Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A How to use short stories to explore a new setting and potential characters for a novel?

I'm an aspiring fantasy and sci-fi writer and I my goal is to write a novel that is to be the first in a series within the same setting. I'm getting to a point where I can feel "the world coming to...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by H3R3T1K‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:58:55Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/30078
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar H3R3T1K‭ · 2019-12-08T06:58:55Z (about 5 years ago)
I'm an aspiring fantasy and sci-fi writer and I my goal is to write a novel that is to be the first in a series within the same setting. I'm getting to a point where I can feel "the world coming together" and images are floating around in my mind. I know what I want my book(s) to be about (as in overarching motives) but don't have characters yet. Would you suggest writing short stories first to get a feel for the setting and explore a couple ideas for characters? I'm asking because I myself have never been interested in reading short stories and I keep telling myself that if J. K. Rowling jumped into her first novel successfully without prior training, I can do it, too. For now I'm limited in the time I can devote to writing so a short story becomes more attractive than plunging into a novel headfirst because finishing it seems that much more achievable.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-09-04T15:49:26Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 8