Short fiction still healthy, despite low popularity

Nov 07 2007

Tonight, as I was reading the many unread blog posts in my Google Reader page, I came across an interesting post from Critical Mass, the blog of the national book critics circle board of directors. The post was an essay written by Larry Dark, who is a former editor for the O.Henry Prize.

I actually felt a wave of relief fall over me as I read Dark’s essay, because in it, he gives his impressions on the state of short fiction, and all the "doomsday predictions" for the short story probably won’t come true. While it’s not as popular as it used to be, the short story is still a vibrant art form with a small but strong audience. And as Dark points out, publishing short fiction is still where many authors get noticed by editors and literary agents scouting out new talent:

Savvy agents in search of new talent look to literary magazines these days. And if you pick up a collection of short fiction and check the credits, you’ll see the range of publications that nurture writers.

I’ve always been amazed at the credentials some of these writers have who publish in the literary magazines. Many have numerous publishing credits to their name, have won contests, and a good number of them even have books on the market (or if they don’t, a book is in the works).

Aside from launching literary careers, those who publish short fiction have a chance to hone their "writing chops" and practice the craft of writing without investing all the time and emotion that goes into a novel. I’m not saying short fiction is easy, because it isn’t, but writing a short story gives one the ability to experiment a lot more with various forms, characters, settings and even genres.

The part of Dark’s essay that I really liked was when he talked about the shrinking popularity of short fiction being a non-issue:

Popularity isn’t a good measure of importance. What really keeps the story going is that writers keep writing them despite the potential returns. Great new talents emerge every year because the form is such a compelling and challenging one. The best practitioners aren’t limited by the diffidence of the market. They don’t write for a particular audience or in pursuit of wide acclaim.

I’m one of those writers! I write (and have written) many short stories that I know will never be published. But the satisfaction I received from finishing a story (it’s harder than it looks) is something I always love, next to finishing a good poem (those are few and far between, however).

In fact, I usually compare the short story with poetry because the two have many similarities. For example, when you write a story, you are limited in length, if you write too much, it will eventually become a novel. So every word, sentence and paragraph must be strong. The characters must be well-developed from the very beginning and the dialogue has to be sharp. If a novel has a few bad parts, it’s probably still an okay novel. But if a short story has even one bad part (like a weak beginning or a lame ending) it can ruin the entire story.

I hope that Larry Dark will continue promoting the short story, as it’s the form I grew up writing and I still love it today! At any given time I always have at least one short story in the works, sometimes more, and I’ve been that way for years now.

Larry Dark on the Short Story Today

One Response

I’m sure that short story reading is alive and well.
The visitors to my online short story sites are more numerous on office work days than at the weekends and my stats indicate that a very large number of my visitors are from work networks.
I reckon a lot of people find short stories ideal to drop into for a coffee or lunch break.
Apparently broadcast radio was given a big helping hand by the advent of in-car radio, before which it was languishing because of the advent of television.
Perhaps each type of media has to find the niche where it’s strengths lie.

Rob Hopcott 11/10/2007 10:44 am