The short story is the 100 metre dash of writing, where, unlike the novel, there is no space to build and develop complicated plots and characters. The short story-author must, by way of broad brush-strokes and subtle guidance, get the reader to build the details in his or her imagination.
It's enough to say: "He opened the car but not fast enough not to puke on his trousers."
No need to describe the car, it's colour, make, seat make-up or the fabric of his trousers or - God forbid - the contents and consistency of the vomit.
It matters not at all, if one reader sees the car in his mind's eye as a silver Lexus and another pictures it a lime green Camaro. A good short story makes everyone's experience unique.
Short stories are more radio dramas, than television series and I like that.
But what I like most is they are...short! By nature, the short story is an intense, bite-sized chunk of entertainment, consumed in a single gulp that must release a storm of flavours and emotions. It is the literary get-down-to-business-with-no-foreplay orgasm. The complete package. No coming back next week.
Pondering
A good short story leaves a reader pondering, hours after it is done. It perplexes, challenges and delights and often works best with an ending that is not all neatly wrapped up.
What, you may be wondering, has brought about this post?
I am currently editing my latest Coffee Break Tale that, if all goes according to plan, will be published in the next couple of days. It's a somewhat bizarre account of unattainable love and dreams sold out. The first draft ran to about 6 000 words but I figure by the time I'm done, 2 000 words will disappear. If it were a novel, I undoubtedly would not be so ruthless.
Writers put great stock in the number of words they produce each day. Readers too, believe more words make a work worth more and that is sometimes true - Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is a good example.
But the flip side is Hemingway's famous six-word short story that is, in many ways, even more thought-provoking.
According to Wikipaedia, in a 1992 letter to Canadian humorist, John Robert Colombo, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke recounts it thus: While lunching with friends at a restaurant (variously identified as Luchow's or The Algonquin), Hemingway bets the table ten dollars each that he can craft an entire story in six words. After the pot is assembled, Hemingway writes:
"For sale: baby shoes, never worn"
on a napkin, passes this around the table, and collects his winnings.
Food for thought indeed!
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