Saturday, December 26, 2009

The Short Story Model

What is, or should be, the model short story?

What should be the form's goals? What objective are necessary to reach the goals?

I love classic stories. Contemporary stories are inferior. They're either too solipsistic, or weighed down by the perceived need to "write well" from a literary standpoint.

The short story is not about the writer, but the reader.

4 comments:

King Wenclas said...

FYI: A draft of my latest story is up at the Happy Writing blog-- though the final version won't be officially released until the New Year, at the Detroit blog.

Anonymous said...

Delirium what that

BradyDale said...

Somewhat ironically, I think the short story has to be more plot driven, among other things, than the novel. The short story is, as Kurt Vonnegut said, a little buddhist catnap. It should absorb you, you know?
The novel has more room for navel gazing and pomo silliness. People have come to expect it and it's a very loose form. The short story has to be tight. It's got to go somewhere and you gotta know when you're done.

Karl Wenclas said...

Agreed.
I'll be discussing the subject more, elsewhere.