Short stories appear to be undergoing a renaissance. Hurray!
I’ve always enjoyed short stories. I won’t say I like them better than novels or poems or any other form, but I enjoy having them on the menu, as it were. In case I’m in the mood.
And I’m not alone. Leslie Kauffman stated in the article Good Fit for Today’s Little Screens, “[Short] Stories are also perfect for the digital age…because readers want to connect and want that connection to be intense and to move on. That is, after all, what a short story is all about.”
As a writer, I enjoy the nearly-instant gratification. I can write, edit, get feedback on, revise, and post or submit a whole story, all in the same week. Let’s face it, even if I’m awesome, a novel is going to take a couple months just to draft and edit. And then there’s finding beta partners with time and a similar length project to swap, incorporating critique which often brings to mind other revisions as well, proofreading, and submitting or doing all the work that comes with self-publishing a novel—covers, wrestling with formatting, etc.
I quite enjoy the lesser level of devotion that shorts require. It’s a date, not a whole relationship.
That sense of freedom can be just what a writer needs sometimes. It’s given me the chance to explore different things that can build momentum in my novel-writing as well. I’ve been on a ghost story kick lately—I have no idea why. But it’s been fun. I even wrote a drabble, a complete story told in a hundred words, which is something I never thought I’d attempt.
And face it, when all your creative time is being spent on stuff that not creating—blogging, social media, critiquing, revising—the thought of just chucking all that for a time and actually writing again can give you a profound feeling of release.
So I’ll be looking for more places to submit my short stories. I’ve already blogged about submitting to mags using the Grinder, a free site that lists a plethora of trade publishing opportunities. And I’ve written about Blog Battle, which is a short story a week event that I highly recommend. I’ll post and reblog other venues as I find them.
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Avid writer and reader of Faerie tales and noblebright fantasy.
Cathleen Townsend 
I’m enjoying doing short stories too Cathleen. 🙂
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There’s nothing quite like the freedom of it. Novels I have to plan. Shorts can just happen. 🙂
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I stumbled upon this post of yours, though it is two years old, but it has all it’s relevance and resonates so well with people like me who loves short stories. I agree it is not about a comparison with poem and novel. It has its own space and it had lost some ground for reasons not good enough to stand by. Why short stories should be out of fashion?
Yes, with the digital space taking a much bigger share of our time slot and time being the defining factor we want quick read and go through stuff that can be complete in a go or one sitting. It helps us prepare for the big stage if we are planning to venture into novel writing and in fact truncating our thoughts with limited words in short story hones our skill as crafty writer. Novel is long drawn process and we need the stuff and we need to allocate the limited resource of time to dedicate towards building a story on such grand scale but playing with the shorter versions makes us playfully skilled on the very art of writing. I love the shorter version of story telling, and short story fits into that scheme of mine perfectly…
Thanks Cathleen, so much for reinforcing that thought. It is a pleasure reading your reviews and wonderful way of looking at writing to publishing…
😀
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