Are My Stories Long Enough?

By Ethan Thomas,

I am not a writer that has ever had trouble…for very long. Writer’s block is something that all writers struggle with, even those idiots who claim it’s not real. Have you ever seen them? They say, “I don’t think writer’s block is real, you just need to…” and then go on to describe the most common ways of overcoming writer’s block. Like taking a break…What an idea! It would be like a doctor saying, “I don’t think the flu is real. Just take some medicine, rest and drink plenty of fluids and you’ll be fine.”

What I am though, is an under-writer. I am a chronic underwriter. In fact that’s where thought bubble came from…an idea for a novel turned out to be a novelette or even a short story (Something that has happened with two different project this year.) My projects being too short is something I have struggled with. I would often, and still sometimes do, feel self conscious. Comparing myself to authors who write huge books, or even lots of smaller novels.

Stories should be as long as they need to be, so I struggle with how much to expand and add things because often times it feels like filler. We’ve all read books where the author added entirely too much detail. It’s like the line from the Epic Rap Battle between George RR Martin and Tolkien,

‍ ‍“You went too deep professor tweed pants, we don’t need the back story on every fuckin’ tree branch!”

So where is the line? I have no idea. It shows up and I write it down, and that’s about it. Most of the problem is me. I am a perfectionist to an absolute fault. I could probably write seven full novels in a row and I’d still be self conscious about my eighth project being too short, or too long, or whatever. Writers are insecure about their work, even when they’re proud of it.