favour, changes. It’s the difference between architecture and miniature painting. What adjustments do you have to make to your writing between long/epic fantasy and short stories? Plotless stories (like “Cutting” in this collection) allow us to examine and question the conventions of fiction itself (and by extension, how we make sense of reality). Many experimental techniques work better in the short form than the long form, especially techniques that push against creating narrative tension via plot. What is it that you can do in short spec fic story that works better than in a full-length novel? That opening up of possibilities is what I strive for above all in storytelling. I do enjoy fiction that literalises aspects of reality we typically experience as metaphor, and when something that is otherwise abstract and metaphorical is made tangible through fiction, we can look at it from fresh perspectives and think about it in ways otherwise deemed impossible. As a reader, I never care what shelf a book happens to be classified on, and genre conventions don’t constrain me when I write my stories either. I don’t particularly care for genre labels. Fiction, at its best, can empower all of us to tell our own stories with more conviction and strength. Storytelling is the primary means through which we make sense of the randomness of the universe and construct for ourselves a life plot, a character arc that endows our experiences with meaning.

I think we, as a species, are persuaded more by stories than facts and figures, for both good and ill. While the stories offer no answers, I hope they inspire readers to think deeper about their own self-narratives.

I use speculative fiction to explore this quintessential question of modernity.

#Should iwrite short stories or novel how to#

Many of the stories in this collection are concerned with the question: How do we remain human in the face of cataclysmic change? As the pace of change – technological, cultural, social, political, environmental – accelerates, all of us are forced to confront the challenge of how to retain and nurture our humanity and empathy against forces that threaten to atomise our identities and destroy our cherished values. What are the themes and ideas that unite the stories in The Hidden Girl and Other Stories?

#Should iwrite short stories or novel series#

His short story Good Hunting was adapted for Netflix's sci-fi web series Love, Death and Robots. He is the author of The Grace of Kings, the first volume in The Dandelion Dynasty series, and a previous collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. American writer Ken Liu has won the Nebula, Hugo, Locus, World Fantasy, Sidewise and Science Ficion & Fantasy Translation Awards.