Conversation #4
The State of the Short Story
The following is from The Atlantic's "Why Does the Short Story Survive?" in answering the question: Has the short story has lost some of its currency as a popular form?
For starters, entertainment changed: The short story, as people used to know it, was a popular entertainment in glossy magazines. Radio, movies and TV changed the landscape; narrative non-fiction has also filled some of the void. Then too, they're difficult: A short story, when it's good, doesn't draw you into a comforting world; it shakes you up. It's not,..., what you want to read before going to sleep: It's a different kind of intellectual and emotional commitment. On a basic level, I think people worry about finding a consistent collection, and even then, each story is going to be a new challenge. Rightly or wrongly, we live in a time that values escapism highly, and the short form provides something different.
In your author's perspective, give his/her opinion about the state of the short story today as compared with the author's time of writing. If the author is alive now, maybe focus on the difference between the state of the story now as compared to tweny years ago.
Your author might talk about the advantages and disadvantages of writing in the story form and what authors do today to get stories published (focus on lit magazines, publish "novel-in-stories" collections, have recurring characters, etc.) Take the talk in whatever direction your author wants to go. Just remember the guidelines below...
The following is from The Atlantic's "Why Does the Short Story Survive?" in answering the question: Has the short story has lost some of its currency as a popular form?
In your author's perspective, give his/her opinion about the state of the short story today as compared with the author's time of writing. If the author is alive now, maybe focus on the difference between the state of the story now as compared to tweny years ago.
Your author might talk about the advantages and disadvantages of writing in the story form and what authors do today to get stories published (focus on lit magazines, publish "novel-in-stories" collections, have recurring characters, etc.) Take the talk in whatever direction your author wants to go. Just remember the guidelines below...
Please read the guidelines for this conversation carefully.
For this conversation, do the following:
1.) Review the prompts below and choose at least 3 to respond to.
2.) Make sure you provide specifics from your author's writing and the short story collection that you read as you respond.
3.) In your response you are welcome to add pictures, videos, links, etc.
4.) Make sure you are speaking in first person in your author's point of view.
5.) Please respond to at least 3 other authors in this conversation
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs someone very familiar with Realism, I can say the people in this decade do not want reality, but they desire escapism. They attempt to idealize the world they live in with social media tributes to themselves as they'd like the world to see them. They can access information about anything in the world, but do not have to necessarily deal with the horrors they read about. Although the information is consistent and always updating, they can keep a mental distance by turning off their devices, which they rarely do. In story, short and novel, the brain has to focus long enough for the mind to become invested, and with the constantly changing, rapid pace with which information is updated, attention spans have shortened. I think because of this, many people do not read. Short stories, one would think, would be perfect for the modern reader, as it can be read in one sitting. However, due to the short stories tendency to “shake” the reader, it can be too much for people. I leave a sense of uncertainty in my stories, elusiveness to any true meaning of life. The modern person wants answers, and wants them now. Like Dmitri in my story The Lady with the Little Dog, the modern person is not satisfied, and constantly running after new things to occupy the mind. With Dmitri it was women, and with the modern person it is distraction.
ReplyDeleteAnton Chekhov, I like your statement that "the people in this decade do not want reality, but they desire escapism" and I'd even like to add that that's true for people of all generations. The only difference is the medium people use to escape. The short story has adapted to the generation of 140 characters, no doubt. Short stories have to be more to the point and refreshingly different to satisfy readers.
DeleteIf all the people wanted is escapism from their writings, then my novel Their Eyes Were Watching God would not be considered a classic in both African American and Women's Literature. The world of that novel is not idealized or fantasy, but a direct confrontation with what many people have had to grow up with and face with the full power of their will and being. The people, like the short story, deserve more credit.
DeleteGood evening Mr. Chekov. I think escapism is something that we all desire, though I don't think that that desire for escaping is what is causing the drop in short story readers. The modern reader can focus long enough to read a short story, they can focus long enough to read a novel. When we look at the grand scene of things, we are living in one of the literate, and populous, times in world history. So, just because members of the newest generation aren't picking up the local literary magazine doesn't mean the death of anything, the same percentage of people who read the stories in the past are still reading them now.
DeleteMr. Chekov I do agree that people tend to avoid reality. I dealt with similar issues in my own time when it came to denying a woman's biological need. Thus, it was frowned upon even in literature. It is nice to see that some things may never change and that allows the writers of the next generation to push the societal boundaries.
DeleteDistancing oneself from the harsh realities is part of human nature. Stories provide a way for readers to approach these realities in a more comprehensible light. However, reading your argument has made me realize another reason, perhaps a small one but with larger implications, why short stories have lost popularity (according to "The Atlantic" article). It is the popular trend of novel, movie, and television series. Contemporary Americans love serialized story-telling, in which one story is continued through sequels. The short story is the antithesis of this model. Characters exist for only less than 30 pages, and the stress is on a single plot point and how this conflicts with the character. Current audiences want longer stories, not shorter ones. They want to be fully immersed in the character's world, and short stories are not world-builders.
DeleteI've written my fair share of short stories over the span of 30 years so I can speak to the changing nature of the medium. Like any art form, the short story has molded in with the time and as people's use for literature changes so does the type of stories that get told. Laguna Women, one of my earlier collections of short stories, had a lot of poems and short stories that were fiction but contained a lot of elements directly from my childhood. I wanted to share the stories that felt authentic to my experiences. That was in the 70's. In the late 90's, I spoke with the same spirit but I also wrote things that pushed people out of their comfort zones. I wrote political messages and about the sometimes harsh reality of the treatment of minorities in the United States. I've spoken before about the effects that outside environments have on my writing and the tone and theme differences reflect that.
ReplyDeleteThe advantage of writing a short story is that I can skip the fluff. It's like the difference between writing an article and writing a headline; I need to tell my story with enough details so that it's a clear and full story but I have limited space. It's about picking the best words to do the job and not the best words that exist. The disadvantages, I have to be very selective. When I write a story, I know everything about my characters like what they had to eat for breakfast but information that doesn't move the story has to be held back.
