tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post976022390154960705..comments2024-03-26T23:41:10.319+00:00Comments on Authors Electric: Is the short story really worthwhile, is the novel really dead? by Ali BaconKatherine Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-83385702360611548922016-05-24T12:48:51.895+01:002016-05-24T12:48:51.895+01:00I grew up as a writer reading Interzone - a SF/fan...I grew up as a writer reading Interzone - a SF/fantasy magazine that published many well-known SF writers. Never persuaded them to publish one of mine, but enjoyed many of the stories and admired others (not quite the same thing?).<br /><br />I still enjoy reading short stories, though you can't really escape into them in the same way as you can escape into a novel. Especially with fantasy worlds, a short story just doesn't stay long enough - it's like spending a weekend in a strange city, when if I enjoy the experience I really want to move there for six months and get to know the whole country.Katherine Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-44862658137256925162016-05-23T14:07:33.625+01:002016-05-23T14:07:33.625+01:00Many thanks for all your comments although it seem...Many thanks for all your comments although it seems like only Lydia is starting from roughly the same place as me. I agree Catherine that single author collections are more approachable than mixed anthologies - and an interesting point on serialised novels. Debbie I'm surprised - or maybe not? - you feel the need to have a novel to make a mark when your stories are so popular - but always good to have a few irons in the fire. As for livelit - hah! I've been in them and also organised a couple. The most interesting for me in that situation is that it's all - or nearly all - about the performance!AliBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09611113709872287863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-38902297380156347942016-05-23T12:17:22.818+01:002016-05-23T12:17:22.818+01:00Yes a thought provoking post Ali, short stories ca...Yes a thought provoking post Ali, short stories can be superb (cf Saki for example) though I've been tortured by ghastly ones read interminably at live lit events where the whole thing is just stream of not-very-interesting consciousness. I think some people do find them easier for short bursts of reading eg on short commutes. however every announcement that they have suddenly come into their own from the commercial pov seems to be premature.Lydia Bennethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09328239009863878547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-44067658134848912832016-05-22T18:42:45.148+01:002016-05-22T18:42:45.148+01:00My writing career began when a short story I'd...My writing career began when a short story I'd written was accepted by a women's magazine. Decades later,my first children's book was published, but I do have a collection of these - I did very well out of them and acquired my first agent - and I've recently been considering putting them out there as an anthology. I still love short stories.Enid Richemonthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17218197995089241666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-36114453421332358932016-05-22T12:06:56.209+01:002016-05-22T12:06:56.209+01:00Love short stories! Love short stories! madwippitthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02595748471651052552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-73544048118269649592016-05-22T11:36:56.739+01:002016-05-22T11:36:56.739+01:00Very interesting piece, Ali - and thanks for the m...Very interesting piece, Ali - and thanks for the mention! I agree that short stories are a double-edged sword when it comes to engagement - one of their appeals is that they're easily digestible to read at a sitting, but once you've finished one in a book, whether a single-author collection like mine (thanks for the kind comments, btw!) or a multi-author anthology, you need to start all over again.<br /><br />That's one of the reasons I write themed collections - to provide a bit more coherence and continuity, and a recognisable shape that will keep the reader engaged, in the hope that it'll be harder for the reader to resist moving on to the next story after each one finishes.<br /><br />I too really enjoyed Jenny Heap's collection, and the intrigue as to how she was going to keep the circle going definitely kept me reading, although the some of the stories were really different in feel and characters. <br /><br />I do think the short story has grown in appeal and status in the last few years, but there are still huge numbers of people who avoid them as if they're allergic, without ever having really given them a chance. I take it as a backhanded compliment when a reviewer says of one of my collections "I don't usually like (or read) short stories, but Debbie Young's are different". Hence my current work in progress is a novel - though not one that is any kind of combination of short stories. I'm hoping that once I've got some novels out there, more readers will be tempted to try my short stories while waiting for me to write the next novel. I'm not giving up on the form that I love so much just yet, and I hope you won't either!Debbie Younghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01041441181913334550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-21739548246522055542016-05-22T10:44:35.027+01:002016-05-22T10:44:35.027+01:00First, I should say that I love short stories. But...First, I should say that I love short stories. But then I need to confess that, despite the label being apparently a clear definition of the form (it's a story and it's short), they can be shorter than a sonnet and nearly as long as a novella. Writing flash fiction is the closest I come nowadays to writing poetry but my novel 'Alternative Dimension' started life as 22 self-contained short stories, all on the theme of role-playing online games.<br /><br />Speaking as a reader of the form, I like the fact that they can be put down. Little beats the full absorption that comes from being drawn into a novel but it's annoying when necessities such as eating and sleeping force me to step out of it into a reality far less structured and interesting.Bill Kirtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16345949773423764808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-68401543977280422922016-05-22T10:36:41.878+01:002016-05-22T10:36:41.878+01:00just rereading de maupassant's stories, and ca...just rereading de maupassant's stories, and can't stop. strangely, it's a volume i had to struggle with at school (it's a 'text book', in French of all things) and it's astonishing. i read once that de M was caught burying pebbles in the garden of the institution where he died (aged 47) of tertiary syphilis, in the fond hope they would be born as the children he never had. but perhaps his stories were, in fact. hope so. they're wonderful.Jan Needlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15823078224282953782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-78963782749722170322016-05-22T09:52:08.165+01:002016-05-22T09:52:08.165+01:00This post made me think about my own attitude to s...This post made me think about my own attitude to short stories - as a reader rather than a writer. I do read them, but I almost never read mixed anthologies, which is interesting (and probably a bit worrying, since I've contributed to a few mixed anthologies myself, not least for this group!) If I find a writer I like I'll read pretty much every story in a volume. I could name M R James, E F Benson's fat and fabulous collection of ghost stories, China Mieville's weird and wonderful stuff, Bernard MacLaverty's small masterpieces, William Trevor ditto. I like them because I do a lot of reading late at night, and I can read a single story and then fall asleep, knowing that there will be another one in the same 'voice' to come back to the next night. Maybe this also explains why, recently, I've been rereading big Victorian novels, especially those episodic ones that were originally printed in serial form. Just coming to the end of Vanity Fair for instance. I've felt the need of something to get my teeth into, so maybe you're right about the over emphasis on plot in some contemporary hit novels. Excellent post - thanks! Really made me think about my own reading habits!Catherine Czerkawskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14554969254207924049noreply@blogger.com