This is part of my final for Intro to the Short Story. We had to respond to one of a number of prompts. and I picked “Like, short stories. Wow!”.
I think I like short stories better than I like
novels. Maybe. Well, at least I prefer to write short stories rather than
novels. It’s truly incredible the amount
of depth that can be woven into only a few pages. It’s a much tighter style, and takes a
certain kind of skill.
I’d be interested in reading the shortest story ever—one
that still makes sense and is entertaining.
How much can a narrative be condensed so that it is still interesting
and unique?
I think short stories are good for the modern attention
span—that being shorter than in previous eras—because does anyone really have
time to sit down and read a whole novel?
haha, okay, that was funny
It becomes fragmented if we read a few pages every night as a means of
falling asleep. It’s also hard for one
to contemplate what one’s just read if one is asleep.
I don’t really understand how people can just read a few
pages every night, unless it was a really dull book (but then what’s the point
of reading it in the first place?). I
can’t start and stop and start and stop a story I’m reading—I forget things and
it’s irritating. I prefer to sail
straight through a book and then sit and think about it for a while.
There’s a wealth of short stories out in the world, and I
think they’re quite fun. You can
encounter more of them because they’re shorter and leave you more time to read
other ones. It’s a good way to get
exposure to lots of different authors, reading their short stories. Good for a student with ADD. They’re like novels on crack—getting
everything done in an infinitesimal amount of time.
kind of!
On the flipside, of authorship versus readership, short
stories are enormously less time consuming to write, and can serve as good
exercises. For example, writing a few
pages in the style of this author, or trying to nail down a certain
aesthetic. They’re good practice.
And hellooo, you can write more of them over a certain
span of time, because they’re shorter! I
can also write them faster, because I don’t get quite so bored with the story
while I’m writing it. Writing short
stories doesn’t quite suck my soul dry like working on my novel does (pun
intended—it’s a vampire-themed novel).
haha!
Short stories are more in line with my current attention
span and general personality. I skip
around from idea to idea and that is torturous if I intend to turn each idea
into a novel.
It’s more satisfying for me to be able to finish pieces
than it is to work on one really big one.
I suppose it’s lots of smaller accomplishments as opposed to one big
one—that’s fine. It means I’m feeling
accomplished more often. That makes for a healthier mental environment
to work in (I don’t feel like poo because I’m not finishing any pieces). A finished story also prompts me to then
write another one, it’s a confidence booster.
Well, it’s the same thing for reading them, I
suppose. I don’t have a titanic amount
of pages to get through before the end.
Reading a story is like a little success too.
Like, wow! It’s
like the whole genre was tailor-made to fit me!
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