I appreciate your giving the short story its proper due. You're completely correct in pointing out that not every story should or could be told in the length of a novel. Where Their Eyes Were Watching God could not be a short story, my best short stories could not exist as novels in their own rights. Skipping the fluff, indeed. If you tried to adapt a proper short story to a novel, you'd have fluff abound.
DeleteGood evening Mrs. Silko. I agree with you on the nature of the short story, it is a very different sort of menace from writing the novel. On hand your glad that you finish a story in one sitting, due to its compact nature, but then again you go over the same sentence five times trying to find just the right words to make up for the hundreds of pages that aren't being said.
DeleteI very much admire the short story as a form. Being able to "skip the fluff" and transport the reader exactly into the world of the characters. In my own writing, I often found that writing within the society of a specific region was often interesting because, while people have a general idea of how society functions, it is easy to reveal as the interactions and dialogue of the characters often reveal the information themselves! I like the bare-bones approach to writing, giving the reader only what they should know in order to function within the bounds of that particular story.
DeleteOh Mrs. Siko, skipping the "fluff" is a nice sediment. I too tend to get to the nitty gritty of societal issues that appears in our own backyard. This gives the reader exactly what they need to know, and may not want to face the evil that lurks in their own home. I can see where being selective is a disadvantage. I have issues with this. My short stories often have a few themes. They most always shake up the potential situation the reader may be in.
DeleteMrs. Silko, you bring up an excellent point about how the styles and topics in short stories naturally change through the decades. All art forms refashion themselves each era as a result of a new generation's upbringing and perspective, as well as a reaction to social issues. This is why short stories, and almost all art forms, will survive the ages. Form remains, but style constantly alters.
DeleteMrs. Silko, skipping the "fluff" is certainly what I strive for in all of my writing, whether it is a short story or not. I agree that much needs to be held back in short stories and only the most necessary details need to be included. Less is more, and simplicity allows for other thematic elements and the stories function to shine through to the reader.
DeleteMrs. Silko,
DeleteIt is an amazing thing to be able to hear from someone who has also seen the developmental changes in the way stories are told. While you've been writing for much longer than I have, it is interesting to be able to compare the change. I'm curious to hear how it effects you of seeing your novel of Laguna Women and the recent reality series or even hollywood movies that have come out since? How do you feel this effects the perception of your novel and it's viewers?
The idea that the short story has lost its way is absurd. I was in my second year of Howard when my short story “Spunk” won first prize, and was later included in “The New Negro,” a collection of writings by contemporary black writers. I can authoritatively say that the short story is just as powerful today as it ever was.
ReplyDeleteWe don't live in a world where everyone can get their name out with a full-length, 50,000+ word novel and I don't think we ever have. The written form of the short story allows marginalized black writers to get their work out on print -- in literary magazines, in spoken form, or even in self-made chapbooks. To kill the short story is to kill a countless number of writers with whom the format is more than just another way to tell their stories-- it is a way for their ideas to be expressed and heard.
Good evening, Mrs. Hurston, I presume. I am very fond of the point you made about writers needing the short story. Writing is a very personnel thing, it is something that reflects us, crazed, broken, not making much sense. And some people, whether it is due to their own personalities or the times in which they are born, find the short story as their prime means of expressing themselves. And it is for that reason why we'll never have a lack of short story writers in the world.
DeleteThere is no doubt that writing functions as a means of granting a voice. Whether it be announced that the work is ingrained in fact or fiction, every story is grounded in some aspect of reality. Today, we see more liberty within the world of fiction, branching off into fantasy, science fiction, etc., but the premise is the same. Writing is a way for anyone to tell their story, to comment on their surroundings and share it with the world, to give readers a peek into the life of someone that very well could've existed in their own time or a time not so far, and show them the world.
DeleteI have always admired your unapologetic tone. It is a weak mind that constantly feels the need to explain itself, to make some excuse for the sound of one's own voice. I have always appreciated that boldness which perhaps comes out most clearly in your essays but is the voice backing all your fiction as well--a voice which gives the distinct impression that it has a right to exist without excuse.
DeleteThat is important in short stories. They don't need to reference some greater narrative arc or be about anything bigger than what they are actually about. Stories are important. Important enough that they have nothing else to prove.
Right. There is also no need to get the name out with such a hefty length of words. The words do their job, and sometimes they don't need many others to accompany them.
DeleteWriters for sure get their name out with short stories. It's how most of us got started, right? We can't just pump out a full length novel in one sitting when we first start writing. We have to start small, then work our way to the big times.
DeleteI agree with you wholeheartedly on the significance of the short story still. I would even say that it is more valid now as ever if not more. I loved that you said short stories are "a way for [writers] ideas to be expressed and heard." Especially in the age of short attention spans, a short story can go viral in a way that a novel couldn't. If a writer is creative enough they could create a short story in 280 characters.
DeleteThe short story, in today's world, plays a sort of different role than it had even twenty years ago. Now there is a certain trend about are world moving from a paper world to an electronic world. With the advent of social networking, Facebook, Twitter, these sorts of things, the novel and short story must play a new role in society. It's a question that I get asked a lot, "Ishiguro," they'll, news reporters, other authors, and so, ask me "do you think that the short story is dying." The answer to that question is no, I don't think it is. I think that it is simply finding a new role to play in society, but I don't think it's dying out.
ReplyDeleteI have written several film scripts myself, and I know there is a difference between films and the short story. There's a difference in what people expect to feel, how they expect to feel it, and so on. So, the sort story, I believe, isn't diminishing in importance, only that that importance is being carried on by fewer people. It is true that fewer people read the short story than twenty years ago, but to those who still read it, which is a great deal of people, it still holds a significance to them. When I published The Buried Giant, I didn't expect that a lot of people would read it, I wasn't hoping that it would top Harry Potter in number of books sold, because to me that's not what's important, it's not the size of the audience, but the impact that you make on that audience. In the end that’s all we as writers can hope do, is to change the world little by little.
I truly admire your sentiment, "all we as writers can hope do, is to change the world little by little." I, too, believe that the shot story's success is dependent upon the impact made on the audience, rather than the size of the audience. I find it interesting to see how the advent of an electronic era has shaped the styles and voices of writers thus far. Short stories will always have their place as they appeal to all and can succeed in making a statement or impact in a stronger, more forthright manner.
