This is rubbish reporting, but some guy said last week in an article somewhere that short stories were actually really cool again and publishers liked them once more. I don't know if that's true, but I do know that a good short story is hard to find, and requires the skill and technical ability of a novel.
With that in mind, pop along to my blogmate's new collection of shorties, called, 'The New Goodbye' and enjoy. For free. Oh yes. Not even an instalment plan or a donation needed.
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9 comments:
I'm sceptical that publishers are suddenly keen on short stories. (They don't seem particularly keen on anything at the moment).
You're certainly right about the technical skill. If anything I think they're *harder* than novels because you simply don't have room to make a mistake or even for flaccidity. I think short stories have more in common with poetry than the novel, and I'm hugely envious of people whi can write 'em (like Aliya!).
Ahhhh, thanks Tim.
Now she tells me they actually want them now. Sheesh.
I heard a similar thing, based on a collection of anthologies written by the likes of Faulks, Rankin and co. doing the rounds where the proceeds were going to Oxfam or Amnesty international or somewhere.
Short story writing only becomes fashionable these days if bestselling writers experiment with the medium, which means those who make a living out of it (and are by far better short story writers) still remain largely unknown.
The form continues to be reasonably popular in the science fiction/fantasy/horror circles as the number of new anthologies and quarterlies show (great magazines such as Interzone and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) but alas I can't see it being taken as a serious mainstream medium anymore…
…Even in light of the MTV generation who have the attention span of a gnat…
It takes me longer to write a short story than it would about half a novel! They are a difficult art form and my hat goes off to anyone who can produce them.
Eliza
I love the cover, Neil! (Do you call it a cover?)
Frances, I think it's still safe to call it a short story.
I'm sure Aliya and I would both agree novels are much, much harder to write. The thing with short stories is, due to the length I suppose, there's the feeling that perfection is closer at hand--that it's attainable even. To reach a similar state with a book tens of thousands of words long would surely take years, decades even.
There are some stories in the collection that took up a fair amount of my time though, and the second one, The Leaving Present, is an attempt at a novel structure in short story form, made from interlinked flash fiction pieces. I'm rather proud of that one.
"I'm sure Aliya and I would both agree novels are much, much harder to write."
Maybe for you, buckaroo. I'm with Tim.
I simply love writing short stories. Writing anything is tough, but not to have a WIP is worse, so every pause between novels I fill up with a shortie! I am doomed!
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