David vs. Goliath

Here's a question I'm asked relatively frequently at cons and other gatherings of fledgling writers: "Is writing short stories first a good way to start 'breaking into' writing novels?"

It's a question to which I really don't have a good answer. For the writers of my generation (I'm old, after all...), yes, many of us 'broke into' the field by first writing and publishing a body of short fiction, then eventually moving on to novel-length work. For many of us, that strategy worked -- at least I can point to several people who are still regularly publishing novels who followed that route. For me personally, I found that the 'short' fiction I was writing just kept getting longer and longer, that the tales I wanted to tell needed more and more room.

But... I do have some doubts as to whether deliberately starting with short fiction is a good strategy or not. As with every other strategy to learn an art, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Here's how I see them...

( Cut for those not interested... Much nattering beyond! )