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Short Story Ideas

Zorg

Spongetastic
Hey guys, haven't been to the Fan Fiction section in a while, but anyway, i was thinking of starting to write lots of Pokemon Short Stories, but cannot think of many ideas. I want to write a wide variety of genres and settings to do with Pokemon to increase my writing potential to actually finish a proper fan fic.

I also have a few questions:

1) What is the average amount of words in a short story? How much does it vary?
2) Can anyone think of interesting/unused genres? I want to use some genres that not many people do.

Any other information world be helpful as i haven't done any Short Stories before. Thanks to anyone that can help ;107; :)
 

Breezy

Well-Known Member
1) It really, really varies, but most define it roughly around 7k words. Some even say anything less than 20k words. Really, as long as you think you made your point, your story can be less than 7k or more than 20k (though short stories are usually defined as stories that can be read in one sitting, and 20k+ mightttt be pushing it).

[insert more info about short stories vs. novella's vs. short short stories that no one care about].

2) Unused genres here? Mystery definitely. We haven't had much horror lately. Don't think there are many crime fictions out there either. Anything that relates to "mystery" (suspense, crime, etc) isn't seen too often because these sort of stories require a lot of thought.

It's easier just to say what's more common. Adventure, for obvious reasons. Tragedy isn't as common but still used pretty often. Romance (in shipping). Comedy (though not sure if there are any fics that are just solely comedy instead of comedy being secondary anymore -- at least any that don't seem forced). Angst, prolly. =P

Fantasy, sci-fi, supernatural aren't common either but are still seen around more than mystery and crime fiction.
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
1) What is the average amount of words in a short story? How much does it vary?

A one-shot can be any length of words, truth be told, so long as it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It doesn't really matter how long or short you make it so long as you tell everything in one sitting without needing to break your fic up into multiple chapters.

('Course, some people will tell you that a short story starts at 1000 words and that anything less than that is flash fiction. Others tend to say it's more than that. Others say that flash fiction are short stories, so long story short -- no pun intended -- it's just easier to say stick with quality over quantity and finish the story in as many words as you feel are necessary.)

2) Can anyone think of interesting/unused genres? I want to use some genres that not many people do.

This is hard to say. The one-shot category tends to sprawl into pretty much every genre imaginable because it's very compact and easy to work with compared to chaptered stories. (As in, an author can dapple in one genre briefly, rather than try to keep their own interest up for months as they work on a longer work.) Hence, my advice would be to actually read some one-shots (using this catalogue or the index at Fanfiction.net) to get a feel for what people have already written. Then, either figure out from there what people haven't done yet or play around with the genres that interest you the most, based on your own research. The best way to figure out what to write is really to take a good look around by yourself and make mental notes of the things people have done already. Otherwise, it's a little hard to help you because I don't know what interests you. I could, for example, suggest for you to go write hot femmeslash, but that might not necessarily float your boat, you know?

Hope something in here helped. Good luck!
 

Zorg

Spongetastic
Thanks for your guys help, i have all the general short story information i need now. Now i need some people to give me ideas for short stories. I have a few, but i will run out and if i ask other people for ideas, i will come up with different types of stuff, if only i come up with all the ideas, they will be too similar genre wise too. Once again though, thanks for your help, JX Valentine and Breezy, and thank you even more if you guys had any ideas, im sure they would be great :)
 

Diddy

Renegade
I don't think there's a definitive borderline of what makes a short story a short story, length wise anyway. I'd imagine there is no minimum (Hemingway has a short story that's only six words long Baby shoes for sale, never worn) obviously there would be a maximum, just because you post an entire story in one go doesn't make it a one-shot if it's about 50,000 words long.

I prefer writing one-shots over regular chaptered fiction anyday. I find it easier, there's no overarching, complex plot you rigidly have to follow throughout the entire thing, there's usually just one event or events spanning from one event and you're showing people what happened. Not that I don't enjoy overarching complex plots mind you, I love them, but they can get hard to follow. Sometimes I have to sit myself down and think about where I was going with the story for a few minutes just to catch myself up with the plot. Maybe that's just the way I write though, I don't know what I'm going to write in the next chapter, I might have a plan but I might think of something else to do when I do get around to writing it. It's like a mini adventure for all involved.

Also, I don't like making people wait for the next chapter, because it takes a while for me to write them, I know that if I posted on a chapter to chapter basis, it'd take them a few years to read it all to completion. I'd rather have it all written down and edit it along the way so I can post it week by week.
 

Zorg

Spongetastic
Thanks Diddy, you three have now given me plenty of background information. I've started brainstorming different ideas for Pokemon Short Stories, but i'm still going to need some more. So if anyone here has any good ideas, please post here or pm me or something. Thanks for all your help so far though :)
 

Zorg

Spongetastic
Just so people know, i still need some ideas but i've nearly finished the first short story, with the genre of horrorish. For future reference im going to convert some of the ideas adoption thread to short stories. I also have some of my own ideas though. Anyway, look out for the thread 'Short Stories' in the Pokemon fan fiction in the next couple of days. Also, some of the short stories won't include Pokemon that much.
 
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