DeleteMr. Ishiguro, I'm glad your brought up today's technology and correlated it with a new role they must play. This was before my time and I find it intriguing. Your statement, "believe, isn't diminishing in importance, only that that importance is being carried on by fewer people," is a powerful one and I do admire your honesty. It was not an angle that I originally thought of and it does help for an old late 1880s- early 1900s woman, like me, to understand. I agree that the impact is the most important aspect of one's story. A big audience is nice, but writing what you mean is better.
DeleteI agree with your argument, Mr. Ishiguro, that the short story "isn't diminishing in importance, only that that importance is being carried on by fewer people." I mentioned in my own post that the audience is smaller but still has importance, but I did not expand on the argument as you have. However, I don't think the role of the short story has changed much. Short stories in the twenty-first century still carry the same meaning to those written in my century. Those who seek short stories are readers who crave to see how life challenges play out in different scenarios and to learn a subtle understanding of these challenges. In my era, the readership of short stories likely included a lot of casual readers, but in the twenty-first century, the readership is likely more intellectual and voracious for their love of literature.
DeleteI was just speaking about this with Hemingway. We used to get the job done with a pen, paper, and a shot of whiskey. Now, these self-proclaimed writers can't even look at a book on paper anymore. Everything is digital, you can no longer run your fingers across the fresh, clean pages of a book. You can swipe across your iPad, however.
DeleteShort stories are definitely not a dying breed. They have just taken on a new role than they did in the past. At least for me, they take on the role as practice for becoming a novelist and a skillful writer. I feel that people need to embrace the art of the short story a lot more now because of how good they can be for both readers and writers.
DeleteThere one hundred percent is a new purpose of short story in today's society. It's the evolution to how the human percepts the changes and how their appreciation for reading the stories changes. Even the way they read the story changes, now being on tablets, phones, and more.
DeleteShort stories, and writing in general, often mimic the styles and climate of the time they are produced in. My own stories often drew from the everyday, the intricacies and excitements of real-life. I have a particular fondness for the short story as it is just that--short. The concise form of it often gives the reader exactly what he or she needs in order to understand the events transpiring in the story. Rightly so, the stories I produced (and those of other authors) often followed suit; stories from the late 19th century often drew from the school of realism. They used everyday events and localized or particular regional cultures to craft a world that existed well within the bounds of one's own whilst also providing an alternative society or circumstances for the reader to exist in. My stories "Desiree's Baby" and "A Respectable Woman" take from certainly plausible circumstances and give the reader something to think about without getting lost in the many pages of a novel.
ReplyDeleteIn today's climate, many short stories also do the same. The writer puts the reader in a situation that they can relate to in some way and shakes them up. However, short stories have more variation now than in my day. There are many avenues by which an author may be published now than existed in my time. There are magazines, which have always had their place in spreading writing. However, the new era of writers growing up on the internet and using the platform to spread their ideas has produced a wider variety of writings. It is difficult to tell which style of writing--like realism or romanticism--rules the day. The most popular works of today are diverse. But, the advantage of having such variety is that it begets more variety. The more styles of writing a writer is exposed to, the greater variety of writers are produced. No longer do we often see writers strictly prescribed to a specific school of writing, but a blend exists in all writers. The short story is proof of that. The short story has always had the same function: to give the necessary details of a situation and take the reader into that world.
I agree with you here, dear. Short stories are ever adapting to the audience, and I doubt very much we'll see a time when they're no longer relevant. It might be different than in our day, but they're still an important part of the writing world. I've got a mind that we'll only see their popularity grow as society tends towards flighty distraction.
DeleteLiterature as entertainment are subject to change due to the times they are conceived. This causes the author not to restrict themselves, and to lookout different avenues of their sub-genre. The short story is fond among many readers because of the convenient length, subtle themes that mimic everyday life, and some excitement--what you modern-day authors call drama.
ReplyDeleteShort stories today have similar elements that makes one want to read and re-read. In my short story, "The Storm," it was risqué for the time. It gave the message that women and be just as sexual as men and in some cases more so. This is also the beauty of the short story breaking the boundaries--it can still be enjoyed decades later when the culture has caught up, and understood the biology of women and their sexual needs. Though, it was natural and did not have to be subject to moral censure.
With short stories you can focus on central metaphors--if one so desires. It is easier than to do with with a novel because it can bore the reader to tears. This also allows the author to invoke powerful passion that will not b drowned out by tedious chapters to follow. The only disadvantage to short stories I see is to carefully pick what you need on the paper. If this is not so, then the necessary details will fail to seduce the reader into your tale.
I think you're very much onto something here Kate, and that's the fluidity of art. The short story is nothing other than an artistic expression, and art is ever-adapting. The short story is quite valued today, as it ever was, but for different reasons. I've a mind that this modern society really finds pleasure in the immediacy of understanding, and short stories are a quick means to finding the joy in reading. Perhaps society doesn't serialize short stories from major authors and release them to a eagerly awaiting audience, but browse through that publication (I think it's called The New Yorker?) and you'll see piece after piece. The people still want it, and that's all that determines something's value, I'd say.
DeleteUpon first reading the words "We live in a time that values escapism highly," one who has no knowledge of the people in this era would think that this new generation must also value complete hedonism and ignorance. They must shut off the news station whenever they catch sound of it and live only for entertainment and parties. This is not entirely true. Members of this "escapist generation" have simply experienced a sudden shift of their uses of media and literature. In the twenty-first century the news is now available at all times, rather than only from the newspapers and an hour on television like in my days. With only an hour or so of news it was easier for Americans to fulfill the rest of their daily diet of reality with a literary novel or short story. Short stories, as the journalist at "The Atlantic" argues, "shake you up;" they do not provide answers, but a glimpse of a raw truth that hides in plain sight, ready to strangle and mug any unfortunate, unprepared pedestrian that ambles by. This truth can come in the form of infidelity, such as in my story "The Geometry of Love," in which Charlie Mallory rationalizes life's tragic snags, including his wife's unfaithfulness, by creating equations on how they have come to exist and how to deal with them (the solution Charlie manipulates is always for him to do nothing).
