short stories

"The short story isn’t a tree, it’s a forest, maybe a jungle, and that isn’t sufficiently recognized."

— Marcel Theroux

for Creatives  |  creating isn't easy, short stories, writing, value the art, Marcel Theroux

"Getting a story published is almost as hard and merely a fraction as lucrative [as a novel] (if it pays anything at all), so pursue short stories only if you actually enjoy writing them."

— Thomas Mullen

for Creatives  |  create for YOURSELF, creating isn't easy, short stories, novel writing, the successful artist, writing, publishing, Thomas Mullen

"One can get the false impression that stories are a necessary stepping stone to publication.  MFA programs tend to perpetuate this belief, with most fiction workshops focused on the short story form.  But if your goal is to publish a novel, you should write a novel."

— Thomas Mullen

for Creatives  |  short stories, novel writing, writing, formal arts education, writing workshops, Thomas Mullen

"Short stories are the same: they generally thrive on very severe attention. But it’s an art, not a science, so some writers ... need a certain ornateness to achieve their effect."

— Marcel Theroux

for Creatives  |  art, short stories, language, writing, Marcel Theroux

"I really dig [Franz Kafka] a lot.  Some of his things are the most thrilling combos of words I have ever read.  If Kafka wrote a crime picture, I’d be there.  I’d like to direct that for sure."

— David Lynch

for Creatives  |  reading, books, crime, film, short stories, language, filmmaking, Franz Kafka, David Lynch

Follow Your Curiosity

"Short fiction satisfies my writing itch because it's such a beautiful craft.  A good story doesn't try to do lots and lots of things.  It does one thing well.  Sometimes that is a most splendid thing."

— Ellen Klages

for Creatives  |  short stories, writing, storytelling, Ellen Klages

"There's a cycle in science fiction that most writers follow. They break into the field by selling short stories and novelettes to the magazines until their names and styles become familiar to book editors. Then they sign a few book contracts, get some novels under their belts, and suddenly they don't have time for those $400 stories anymore. The magazines that nurtured them and gave them their starts watch as the novels flow and the short fiction trickles in. So the magazines are forced to search constantly for new talent."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  your 1st book, sci-fi, short stories, novel writing, writing, reaching your audience, the creative life, Orson Scott Card

"I love short stories.  Imagine holding a small carved bowl, its weight and shape and size a perfect fit for two cupped hands.  The grain of the wood flows with teh bowl's curves.  The interplay of light and dark pleases the eye.  The texture is silken against your skin.  You turn it, admiring the craft the artistry, and the detail.  'It's lovely,' you say, handing it back to its creator.  Then you say, 'Now when are you going to make something real, like furniture?'  Now imagine the bowl is a short story.  Why do so many readers and writers consider short stories to be some sort of training wheels?  As if writing a short story is just a way of wobbling around until you find your balance, and are ready for the big-girl bike of a novel?"

— Ellen Klages

for Creatives  |  short stories, novel writing, writing, value the art, categorization of art, Ellen Klages

"The short story is usually about one thing. ... I think this is the great relief of the short story."

— Marcel Theroux

for Creatives  |  short stories, Marcel Theroux

"I think that the short story has a tendency to prove people who pronounce [negatively] on it foolish."

— Marcel Theroux

for Creatives  |  short stories, feedback/criticism/rejection, Marcel Theroux

"It's always about execution. If I told you that I was going to write a story about a man who wakes up and finds he has turned into a beetle, there's a good chance you'd think it was a stupid idea. But Kafka has the power to make that not only a good story, but one that's actually shaped the way we think about short stories. ... Part of the answer is something about conviction, something about summoning the authority."

— Marcel Theroux

for Creatives  |  artist integrity, short stories, writing, storytelling, ideas, Franz Kafka, Marcel Theroux

"A teacher of mine used to say that a good short story led to a moment of surprise, which he defined as more truth than we think we have a right to expect."

— Lee Martin

for Creatives  |  short stories, writing, Lee Martin, story endings

"Charles McGrath wrote in The New York Times about his experience of being a judge for the National Book Awards. ... He didn't entirely enjoy the task.  The title of his article was 'Caution: Reading Can Be Hazardous.'  Of the numerous volumes he had to read, he wrote, 'There were moments when I began to doubt the whole enterprise of fiction writing itself.  Does the world really need hundreds and hundreds of new novels or story collections every year, especially when so many of them are so similar?  Eventually, I had trouble keeping all the stories straight, and in my mind—and even in my dreams occasionally—the book overlapped, with couples failing to understand each other over and over again, and families endlessly dumping their woes onto the next generation.'  McGrath's frustration here would seem to be about subject matter.  Why always the oh-so-familiar psychology of couples and families?"

— Debra Spark

for Creatives  |  reading, books, awards, artist integrity, short stories, novel writing, literary fiction, writing, artist's voice, Debra Spark, Charles McGrath

"The only reason I was asked to edit this volume [of The Best American Short Stories] was because someone out there in the world was equally conscientious and didn't let this nobody writer slip between the cracks."

