Short Story Woes...
Over at Criminal Brief, the question has been raised as to why so many seem to avoid the short story. The argument is made (I hope to get it right) that working in the short story form helps a writer focus on what is important. Many student writers (a lot is directed at student writers, I think) want to work on novels.
In the comments, I mention that it is not cost efficient for anyone who can sell a novel to spend the time writing short stories. It certainly isn't cost efficient for Laura Lippman or Ken Bruen. It isn't even cost efficient for me. The time spent writing short stories would be more profitably spent writing novels, etc.
I also point out my biggest problem recently - I've got a drawer full of short stories that I know to be good, but I can't even give them away. Some are too long for SHOTS, Crimespree and Shred are closed to new submissions. What's a boy to do? Yes, yes, there is Demolition, but they are already publishing one of my stories this July.
Over on Crimespace, Daniel Hatadi mentions that writing short stories is good exercise for writers - we need to play, he says. But then, couldn't we do something else just as profitably? For me, my play includes reading, for instance, or just watching movies.
In the words of the immortal Randy Jackson: "I dunno dawg. Whatchu tink?"
In the comments, I mention that it is not cost efficient for anyone who can sell a novel to spend the time writing short stories. It certainly isn't cost efficient for Laura Lippman or Ken Bruen. It isn't even cost efficient for me. The time spent writing short stories would be more profitably spent writing novels, etc.
I also point out my biggest problem recently - I've got a drawer full of short stories that I know to be good, but I can't even give them away. Some are too long for SHOTS, Crimespree and Shred are closed to new submissions. What's a boy to do? Yes, yes, there is Demolition, but they are already publishing one of my stories this July.
Over on Crimespace, Daniel Hatadi mentions that writing short stories is good exercise for writers - we need to play, he says. But then, couldn't we do something else just as profitably? For me, my play includes reading, for instance, or just watching movies.
In the words of the immortal Randy Jackson: "I dunno dawg. Whatchu tink?"
posted by Steven at
9:35 AM
2 Comments:
For me, writing the short story lets me really focus on the words. Wordsmithing is my favorite part of writing and it's difficult to labor so long over a sentence in a novel (as I am finding out right now). I think the love of words comes out of beginning with poetry.
Hey, behind closed doors, we all have our individual ways of playing. For instance, mine involves ...
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