ReplyDeleteThis deluge of media has shaped the American diet of reality and comfort drastically. The instant connectedness that has been created by the Internet and 24-hour news has created an international obsession. People now have access to all the answers, all their friends, all the news, so naturally, people will use this new power. Therefore, they often find that now they get maybe too much reality and have shifted the use of stories for pure entertainment.
There can be no argument made that short stories have not suffered due to this new allocation of information. But does the short story still have a place in contemporary story-telling? For some, yes, but not the majority. Novels are still, and always will be, the more popular form of literature. Perhaps the short story will return to prominence. A new trend could come about that rejects the saturation of the high quantity of information in the daily lives of Americans can bring back popularity to short stories.
You certainly bring an interesting point -- and yes you're absolutely correct that short stories provide a glimpse at the raw truth, but that perhaps there is already too much truth in this world.
DeleteI'd argue another side though. This generation has information at their fingertips, absolutely capable of finding whatever they might want to know or see, and this has changed them. Their focus is easily taken to new places, like moths to a flame. Fascination, immediacy, and poignancy take their place at the front of their minds, and the short story offers all that. Furthermore, while novels might still be the most popular in terms of purchase, you only have to look at subscriptions to The New Yorker and other literary journals/magazines to see the interest is still there for short stories. In fact, I'd wager that most of those purchased novels sit unfinished next to their beds.
You make some interesting points, but I'd say they aren't outgrowing the short story, not really.
I suppose you're right. Most people will turn towards "a good book" and not "a good short story." However, I could never bring myself to finish most novels. Always got caught up in something else, drinking, working. I'd come back to it eventually, and I suppose over the years I could finish all of the novels that I've started, but it doesn't beat being able to finish a full story in one sitting.
Delete(Zelda Fitzgerald)
ReplyDeleteWell of course the short story hasn't changed; but on the same note, of course it has. That's the lesson in life though -- everything changes and doesn't, all at the same time.
I can recall the time when the short story was at its "peak," if you will. Scott and I were alive and writing during it, and I don't think it really exists in the same way as it once did; but then again, all writing is valued differently than it once was. We authors used to be able to pay our bills with short stories, serializing them out to newspapers for a pretty penny. This was done between novels, to make ends meet. Without airing too much of our financial situation out, Scott and I lived in the way everyone remembers -- in excess, without restraint or concern (until, of course, it was too late). Isn't that the way it always goes?
I don't mean to say that the short story has died, of course. It's alive, just in a different way. Writers might not make as much from them as we once did, but that's not to say they no longer have value -- quite the opposite, I would say. This modern society seems to be so immediate in everything they do that sitting down to read a few hundred pages must feel insurmountable to them. Short stories are popular now, as they appeal to the flighty and distractible mind everyone seems to possess. Go ahead and browse through literary journals and magazines, and you'll find more short stories than you know what to do with. Just because something isn't what it once was doesn't mean it's better or worse; that's all subjective anyway isn't it?
"All I want to be is very young always and very irresponsible and to feel that my life is my own-to live and be happy and die in my own way to please myself.” -ZF
Novels made us who we were, but short stories kept us where we wanted to be.
I think writing has certainly changed with the advent of the moving pictures. It's more popular, but the writing is still there. That's why people like to film some stories I've written in the past. It's serialized even, it's just seen now instead of read.
DeleteI had never considered the financial factors that caused short stories to find more obscure homes than before. Being all but bed-ridden here in Georgia, I already had the security of my loved ones which allowed me to churn out short stories like a particularly busy mother hen. It's a shame that things had to turn down that path and make the joy of short stories be less viable to other writers.
DeleteWhat a refreshing perspective, Ms. Fitzgerald. I can agree that the short story is undoubtedly alive in another way; however, I still believe most of the best work will always come from being able to sit down in a quiet place, sip on some whiskey, and let your pen fire away.
DeleteI too feel as though the short story has adapted. I feel as though when you and Scott wrote, the stories were of situations that were hard to come by, where now it seems as though anything is possible because of well- technology. The Great Gatsby, of course written by Scott, was such an iconic fiction. Back in time, it was a devine story that was a reach of reality from the society, but now everything is available in the click of a friend request or is sent in by video for proof. Takes away the magic, but is a new reality of what fiction once was capable of creating.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs long as I have been writing, it has been hard to make a living as a writer. Particularly as a short story writer. The short story form has been around a long time—long before me, and it will survive long after. Not many of us have had the good fortune to have found success without writing long-form novels. I suppose I was very lucky in that respect. Not that I wouldn’t have preferred to write novels, but it just never happened for me. At first, I did not have the time, and then I never developed the habit.
ReplyDeleteI do think it is a shame that so few readers seem to have a taste for the short story. Whether it’s an attention span issue or some instant-gratification issue I’m not sure. I’m not trying to write anything very gratifying anyhow. I mostly write about normal people with normal problems, the kind of thing my family and my folks dealt with. I don’t think many people nowadays are interested in reading that sort of thing, not in the age of Transformers, superheroes, vampires, and wizards.
I have had the fortune to publish several collections of my own work. Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? and What We Talk About When We Talk About Love and Cathedral, to name a few. They did well enough for me to consider myself successful, but like I said, they are not comic books or sexy vampires. Just normal people. I’m not ashamed of that, either. I don’t know if literary work of any sort ever did or ever will garner the kind of voracious mass appeal that pop art has. That has never been the intention anyhow.
Ray Carver
In my day, all you needed to make a great short story was the perfect environment with the perfect assistants. The best place I was ever given the privilege to write in was a brothel. Now, granted, I didn’t just go walking into a brothel and start writing. I accepted a job as a landlord, which became a blessing in disguise to my writing. Working in a brothel gave me all of the things a writer needs to write: economic freedom, a seemingly endless supply of food, shelter, and no major responsibilities to account for considering the brothel ladies take care of most of the duties. It was quiet during the day, allowing the creative juices to flow--the best time of day to work. During the evening, the place lights up with social life, allowing the writer to break away from his writing, preventing him from getting bored. Pair all of this up with a pen, paper, tobacco, and a shot of whiskey? You’re looking at the recipe for greatness.