— Junot Díaz

for Creatives  |  books, short stories, literary fiction, writing, editing, editors, artists supporting artists, Junot Díaz

Follow Your Curiosity

"I started out writing novels—I wrote two bad ones before I ever touched a short story. ... Those failed novels taught me an immense amount about focus and about paying attention to my audience—essential skills for writing the short story.  Had I not written those bad novels I doubt I would have ever had any luck with short stories."

— Junot Díaz

for Creatives  |  creating isn't easy, short stories, novel writing, writing, reaching your audience, KEEP CREATING, never stop LEARNING, Junot Díaz

"We all write for ourselves, because we're all those kids who, when we were little, liked to write poems and short stories.  We amused ourselves."

— Jonathan Kellerman

for Creatives  |  create for YOURSELF, short stories, writing, poetry, Jonathan Kellerman

"I do think a lot of bunk is talked about short stories. ... I feel there's a way that the quote-unquote literary short story has unfairly hogged the limelight. A short story is a great way to explore mood, a pregnant silence, a seemingly mundane scenario that's somehow charged with significance. But I don't see why that kind of short story is the only kind or necessarily the most valid. A short story is just short. Beyond that I think anything is possible."

— Marcel Theroux

for Creatives  |  short stories, literary fiction, Marcel Theroux, literary vs. commercial

"Writing fiction, or at least trying to make a living by writing fiction, creates new ways for the writer to experience failure.  At first I was simply writing stories no one liked.  Then, once I got better, I started sending out the good stories to literary journals and getting rejected.  Then, once I started getting acceptances, I began receiving queries from agents who would then tell me I was not 'there' yet.  Then, once I got an agent, a year passed before he told me I was not progressing the way he had hoped, and we agreed to end our relationship.  Once I started writing short stories that were pretty good, everyone told me I really needed to write a novel.  Once I started writing short stories that were pretty good, everyone told me I really needed to write a novel.  Once I wrote a novel, it was rejected by everyone who read it.  Once I got enough publications to start applying for grants and awards, I didn't even come close to receiving any of them.  It was a weird cycle in which, instead of feeling happy I was getting better as a writer, I kept realizing how little I had actually progressed in the ways I started to quantify as success."

— Kevin Wilson

for Creatives  |  awards, creating isn't easy, short stories, novel writing, the successful artist, writing, KEEP CREATING, publishing, agents, feedback/criticism/rejection, the creative life, Kevin Wilson

Just Released! Earth Inherited

Just Released! Earth Inherited

a Short Tale of Planetary Plague & Astronomical Affliction

Thoughts  |  sci-fi, short stories, humor, new releases

Continue Reading

"Nothing is so destructive in a field of artistic effort as a stock term of abuse. Anyone could say of any short story, 'A mere anecdote' just as anyone can say 'Incoherent!' of any novel or of any sonata that isn't studiously monotonous. The recession of enthusiasm for this compact, amusing form is closely associated in my mind with that discouraging imputation."

— H.G. Wells

for Creatives  |  short stories, novel writing, music, writing, feedback/criticism/rejection, value the art, creative freedom, H.G. Wells

"I did this book Different Seasons, they were stories that I had written like I write all of them, I get this idea, and I want to write this."

— Stephen King

for Creatives  |  books, intuitive writing & pantsing, creative process, create for YOURSELF, short stories, thriller, suspense, horror, ideas, Stephen King

Follow Your Curiosity

"A short story is a different thing altogether—a short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger."

— Stephen King

for Creatives  |  short stories, writing, Stephen King

"Films are relatively short, and are comparable to long short stories or short novellas."

— Chuck Wendig

for Creatives  |  short stories, writing, filmmaking, Chuck Wendig, film based on short story, screenwriting

"We suffered then, as now, from the à priori critic. Just as nowadays [the critic] goes about declaring that the work of such-and-such a dramatist is all very amusing and delightful, but 'it isn’t a Play,' so we had a great deal of talk about the short story, and found ourselves measured by all kinds of arbitrary standards. There was a tendency to treat the short story as though it was as definable a form as the sonnet, instead of being just exactly what anyone of courage and imagination can get told in twenty minutes’ reading or so."

— H.G. Wells

for Creatives  |  short stories, writing, reviews, H.G. Wells

"The only way, I think, to learn to write short stories is to write them, and then to try to discover what you have done."

— Flannery O'Connor

for Creatives  |  short stories, writing, never stop LEARNING, Flannery O'Connor

"Short stories will teach you to write. It's that easy. Short fiction requires a heightened focus on sharp storytelling and crafty writing. A novel lets you get lazy. Short stories demand you to write in tip-top shape. You'll learn to say more with less."

— Chuck Wendig

for Creatives  |  short stories, novel writing, writing, storytelling, Chuck Wendig, never stop LEARNING

"You can and perhaps should do both.  Novels and short stories combine together."

— Chuck Wendig

for Creatives  |  short stories, novel writing, writing, Chuck Wendig, creative freedom

"All stories are connected. In the end everything is connected."

— José Eduardo Agualusa

for Creatives  |  short stories, storytelling, José Eduardo Agualusa

"The short story is a sprint, and the novel is a long-haul marathon composed of numerous internal sprints."

