Last week one of the greatest short story writers -
actually, one of the greatest writers period -
went to the great bibliophile in the sky. Ray Bradbury's short stories have had
an immeasurable impact on writers for three generations, and no doubt will have
an influence in the decades to come, and yet while he'll be known for his
novels Fahrenheit 451 and Dandelion Wine, it will be his short
stories that will be remembered more.
Bradbury joins a list of writers including Jorge Luis
Borges, Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov, Angela Carter etc,
whose short fiction was always stronger than their more longer works. A list
that arguably could include Stephen King, H.G. Wells, Clive Barker, Joe Hill,
Neil Gaiman, DH Lawrence and too many others to mention.
Yet with all this heritage and brilliance to pick from, why
is that if you look at the bestsellers charts for the last fifteen years there
is barely a mention of a short story collection from a specific author or a collection
of authors?
As for poetry - the decline of the latter has been
extraordinary. Without school and higher education, it's debatable that poetry
would exist at all. Could it be the same for short fiction in the future? Are
we moving that far away from the short form that it's about to be confined to
history as something of a relic of fiction?
If so, we as readers will be much poorer for it.
If the full-length novel is a main course, then short
fiction is the equivalent of a starter, or in the case of anthologies, a
smorgasbord of delights that sometimes a main course cannot beat. I am not
averse to ordering several starters instead of a main course if there are so
many appealing dishes to choose from – I choose my fiction in the same way. And
if you don’t like what you’re reading, you don’t have to persevere for long –
just flick ahead a few pages and start the next story. Your time is never
wasted, compared to getting through two thirds of a 600 page book, only to be disappointed.
Yet in light of these practicalities, most readers choose
not to read anthologies, even with so many of them out there. The likes of Granta, Interzone, Magazine of Science Fiction and
Fantasy, even People's Friend,
are the places readers should go to, and bookshelves should have at least one
anthology on them, be they genre or literary. And then there’s the internet – a
veritable sea of short fiction.
And with so many brilliant writers – bestselling authors –
writing this stuff, you’d think that there was money in short fiction, wouldn’t
you?
The only writer I can think of who actually makes anything from
their short stories and is a consistent seller of anthologies, is Stephen King.
But then King has such a ravenous following that it would be surprising if that wasn't the
case. His short stories have cemented his reputation as one of the best living
exponents of the short art of fiction, but there are other equally, if not
better writers who have dabbled with some literary success, but with little
financial success. It just isn't commercial enough. And big publishers seem to
treat short fiction with a patronising smile these days, hoping that you will
return to something more commercial, like a novel perhaps?
From a writer's perspective, there is much to recommend in writing short fiction. Personally, I love the idea
that a short story can be an instant in a person's life, or a microcosm of a much
larger world. It can be an epic condensed into a fragment, or a fragment
explored in minute detail. It can be experimental; it can be a stuttering
narrative car-crash, or flow like a crazed river, as long as it's entertaining,
as long as it has carried the reader along, then why not be as avant-garde as
you want? You can get away with it in the short form, much more than in a
novel.
And there is a certain discipline, a talent needed for
writing good short fiction that you don't get in the longer form, the ability
to trap an idea and exhaust it in a few thousand words, rather than an
exhausting 150,000. It's what makes short fiction a good discipline for all
writers: the economy of words. As a writer I'm drawn to short fiction as a
challenge. It's the work-out all writers should try, to hone the craft and
explore themes and philosophies.
~
But still we go around full circle to success, and whether
short fiction is worthwhile. Ask a writer, who has to pay the bills and feed
their family, whether short fiction is successful and they'll insist it isn't.
Novel writing is where the money is.
But ask a writer whether short fiction writing is a
worthwhile endeavour, and very few - unless they are motivated purely by the money
- will say no. Especially those who have attempted it.
Which means, for the reader, you are getting the best out of
the writer with short fiction because they are not writing the same old
formulaic rubbish their publisher demands: they are writing from the heart and
soul, because they have a story to tell whether you pay for it or not. In that
respect, short stories are arguably more honest because the writers know they're not
going to be paid particularly well for writing them, if at all.
~
In the following weeks, I've invited three other writers who
share my passion for short stories, to blog here. Personally, I'm more of a
reader than a writer of short fiction (I've just the one short story
published), but we all come from the same page and want to persuade you, the
reader, to pick up an anthology or two along the way.
It doesn't have to be
theirs either. Any anthology will do.
Trust me, it will be worth your while...
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