ReplyDeleteBut now we have a lovely group of individuals called “Millennials.” Instead of finding a nice, quiet during the day brothel, they find themselves in something called a “Starbucks” with a “laptop” and “headphones.” The process in creating a short story has completely evolved from sitting down with a pen, paper, and a shot of whiskey to laptop, an “iced mocha,” and plugging more noise into your ears than you’re already surrounded by. The quality of short stories has inevitably decreased because of this. We no longer get creative, innovative, and original works produced through the silence of an empty room -- we get dramatic “same-old, same-old” pieces written by overly emotional young adults sitting in a coffee shop. Instead of young writers positioning themselves in a place of peace and solitude, they seek to immerse themselves in groups of people. And once our new young writers realize that, we may just find ourselves a new Charles Dickens.
No, I don’t think the sort story has lost its currency at all. But, that may just be me. I’ve always liked a good story. The length doesn’t matter. Sometimes, a story only needs a page to tell it. A story is many things, and doesn’t always fit into one category or another. For example, I’ve written and read fiction that seems hybridized with poetry. Where is the line? I’ll tell you, there isn’t one. Writing is an art form, so it is naturally difficult to contain it within such rigid definitions. So the question you pose has a problem, because to answer it one would have to define what a short fiction is. But that’s almost impossible, if not totally impossible. For example, how short does it have to be? It’s not exactly quantifiable. It’s like asking what the difference is between a pond and a lake, or a stream and a river. The first thing you say is, “Size, one is bigger than the other,” but how much bigger? The same can be applied to the short story. Regardless, I don’t think shorter stories or hybrid pieces have lost any popularity. People like what they like, and I’ve written and published many shorter stories and collections of shorter stories in the past as well as today.
ReplyDeleteI concur with writers doing as they please. Long-form writing has never interested me beyond my earliest writing days, and despite publishers seeking out longer works from me, I'm just more pleased with shorter stories.
DeleteShort stories have kept their importance in their world. Writing is made to connect emotions with others. There is no required length to do that.
DeleteJames Joyce
Hello, everyone.
ReplyDeleteShort stories these days, I’ve come to notice, come in all forms. Depending on what you’re trying to convey and what you want to show an audience determines how you write this story. In essence, it can be as simple as a small anecdote or as complicated as a masterful novel. It’s advantageous to write short stories since they’re very attention-grabbing. They’re great starts for those who want to get into reading or for those who have little time to read. Short stories are a sort of art, in its own way. To be able to master diction and language, to tell a story in a condensed format—that’s its own feat.
Disadvantages of short stories may depend on the author. Some may not particularly like how short they are. Many authors nowadays, it seems, like to expand the world their short story began in and create huge, isolated worlds or alternate universes—which is all very possible with short stories that are chains and links to each other. I think that’s a wonderful way of incorporating various ideas and stitching them together, and it’s definitely the beginnings of creating a novel. Short stories get the juices flowing.
Sincerely,
Roald Dahl
Interesting take on these alternate universes fiction can inhabit! While I could never be damned to write things that intricate, I like to imagine all of my stories take place in the same nameless region in Georgia. I write what I know, I suppose.
DeleteI wouldn't say that short stories are only great starts for those who are starting to read. Some of the most complex and thought provoking works I have ever had the pleasure of reading have been short stories, far more complex than most novels I'm familiar with. Also it shouldn't be the audience that determines how you write your story. In my opinion it's the idea of the story itself and your characters who make this decision.
DeleteShort stories can be the start of a bigger world, but they can also be great places on their own. Personally, I prefer my stories to take place in my homeland, as that is what I know best.
DeleteJames Joyce
I find it preposterous that the short story as an artform that has lost meaning or relevance over the years. My entire writing career, I shied away from full-length novels. No disrespect to my long-winded peers, but I found the short story was always more impactful for what I wanted to write. Going with the consensus that my work is often "grotesque" and shows the underlying horror within us all, why would I want to subject my readers to hundreds of pages of it? While I did write two full-length novels, they were either conjoined short stories, or repackaged as such later. Brevity is an underrated trait, and there are many promising writers that understand this as well. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I feel as if some of them may have gotten the inspiration from yours truly...
ReplyDeleteI find your reasoning odd, if not a bit funny because with the way I've built my career. I write long horror novels, however I have had my fair share of short stories. I didn't full on build my career only on those short stories like you did. They were mostly a jumping off point for my career.
Deletei wrote several novels, but i wrote hundreds of short stories. i agree that the short story has its own advantages. The short story has the potential to be much more impactful than the novel, since the writer is forced to be focused on the characters and the ideas they want to present.
DeleteI don't feel that short stories have lost meaning--but we and our audiences have forgotten its meaning. Short stories provide an impactful punch, but the accessibility to short stories have become quite meager. You can't buy a single short story from a bookstore, but you can buy novels. This is where marketing has failed our short stories. -R. Dahl
DeleteShort stories have definitely not lost meaning or popularity over the years. The short story has a way to connect with people novels can sometimes lack. Personally, I wrote a mix of novels and short fiction. Both had advantages in connecting with my readers.
DeleteJames Joyce
The short story is a wonderful art. It’s how most great writers get started. It’s definitely how I got started. I started by writing and submitting short stories to literary magazines, though the vast majority of those stories weren’t accepted. I had to start somewhere, you know. If I didn’t start with short stories, I wouldn’t have the skills and learned what I did. You have to start with the basics and practice before you can get a full novel out.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of how short stories are taken today, I feel like they’ve lost steam. They don’t seem as popular today as they were when I was young, which is unfortunate. Short stories are an art in their own right. The fact that a writer can skillfully tell a full story that captivates a reader so well and make them feel something in a short amount of words is amazing. I wish I could have done it right off the bat when I started writing, but as we all know, that’s not how that works. Short stories can be meant to help writers refine their skill. It’s like working out a muscle. Short stories are the machine in which to stretch and work out that muscle.
In my beginning years as a writer, I too faced a lot of rejection with my short stories. I was told that they were too controversial, too plain, that my style wouldn't appeal to readers. However, it was these same short stories that allowed me to earn a Pulitzer Prize. I do not think that short stories have lost their steam today. It's simply about finding a way to incorporate this new world into the form of the short story. They have always been used to push boundaries and explore thematic concepts that larger works won't, and this fact will never change.
