Does the Quality of Your Prose Differ Based on Story Size?

[Crocolyle]

This is a bizarre problem I have--and by the amount of threads I post in this forum about my literary struggles, you can tell I have a lot. I have found that my prose seems to be more refined, cleaner, and more energetically written when the final product is intended to be shorter. While the actual wording and narration, at least according to Orson Scott Card, should be of minimal concern, it bothers me to no end in my more lengthy pieces.

While I could attribute this problem to "Because my short stories are shorter I can spend more time looking at the micro elements of the story and spend more time touching up the details" I don't think that would be entirely true. While to some extent that is the case, when I'm writing a shorter story the original, un-edited prose is cleaner and just better.

Anyone encounter similar problems in their literary escapades, or, better yet, know of some remedies?

[Alex]

The simple, straightforward, remedy would be to write primarilly longer pieces of works until the insecurities went away. While flawed ((as most simple solutions are)) it seems, to me, the best solution. Then again, I'm probably not of the same help as someone experiencing similar difficulty.

Other than that I don't have much more to say. Stick with what you're comfortable, I guess. If you aren't comfortable writing long stories and you don't feel they are as good why write them. If you write them because you feel their is potential there, then by all means, continue; but if you feel your short prose is much better then your long then why not focus on that. Is it necessary to be good at everything? A niché is a beautiful place to be if you let it grow around you. This is by no means the truth of what you are feeling, just an observation I believe might prove helpful.

[Andy]

I encounter that issue also. Especially when I kept revising my prologue. It was completely different than the rest of the story, so I could edit it almost as much as I wanted without affecting any of it.

[Shaun]

Yes, but I find it's primarily because changing story length is more or less an experiment. Flash fiction is completely new to me, so my prose does suffer because of it. It's not easy to write and I need to practice it. I'm pretty good at shorts, only because that's what I've spent so much time writing. My novels writing is improving, but it's still not where I would like it to be. So, yes, I think prose is sometimes affected by length, but it also depends from person to person as to why. For me it's due to inexperience in different lengths.

[CaseyQuinn]

One thing I did to help me work thru that similiar problem is I created an outline before I started my longer piece of work. I broke it down into logical groupings and attacked it as if i was writing just a number of short strung together. It made the writing more interesting and in my opinion better. Good Luck!

[-Wallflower-]

Mmm >_<
I seem to do better with short stories, too.
Partly because I get distracted easy and lose focus.
Partly because I start to run out of words and devices to use.
I mean, once you've used a certain device or phrase once, you've USED it. You can't use it in anything else ever again.
Bleh. lol.