— Colum McCann

for Creatives  |  Colum McCann, short stories, novel writing, writing

"I am too frequently undisciplined to imaginatively sustain a long work; my attention span is perfectly calibrated for writing poems.  For that reason, short fiction appeals to me, especially if I can approach them in short lyric bursts."

— Major Jackson

for Creatives  |  short stories, writing, poetry, Major Jackson

"Writers must produce.  And produce.  And produce.  ABW: 'Always Be Writing.' ... One book a year?  Psssh.  No.  Focus only on novels?  Not likely.  Writers are no longer as free to work in a single sphere of writerly existence.  Get used to writing short, long, script, game, non-fiction, etc."

— Chuck Wendig

for Creatives  |  short stories, novel writing, nonfiction, the successful artist, writing, KEEP CREATING, Chuck Wendig, creative freedom

"I talk a lot about our attention spans, and how busy everything is in the world right now, and how much is compelling us in our day-to-day life. ... Short stories have to compete with things like this.  So I want to feel like there's an urgency to the writing.  And that I need to read this story."

— Heidi Pitlor

for Creatives  |  reading, short stories, writing, Heidi Pitlor

"Stories should change you - GOOD stories should change you."

— Neil Gaiman

for Creatives  |  reading, Neil Gaiman, short stories, storytelling

"I will take you, my audience, to a miraculous world, but to do this, you will need to agree to my terms, that the drama will be tied to sentences, that characters will be defined in words, and the wonders will exist in the traditional way, with short stories that muscle across the page."

— Todd James Pierce

for Creatives  |  create for YOURSELF, artist integrity, short stories, writing, writer-reader relationship, Todd James Pierce

"Summer, like a well-crafted short story, ends much too soon."

— Nicki Porter

for Creatives  |  reading, short stories, Nicki Porter

"Short fiction creeps up on you like that.  Shakes you up, spins you around, ties on a blindfold and turns you loose on the world with a bat."

— Nicki Porter

for Creatives  |  reading, short stories, Nicki Porter

"When you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in love with the world around you."

— George Saunders

for Creatives  |  reading, short stories, George Saunders

"I exit a good short story feeling like someone's just punched me in the gut.  I'm hunched, doubled over; the story lingers in my thoughts for days."

— Nicki Porter (art by Scott Morse)

for Creatives  |  reading, art, artists, short stories, Nicki Porter, Scott Morse

"Write a short story every week.  It's not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row."

— Ray Bradbury

for Creatives  |  short stories, writing, KEEP CREATING, Ray Bradbury

"A novel is a war, but a short story is a landmine."

— Nicki Porter

for Creatives  |  short stories, novel writing, Nicki Porter

"A short story is the ultimate close-up magic trick—a couple of thousand words to take you around the universe or break your heart."

— Neil Gaiman

for Creatives  |  Neil Gaiman, short stories

"I think a story, when properly told, finds its own natural length.  If you try to extend it too much, it just stretches and begins to bore, and if you try to compress it too much, it just fractures.  So you just hope that you can find the right rhythm.  It's a musical thing.  You feel it out, you cut back, you switch things around—until it feels entirely natural.  A story should feel easy when of course it's far from easy." (artist)

— Colum McCann

for Creatives  |  Colum McCann, creating isn't easy, short stories, novel writing, writing, storytelling, value the art

"You're never going to make a living selling short stories."

— David Baldacci

for Creatives  |  short stories, the successful artist, writing, David Baldacci

"Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and other dreams."

— Neil Gaiman

for Creatives  |  reading, Neil Gaiman, short stories

"Sometimes you might think of TV as writing a long novel, but it's kind of not.  You have to do a very strong short story to start with."

— Robert King

for Creatives  |  short stories, novel writing, writing, Robert King, TV writing

"Please get out of the habit of saying that you’ve got an idea for a short story. Art does not come from ideas. Art does not come from the mind. Art comes from the place where you dream. Art comes from your unconscious; it comes from the white-hot center of you."

— Robert Olen Butler

for Creatives  |  intuitive writing & pantsing, art, Robert Olen Butler, short stories, writing, ideas

"I spent a lot of time worrying that I wasn't being a writer in the correct way. I don't write every day—I write when I'm burning with an idea. I don't really want to write novels—I prefer stories. These are temperamental issues."

— Antonya Nelson

for Creatives  |  creative fear, short stories, novel writing, writing, Antonya Nelson

"I love the short story: I love its flexibility, its distillation of language, the pressure it exerts on the moment."

— Kirstin Valdez Quade

for Creatives  |  short stories, Kirstin Valdez Quade

The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains

The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains

A Tale of Travel and Darkness with Pictures of All Kinds (written by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Eddie Campbell)

Highly Recommended!  |  Neil Gaiman, British, fantasy, short stories, adventure, Eddie Campbell, horror

Follow Your Curiosity

"I wasted a lot of years writing short stories when I clearly should have been writing novels because that’s what I loved."

— Chris Bohjalian

for Creatives  |  create for YOURSELF, Chris Bohjalian, short stories, novel writing, writing

Join my mailing list!

Don't miss a single, riveting word! Be the first to hear of new releases, special promotions, and other news and nifty things...