DeleteI understand how short stories today aren't as popular. This may be due to marketing and the way they are received. People, nowadays, seem to only credit works if they're novels. They forget that other forms of storytelling exist and have merit. Perhaps the short story will make a return someday. -R. Dahl
DeleteThe essence and structure of the short story isn't so much what has changed over the years, it's the content. The world of the short story and writing as a whole has expanded, allowing for new outlets and forms to be explored. As far as advantages and disadvantages to using a short story over a novel, I'm not sure I can think of any. The decision between short stories and novels has never had much distinction to me. Simply putting it, my idea either works in the form or it doesn't. I don't take separate approaches to the two forms of writing, it's simply just whatever will allow my idea to develop. For example, with my novel "The Namesake", I knew that Gogul's story could not be told in the form of a short story. He needed room to breath and develop as a man, whereas a lot of characters in my short stories are already established.
ReplyDeleteThe content of human experience widely remains the same. Themes of love, loss, etc. have remained constant since the first stories were told. The story of senseless violence in contemporary society is still the same as when I wrote them decades ago. However, the question pertains to the medium. i believe it is clear that society has turned away from the medium of short story in favor of others, such as the novel and film.
DeleteI like how you put it when you said "my idea either works in the form or it doesn't" and I would have to agree. I, personally, prefer the short story but I think you have a point. A good story is a good story. It shouldn't matter if it's told in 340 or in 10.
DeleteThe basic themes of short stories may remain similar to how they've been in the past, but the way writers experience these themes is as different day to day as it would be from today to fifty years from now. The world changes faster than ever and the content short story writers choose must be up to snuff. Often times this means many short stories turn into puff pieces. It's not to say there aren't still powerful voices within the medium it just seems fewer and fewer of them have something significant to say. There is more content but less substance.
Delete-James Baldwin
Grace Paley
ReplyDeleteIt’s a great shame how short fiction has lost its place in the cultural discussion. Radio, television, movies, are all for the most part vapid. They are, and have been since conception, shallower than the puddle I step in which does not get my feet wet. There are exceptions, of course, but these mediums have, for whatever reason, always pandered to the need to be larger than life. These outlets from the struggles of existing in a painfully imperfect world are cheap, but I understand the pull they have for people. What I find more painful is how novels are perceived over the short story.
It is true that novels bring the reader into a more intimate relationship with its characters and setting. And, it is equally true that novels simply have more estate for details, for tidbits, for trivia, and people enjoy these in fiction. Where I think the novel stumbles, and the short story triumphs, is in being truthful. Unless you are a medieval king or emperor, life is not a grand narrative. It happens in bits in spurts and in fleeting moments. The passing remarks of a particularly rude pedestrian do not fit into a larger plot, but it can be an important moment, capturable in an honest form only through shorter fiction. This vignette quality of life is not as entertaining as reading a novel, where everything that has happened comes back into play at some point and all the pieces are connected. That is satisfying. Short stories are honest.
To remain truthful, I do not think this is a particularly new occurrence. Perhaps short stories had a larger platform in the past but grand narratives are always what get preserved in history. What I think is most sad is how woefully underused the internet is for short stories. It is the perfect medium for consumable fiction, always in our pockets, and yet it hardly ever gets used in that way. I am hopeful that we are only in a temporary vacuum of short story consumption, and that soon somebody will capitalize on the thirst we have for the truth and the potential the internet provides short stories.
i agree with you, Grace. It is a shame that the short story has last so much of its hold on society. The recent introduction of the internet was potentially a great thing for short fiction. However, as you say, it seems the internet has been cut short of its potential to bridge the community of experience among so many different peoples. Contemporary society appears to cherish the escape from life more so than understanding it.
DeleteThe short story is on a decline in today's times and it's a terrible thing. i have noticed audiences fleeing to film as the selected story-telling medium. If the current trend of superhero movies means anything, i find that audiences are falling on story-telling to escape their worlds, as opposed to facing them and attempting to understand them. This is a shame. People appear to be less and less interested in their own humanity and of the peoples' with which they share it.
ReplyDeleteAs a result of this declining trend, the short story is almost an endangered species. The declining audience of short-story readers cuts the opportunities for stories to be published. Magazines that once published fiction have decided to no longer do so. This means that writers, too, are suffering because they are finding limited areas to submit work for publication. In turn, the audiences suffer again because there are less and less great stories to read.
Your words are unequivocally accurate. Audiences suffer when they ignore an artistic medium such as the short story. Film is easier as it is a visual medium, and literacy is on the decline. People seek to escape rather than confront their realities, as you stated. There may be a comeback in the future as stories have existed long before film and the written word. With all this flocking to movies, the short story may become coveted as it is less mainstream.
DeleteI agree! Short stories are an endangered species! These are all very good points that you've explained, and it's disheartening to see how short stories are falling to the wayside. I think the audiences have forgotten the importance of short stories. -R. Dahl
DeleteWhile I agree with you, that on a large scale mediums outside of short stories have risen to the forefront of the public's attention, I would argue that has helped the unique voices still writing shirt stories to become that much more unique. There are still plenty of writers finding there identities through this medium and that's what matters most. Writers are finding theres voices and having something to say. It doesn't matter if everybody is listening; sometimes all you need is one other person to see your work. That is all it takes to have an impact in these modern times and I think there's something beautiful about that.
Delete-James Baldwin
When I wrote short stories in my time period, it did not come as easily as it does now. I was the first to attempt a lifestyle by being completely supported through writing, and it was not easy. Though it is still not as easy today, it is easier than my time. I wrote to various writing competitions and even had to make my own literary magazine to publish my own work. In today's society, there are many opportunities and chances to publish one's own work and be more recognizable. In terms of writing styles, not much has changed. People in this time period are more open to ideas and darker concepts. I gather inspiration from the loss of my life and in turn, write darker styles of writing.
ReplyDeleteEdgar,
DeleteYou're right in your publishing perspective. Stories with darker tones were not as accepted in your time, but today that is a completely different case. In fact, darker tones are revered.
