YvonneHaving recently posted my thoughts about ‘Devil’s Peak’ by Deon Meyer, I have since been contacted by Lucy, at publishers Hodder & Stoughton, to see if I would accept a copy of Deon’s latest book, ‘Thirteen Hours’.
This is great, as I really enjoyed ‘Devil’s Peak’, so I can’t wait to get my hands on Deon’s latest offering, featuring his character, Detective Inspector Benny Griessel.
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Meantime, I would like to share a short thought from Deon, that seems to make perfect sense to any author trying to break through in the fiction world:
“I still believe that short stories are the best way to learn the craft of writing.
Short stories teach you a lot about story structure – and you have limited space to develop character and plot.”
Love short stories! Good writing advice – short stories are challenging though because the fewer sentences you have, the better each sentence has to be. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Julie,
As a child I used to love being somewhere on my own, where I could sit and write a short story, but these days I seldom find myself picking one up to read.
I do think that being able to write a good short story must discipline you well, into being able to construct a solid framework for a longer novel.
I know I hate it, if there isn’t a distinct beginning, well developed plot, and definite closure at the end of the book.
Books that introduce characters without telling me who they are, or giving them a personality, annoy me.
Books, or for that matter television or films, that come up “To Be Continued….”, REALLY annoy me!!!
I’d never thought of that, but it makes a lot of sense. I’ve met several authors who said they got their start writing short stories.
Hi Kathy,
I think that Julie made a good point, when she said that the fewer sentences you are able to put into a story, the more pertinent, well thought out and better they have to be.
Every word needs to count, it must really concentrate the mind and hone the writing skills.
I wonder how many authors start out consciously writing short stories by choice as a natural progression path to the full novel, and how many just find themselves writing short stories in the hope of getting themselves noticed.