Love and fiction

Right after working on my novel earlier, a comparison burst into my head: short stories are infatuations, novels are long-term committed love.

The energy of the idea of a story can carry you the whole distance to it; that same energy often results in both the best and the worst characteristics of short fiction.

Writing a novel, on the other hand, requires you to wake up each day and give it time and attention, some days from love, some days simply from the commitment to do it.

No rule is true for all writers, of course. Stanley Ellin certainly violated my short-story notion, and Walter Gibson pounded out (admittedly short) novels (and on a manual typewriter) at a pace that surpasses the short story speed of most of us.

Still, I think the notion has merit.