Edgar,
DeleteIf we're being honest in the time period you wrote short stories absolutely nothing was easy. Since then everything conceivable has found an audience and usually a large one at that. The people of the world consume more content than any other time period because it's more accessible than ever. Has the substance of short stories suffered because of this? Quite possibly, but just because it's easy to put your short stories out into the world now doesn't mean there's a total lack of real life inspiration. All of the best stories are still pulled from something real and actual just like the pain of your stories.
-James Baldwin
When writers ask me the best way to sell a short story I usually tell them to put them together and sell it as a novel. Haha, Just kidding … but not really. In this time short stories are really hard to get published especially in times like this where it’s easier to consume other media. Also there aren’t a lot of incentives to try it because most of the time your work will be rejected and there is magazines barely pay their writers. However, let me share some reasons why it would be a good idea to send work in.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, you get to work with a real editor and publisher. That experience is invaluable if you want to publish a novel later. They help you through the ropes and show you what parts of your work need to be revised to have a greater impact in your story. Also you get the satisfaction of having your work published in print. You can hold it and look at it. Also others can read it especially other editors and publishers. Sometimes its more important that they see it rather than the general readers. If they like your work, then they may even call you back for more works. This is helpful because it lets you skip the angst of cover letters and having to vouch for yourself.
Above everything else, writing short stories is its own reward. It’s a mark in time showing your progress and determination to continue as a writer.
ZZ,
DeleteYour point is interesting. A short story indeed does introduce the experience of working with an editor and publisher. If one remains at home and does nothing to create, there will be no sense of growth. Determination shines through in this way, as you stated.
My time of writing began in the late 1800s in France. My style is known as Naturalist which emphasizes philosophy. I wrote with the “intention to write the history of the heart, soul and mind in their normal state.” Everyday life lends itself to the most vicious dramas, and I wished to captivate this. The short story of my time also characterized Realism. The plain style of ordinary life served a social purpose in literature, but there was also the rejection of short stories whose purpose is to teach the reader something. Generally, stories were dramatic.
ReplyDeleteContemporary French literature is still dramatic. The focus falls on economic, political, and social crises in France which is not new. Some have said that France has lost its identity as America has risen. Writing is a way to decide and create the French identity. Within the last 10 or so years, the concept of extreme contemporain has been introduced. This is not a literary movement, despite its roots in literature. The written word as a story does not exist in one specific way. Nothing is static, and this concept exudes the idea that everything changes including one author’s work to the next. Literature is transient in its research, study, and creation.
Guy de Maupassant
Short stories today, and even those from years ago, tend to lend themselves well to film and television. There’s an alliance, a symbiotic relationship that has developed between the written word and the cinema, television as well. As long as that alliance remains strong there won’t be any shortage of short stories or novels. There are many things competing for our attention presently. I feel short stories adapt well to film. A few of my novels have been adapted to film as well, but I think those films do well because I try not to get too involved with them.
ReplyDeleteWriting stories to get them published and then optioned is great, as long as the stories are genuine, no matter the medium. They have to yield proper truths. One of my recent short story compilations, Nocturnes, comes from my experiences with music. I’ve done quite a bit of lyric writing, and one of the great sadnesses for me is music culture. It’s fragmented now. It was central to my generation, much in the same way that the cinema and print are to the current generation. I think, as long as cinema and television continue to have the sort of mass marketing appeal that they currently have, short stories will continue to thrive.
I think short stories have a special bond with film and television due the fact that they are extremely adaptable to these forms of media. Since short stories don't have as much detail as novel would typically have, it provides the directors and producers more liberty to adapt the story to fit their needs.
Delete-Edgar Allan Poe
Sweet Ishiguro, I must disagree with you on yielding a truth. You mention performances being borne from your writing, certainly you understand that the whole of any story is nothing but a mere performance to start? It is through another's voice that we can see true aspects of ourselves. As a playwright, though, it is quite delightful to see the evolution of the play to screen. Though it seems much like the Victorians that many audiences do not look beyond the surface discrepancies performed by a character on a moral basis rather than just looking at how it effects a story. When will they learn, goodness.
DeleteI have also had novels turned into film, and I think it gives us as writers a chance to branch out and helps our work to become known, by non-readers. The film might even get them to read or novels, or other novels in our genres that they think would be entertaining to them. Film has become another outlet for us as writers, and a great way for us to find new and curious readers. I other the other hand, like to be completely involved with my novels that turn into films. I don't have the heart to just turn over my work and hope that someone doesn't run its name through the mud and make my hard work, something less than before.
DeleteI believe short fiction is one of the best ways to communicate in writing. My collection of short stories, Dubliners, gives people a brief, yet effective, window into the lives of different types of people living in Ireland. Each story is impactful alone, but together, the stories show the different problems in Irish culture. Many stories feature alcoholism, domestic violence, and poverty extensively because that is what people live through. It’s what I loved through. I show some of the negatives of the prevalence of Catholicism and nationalism on the relationship between friends and family and how they affect our culture. I like my characters to have epiphanies in my stories. I feel like everyone can connect to the moment of realization when you’re struggling with something. These epiclets are a brief moment but have subtle patterns to show the paralysis of Ireland, but they also grow through the four aspects of life: childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life. Short fiction gives me the ability to show so many different experiences that are all connected, not only by where they take place, but by different themes in Irish cultureEach story is another chapter of moral history of my country. These short pieces would fit perfectly in this modern world that doesn’t feel like people have time to just pick up a book and read anymore because of all their other concerns. Short fiction is a great way to connect small scenes together to make a point. The realism of this era that connects ideas through collections of short fiction is similar to my own.
ReplyDeleteA lovely book of short stories, but I don't believe the younger generations have the attention span.
DeleteThe majority of short stories I’ve read from the modern era do tend to embrace escapism as a means of entertainment. When I wrote it was less to entertain than to move culture forward by adding new voice to it and attempting to find my own identity on the page. Escapism has truly overthrown realism and identity seems to be playing second fiddle to character gimmicks. Many authors fail to see the world through any eyes not fogged by blinding idealisms that defines an entire piece. The medium has indeed changed, but there are certainly strong voices that attempt to go against thee grain of escapism without intension. These voices such as elevate the medium of short stories to new heights. Short stories are not dying; the good ones are getting better, but similarly the poor ones are getting poorer. In the battle of reader impact versus readership numbers the former needs to pull ahead.
