Short Stories

I love short stories.

There is no better format for writer development than the short story. I started my writing career writing short stories, and I shall continue to do so in the future. Short stories allow for greater reader feedback at a more rapid pace, and they allow writers to explore their craft without committing to a full-length novel each time.

I love writing short stories.

Short stories are harder to write than novels. With a novel, it's time. With a short story, it's focus. A writer has to be very crafty to get everything in and in a concise form with a short story, there simply isn't the time to dawdle around and let things slow simmer. This takes a lot of experience and writer skill, and keeping things moving and to the point tests your skill as a writer to pick out what is the most important and be very expressive with the few words you do have.

I love reading short stories.

Yes, I do. I don't feel 'ripped off' because a story is short - not everything needs to be a 300-page epic with fourteen books in the series. I enjoy the short format just like I enjoy TV shows that are a half-hour, like comedies and other quick-bite shows. I like sampling writers, and reading shorts. I like it when a short captures my imagination and leaves me wanting more. I love the free-form and experimental nature of short stories, and the freedom they give us as readers to experience a new world in not that much time or commitment.

I love episodic short stories.

I know there are some that feel that these make readers wait, or this is trying to make more money off one idea, but I still support them and write them myself. I love episodic works, and I love waiting for the next installment. Like a TV show 'you have to catch the next one' that only comes every week, these are an addiction of mine and I love the anticipation. I also like the time they give writers to explore the idea, see what works, and make changes 'mid-season' to make the entire experience for the reader better.

Quantity does not imply quality.

This said, short stories as a shared and creative genre may be in trouble. We have had some recent changes to book-borrowing services (such as Kindle Unlimited) that pay writers by the page read. I felt this was a good move, but it could put writers of shorter stories as a disadvantage - or make them feel that 'longer is better' just so they can get paid what the system thinks they should be paid. Putting an emphasis on length is dangerous, and at least the system goes by 'pages read' instead of length borrowed. With read pages, if a writer puts out ten short stories and avid readers read them, this is the same pay as one story of 10-short story equivalent length.

It is all very early to start panic or making judgments, since it is still too early to tell what is going to happen - so we wait. I would hate to see short stories start disappearing from book-sharing services, since this is where I want them to be. I want short stories out there to sample, and to discover new writers. I want episodic content released to enjoy, and I like the shorter formats.

I don't want to see 300-page anthologies of random short stories, forcing me as a reader to do the sifting and sorting to find the gems in the junk. We don't need to super-size our books, or cram everything into a giant burrito and call it a meal. I like being selective, finding an expertly crafted miniature masterpiece, and enjoying it in the solitary vision the writer intended.

Sometimes, a lack of quantity is a quality all in itself.

It takes skill to cut the crap out. It takes skill to present a complete idea in a short format without wasting space and adding in content that doesn't deliver an experience relevant to what we came to see. Where would horror be if HP Lovecraft had to write full-length novels instead of his mystifying and chill-inducing short masterpieces? With shorts, we are left with that sense of 'more and wonder' that certain genres need to thrive on. In editing, we boil down, and we cut to make a story better.

Everything 'not' the story should go. That is editing.

I can think of many books that would have been improved to a great degree with more cut out, than more added. Yes, our hubris makes us think as writers that readers will hang upon our every word, and thrill at the smallest and meaningless detail we add about a character's life or the history of a place we bless a reader's eyes with - but the opposite is often true. The more we cut, the better something gets. The more fat and gristle we cut, the better steak we deliver to the table. The more intense the experience, and the better experience the reader will have with every bite.

Readers do get bored, even the ones who love every word we write. We need to make every word count, and this is why the short story is so difficult to craft well. This is also why they are important. Now, there is also an issue with under-developed stories being too short and bland, but this is something else one discovers when a short story is crafted. It's easier to see, and it is easier to take in.

I hope focused anthologies of shorts arise, put together by collectors who know what needs to be said and delivered, and I hope the short story lives on. I hope readers value the short and continue to read them all the way to the end, give feedback, and support the genre.

The short story is not dead. How they were being sold and marketed may be, but I sincerely hope writers of short stories continue on to thrill us, challenge assumptions, and deliver bite-sized, intense experiences that change our perceptions and expectations.