Discussion.

[porphyrin]

Two questions for open discussion. One semi-heavy, one light.

1.  Why is it that short story writers are not considered to be 'real writers' by the public at large?

(Yes, I *am* getting tired of having people who find out I write say, "Oh, you must be working on a novel."  Or worse, "You must have a book out, then.  Right?")

2.  Regarding writing a story longhand with fountain pen.  What are the advantages, o ye who are fountain pen mavens?  What are the disadvantages?

Comments

[destrukto.livejournal.com]

Regarding short story writers and their validity as 'real writers'...

... I can't say as I've encountered people who have had attitudes like that, let alone myself. Some of the best writers, imho, are those who involve themselves in short stories. Stephen King, for example, was a terrible bore in many of his books, but his short story 'Strawberry Spring' made me believe he was brilliant.

But maybe it's because the general populace is only a shoe's throw away from troglydite breeding. We're all knuckle-draggers.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

1. Because the public at large does not read short stories.

Sad but true. The short story market is extremely small compared to the novel market.

2. I used longhand writing with fountain pen to break some perfectionist habits. This is as opposed to typing it on the computer. Even now, if I want to just get in a flow and go with it, sometimes fountain pen on paper is the right thing. Also it's more portable than even a laptop.

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

1. Short stories don't make a lot of money and unless they are spectaular they are "out of print" in around a month.

I think it is as simple as that.

Not to mention there isn't really many short fiction venues anymore. Most of the mainstream slicks don't carry it any more and the digests are dying. There's some online, but outside of SCI FICTION, I doubt it attracts many beyond the writer population.

2. I write with fountain pen's often, if you stop to think too long the ink in the tip wants to dry out - I end up making a lot of scratchy marks around the edges to combat it.

I don't know there are advantages other than I like it.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Short stories seem to be regarded as a bit more trnasient. Or, at least as a stepping stone to full novels. It is also easier to go to the bookstore and look up a book by an author than find a book or a magazine that has a short story by someone specific in it.

Of course, plenty of people out there don't really understand the work needed to perfect the craft, so assume that if you've been published, it must be in book form and there's no intermediary steps.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

After posting this, I was surfing some of my other regular trawls and saw this bit over on Websnark. It's only mildly related, but it struck me as being of a similar vein. So, I thought I'd share. Click Here

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

1. Until I joined the OWW, I had no idea people wrote so many short stories. I figure writers are the main readers of short stories.

2. Duh, fountain pen! (not that I write *anything* out longhand because I can't read my own writing)

But hey, fountain pen!

[dorianegray.livejournal.com]

I write longhand (not always, though often, with fountain pen).

Advantages: My thoughts keep pace with my pen better than with my typing. This leads to smoother writing and less clunky prose. When stuck, twiddling the pen in my fingers is good. But mostly? I type too fast. Unless I'm on a complete roll, the mental stuff happens at a speed closer to the physical stuff, so I write more steadily and more (mentally) comfortably with a pen.

Disadvantages: Writing longhand causes writers' cramp.

Advantages again: The first-pass edit is so very easily done while typing up the handwritten draft. (I do further edits longhand on a printout, too.)

Um. That's it. Longhand just works for me.

[littleowl.livejournal.com]

I like writing long hand for brain dumps. The words just gather and flow out from head down arm, through fingers into pen and onto page.

Then I take that and type it up and fix up grammar, word order etc.

Sometimes though, I find value in writing multiple drafts by hand because you then have a history of everything you tried and can pull it back out if you decide to make a change back.

I 'lose' my mental process if it's not on paper.

[ex-karentra.livejournal.com]

<< Why is it that short story writers are not considered to be 'real writers' by the public at large? >>

I suspect they're not so much dismissing short fiction as unaware that there's a short fiction market still out there. They assume most writers write novels, which - in publication terms - is true.

<< What are the advantages, o ye who are fountain pen mavens? What are the disadvantages? >>

I'm a fountain pen nut on a ludicrously grand scale (by which I mean a collection worth serious money, with pens dating back to the 1890s) but I keep them for making notes. (I never use a ballpoint, rollerball or anything other than a real nib.) I couldn't write 500K words a year longhand, and I certainly wouldn't have the patience or time to revise in longhand, and then type the final version out from scratch. I'm the queen of cut and paste. Plus I need to see the words in neutral type and not in my own handwriting in order to take them seriously.

In the other camp, I have chums who avoid the keyboard because they feel it encourages verbal diarrhoea. They believe the slower process of handwriting helps you edit as you go.

I still love my pens and I have eight in use on my desk at the moment. A 1910 eyedropper with a flexible nib to die for, a Mottishawed (custom nib) Omas Paragon, a dinky MB with an oblique nib, an italic Parker 51...ahhhh. I promise to stop now before I get on to the topic of ink. Ferro-gallate or modern formula? Sigh...neep...neep...