Long Story Short
When is the last time you read a short story?
The last collection of short stories I read was by John Steinbeck, called The Pastures of Heaven, a book of twelve interrelated short stories, or short novels, as Steinbeck liked to call them. If you are not familiar with Steinbeck or have not liked some of his other works, I would heartily recommend this book. He is great at creating characters who are so real they cast shadows and this book showcases that talent brilliantly.
I have great respect for the short story author as I have written a couple of them myself for fiction writing contests. It is more difficult than one might suspect and in my woefully inexperienced opinion, substantially more difficult than writing a novel. In a novel, one has room to stretch out, amble a bit from plot point to plot point or elaborate on the setting of a scene, and as long as you keep the reader engaged, you can get away with that. In short stories that luxury is not there. You have very few words[1] to create the character(s), get your reader invested, set-up the scene, introduce conflict, and find resolution. Every word must be impactful and powerful.
While I am plodding away on my novel, I am becoming quite enamored of the short story. I recently sorted through my writing and found I have added twelve of them to my collection of writing just in the past three months. I am not satisfied with the quality of the work yet but I am intrigued with the telling of a story in just a few pages.
I happened to find a short story editor and publisher online and read an interesting article this week from her, in which she admitted she did not read short stories. (I assume she meant other than for her work.) She said she liked to read before bed and did not care for the emotional investment she had to make in learning new characters, getting caught up in their drama and then feeling the jolt at the end of the story at that time of day. She preferred to pick up a novel, read a chapter or two, and be able to put it back down without having gone through that whole cycle of emotions.
She recently made the decision to support the short story by reading one every day for 365 days. She changed her routine so that she starts her morning with a short story and has found the mental stimulation has improved her creativity and productivity throughout the work day. What a great endorsement for this type of fiction. I do not care to set the same goal but I am pledging to read at least one short story a week this year to stir my imagination and help me learn more about the craft. It will force me to seek out new authors as well and I am looking forward to that.
There is a challenge to finding the perfect few words to convey the message that appeals to me. Perhaps this is where my creativity will lead me.
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[1] - I have found three types of short stories: micro fiction (up to 100 words), flash fiction (100-1000 words) and the "regular" short story (1000-7500 words) so there truly are few words with which to work. To put that into context for you, this blog post in its entirety is 580 words.
fiction, short stories, writing in About Writing 
Reader Comments (3)
I guess I don't read too many short stories in the traditional sense. I prefer to read personal essays, which to me are just like short stories except they are non-fiction.
The last short stories I read were those of Katherine Anne Porter, years ago. I knew a lady back at the university that could write heart-stopping flash fiction that proved to me that that brevity could be beautiful, but alas, it is not a talent that I possess. ( I'm more of an epic kind of gal ;))
I don't know that I've ever much cared for short stories, but portrayed in the light of your explanation I find them much more intriguing. I'll have to go see what I can dig up! :)