ReplyDeleteA point well put: The good ones are getting better and the bad ones are getting worse! Couldn't have said it better myself.
DeleteI agree with your thoughts on short stories in the modern era. They do seem to embrace escapism as they seem to be afraid to accept the world around them. Which is truly quite sad for me as I feel writing should help you deal with real world problems not avoid them. Alas I do appreciate how the variety of short stories has increased due to the increase of publications.
Delete-Edgar Allan Poe
Voice, voice, voice, the most important thing when it comes to a short story. In order to write a good short story and something that will suck in a reader, the short story needs a strong voice. If that does not happen than the story will not be go anywhere, and as you said the writing will get poorer and poorer.
DeleteI believe the short story has become more palpable to the younger generations in recent years. With a steady increase in blog post styled articles where the sentences are bite-sized and the paragraphs are two sentences long it seems the short story would fit right in. Flash fiction especially is becoming increasingly popular. These kids want you to make for point and make it fast without wasting their time unnecessarily and in some respect I do see the value in such literary minimalisms. In my day, you wrote a twenty page short story and you would cast it out to every publication in the hopes that one would bite. Now publishers are more likely to take your work if you have a collection of short stories they can published which would be followed up by a debut novel. It’s a different world but at least it’s not the world Ray Bradbury envisioned. Not yet, anyway.
ReplyDeleteBlog post are defiantly and interesting way for writers to express their short stories to the public. While they aren't published they are able to have the work viewed by the world and receive criticism back.
Delete-Edgar Allan Poe
Oh, it had not crossed my mind how they are in fact creating their own sorts of short stories. Being nonconformist in this time is almost conforming to standards of fame, isn't it? Ah, this generation might be aesthetes yet. And in this modern age, almost every person is embracing their mask, something I certainly can admire.
DeleteShort stories have changed so much since my time. When I was writing short stories there were few places to get punished and when you did get published it would be rather difficult to get your work distributed making it impossible for most to make a living off of short stories. But with modern technology this eliminates that issue allowing published work to be easily distributed throughout the world. Also there are far more publishers in todays day compared to the earl 1800s.
ReplyDeleteAlthough technology can be a double edged sword when it comes to short stories. While it is beneficial in many aspects it is also harmful to many writers. Due to a multitude of reasons, for starters with all these new forms of digital media less and less people are reading. Instead that rather watch the moving pictures on their laptops and phones. Also due to the fact that it's a lot easier to get published than back in my day the market is overstated with short stories causing many writer's brilliant work to be lost in the sea of stories.
Although the addition of literary magazines were brilliant. Allowing a place for writers to submit their work and read other writers work creating a community that will support each other. Truly a brilliant idea that needs to get the publics attention.
-Edgar Allan Poe
I love your work Mr. Poe, and might I say that young students are forced to read your work every school year so I suppose by current standards the short story must have retain some significant value to the masses.
DeleteOh Poe, so glad to see you admiring the magazines. I myself was head editor of a Magazine called Women's World. We employed all sorts of writers, and it is once we turned our focus from women's fashion to women's thoughts that fame ensconced us. Perhaps that is what the modern "buzzfeed" is, a stepping stone of magazine for writers.
DeleteI have had some success with novels turning into film, like my novel, "The Hours" and that makes it hard for me sometimes when thinking of how much of the appreciation for reading has been lost. I do agree, technology had turned some away from reading, but it also seems to have been a gateway for readers and writers. I say that because, it is easier to get access to novels and short stories, nowadays because of the internet and things like literary magazines. Film and some other aspects have definitely stole the show from reading to some people, but on the other hand, people with a true passion for reading and writing have grown strong because of technology.
DeleteI said once that “In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.” It’s a bit saddening to see that the public has degraded so much that they now seldom read even a short story. How awful to deprive oneself of such a joy. I also think that what one chooses to read when they don’t have to is representative of who they are, so if one chooses to read nothing, well, says much more about their character, does it not?
ReplyDeleteOf course short stories are not all happy endings. It may have only been late in my own life that I could come to this realization, but suffering is as important to making a full life as pleasures are. Though perhaps I can understand, in my youth, having avoided all things unpleasant, seeking sensuality and sin. It is perhaps unfair to judge those for not reading that which they do not find pleasant. But a story’s joy is not within if it ends happy or not, but if its ending is satisfying. It’s all about personal interpretation, after all.
“With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?”
I grew up hearing stories, but mainly my interest of storytelling came from my love of reading. Reading sets you in a different realm. It introduced people like myself of mythology and mystical characters, characters of the super natural. While modern day has taken stories like these and transformed them into their own visionaries on screen, podcasting, and more it takes away from the emotions that built these characters for the reader. This is why short stories hold such an unremovable place in society. Short stories are like dreams in that they allows us, in art, to explore our sub-consciences.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteJust like anything in life, people have deferring opinions about novels and short stories. I personal have always been a fan of short stories. I used to be daunted by the idea of reading a novel of 800 or so words, but I have expanded my reading and read those novels. What I have when when reading those novels, is that they could be done in 200-300 words. Shorter books tend to have more voice, having to get across just as much as a 800 page book in a third of that length, causes the author to pack in everything we need to know, while cutting out the extra crap, to be honest. Now, I have written novels with great success and short stories with great success, so I won't sit here and say one of my works is more loved than the others, that comes down to the story itself and, honestly, good publishers and editors. But, with the way the world is today, the short story seems to have reached new heights and greater importance. We have literary magazines, online sources like blogs, e-books, and on and on. The ways to get access to a book are never ending and with the way society is today, always on the go, something shorter is going to catch the eye of the reader much faster. We like things now and fast, in this world. We want to sit on the plane and read a book for 3 hours and be done with it. We want to read some articles or short stories, while waiting at the DMV or doctors. The possibilities and places for reading are endless when it can be done so fast.
ReplyDelete