Learning From Shorts

One of my regular stops on the 'net each day is Charles Tan's Bibliophile Stalker blog. Like me, Mr. Tan is a short story writer and his blog is an invaluable resource for finding links to articles about short stories. This morning the link is his own blog where he's compiled a list of short story collections for the aspiring speculative fiction writer. http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/2011/11/short-story-collections-for-aspiring.html

"One common problem among writers who attempt to write short fiction is that they don't read enough short stories. Novels, yes. Short stories, no." That quote is from his post and contains so much truth. Yes, we're all readers, but if you're going to write short, you need to read and study shorts. And I'd add this piece of advice. Don't stick to just one genre when you're reading shorts.

When I'm writing Western shorts, I read in that genre. It gives you a feel and flavor of what your readers are going to expect because each genre has its own particular tics. I also read literary shorts because here you learn the beauty of language and how to choose the perfect word to say what you mean. Sci-fi, fantasy, and spec-fic teach you how to build worlds, how to turn a story on its axis to make it more than you thought it was. And horror teaches you how to create fear and suspense. And if you're like me, and write crime stories, you can incorporate what you've learned from other genres to create a story that will touch your reader in a way that just having your characters walk around killing each other doesn't.

Reading shorts teaches you how to think short, how to center your mind on that one bit of story you're writing instead of adding threads here and there that are better suited to a novel than the story you're trying to tell. Reading shorts helps you find the heart of your own story.