Short Stories

Short Stories Versus Novels: What Is Unique About The Short Story Form?

In the article here, Anis Shivani interviews a number of writers for their take on what makes the short story unique. A few highlights from the article include:

• "A short story is like a toothache and you must drill it and fill it. A novel is more like bridgework. ... The joy of the story is that you can respond to the moment and events of the moment. The drawback is that once you’ve completed a story, you must write another even though you find yourself bereft of talent or ideas. The joy of the novel is that you know what you’re going to do tomorrow. The horror of the novel, however, is that you know what you’re going to do tomorrow." (T. C. Boyle)
• "I compare the process to shoving an angry black bear into a lunch bag, without ripping the bag. My goal is to write a short story (often less than a page) that seems full to readers long after they walk away from it. I want them to think back on the story years later and add their own sub-plots, characters, and details. Ideally, the story expands beyond the page, and the reader is active in that expansion. ...My revision process is tedious, whether it’s for a short story or a novel. Word by word, sentence by sentence. Ripping everything apart, putting it back together. I change nearly every word in whatever I’m writing, usually more than twice. The same is true with sentence construction—I fiddle, then I fiddle again. In changing the words and sentences I am, of course, discovering new ideas and concepts. Unique relationships between characters and settings emerge." (Sherrie Flick)
• "The demands the short story makes are of a different sort. The novel demands sustained attention, and that you keep track of a potentially large range of people, places, and situations for what may become a protracted period of time (you don’t read War & Peace in a single afternoon, or a single month for that matter, so you’d better learn to keep your Russians straight). A short story asks to be read in a single sitting; it offers you the possibility of a complete artistic experience in about as much time as it would take to watch an episode of a sitcom. In exchange, the story demands that you become a fuller participant in said experience. There won’t be any long authorial seduction of the reader; you need to be primed when you show up. And no chapters full of backstory, set-pieces, window-dressing, etc. Of course, all readers should be alert and dedicated all the time, but a novel is more likely to forgive you a brief lapse in attention here and there—a short story will just spit you back out, the end." (Blake Butler)

In our study of ANY texts in this course, it is vital to remember that the author has made choices in order to:

a. achieve a certain effect,

b. and perhaps even get a certain message through

and thus affect the reader to make him or her wonder, discuss or learn.

Keeping this in mind and asking questions about these things will help you better develop a compelling thesis to support your interpretation of the text.