Observant readers will know that I have a category tag especially designated for short stories, yet I rarely mention them. Surely short stories are an important part of becoming a fiction writer? So what’s going wrong?
For a start, I haven’t read a short story for ages. I do go through phases where I rather enjoy one of those “Best Short Stories 2005″ kind of collections, but even then I do only read about half of them – unlike novels, I have no qualms about breaking off reading a short story half way through.
I used to think that writing short stories must be good training for novel writing, and that’s why I read them and tried to write them. But I just don’t seem to get that much pleasure from them. As I reader, for a start, I need the longer engagement that a novel gives you – there’s time to learn to love the characters and to really care about the different things that happen to them in the course of the novel. If I read a novel I also have a vague chance of remembering something about it afterwards, but with a short story this is virtually impossible. And while writing a novel is an absolutely monstrous task compared to writing a short story, it somehow seems easier to me.
However … I could be wrong. Maybe I’m just lazy. You know, like a sportsperson who only likes one aspect of their training – swimming laps, say – but ignores other things, like eating well. So after my trip to Melbourne I will head to the library and get a few more collections of short stories and try to do them justice. I also have the Writers Weekly short story contest coming up next weekend – a chance to write the only short story I’ll write for another three months, until their contest comes round again – so the short stories category will at least see a little action.
I’ve been struggling with this as well since you first posted this entry.
While I’m sure there are tons of people who enjoy short stories, they don’t do very much for me.
I find I like having something to sink my teeth into. I’m much more willing to follow a writer on a journey to another city than across the street.
Reading, let alone writing, short stories isn’t enough for me, but for others, it seems to do the trick.
Good to hear I’m not alone there Aaron – though I still think I should give them another chance. I used to really like reading short stories, but it was a relatively short phase … perhaps finding *good* short stories to read is sometimes the tricky bit and then finding quality stories that also match my own interests … well, I’ll see how I go. Thanks for the feedback!
[...] mused before about whether writing short stories is really something I want to do. I’m not usually especially thrilled by reading them, and [...]