Here's the meme:
- Do you read short fiction, and if so how large a portion of your reading time is devoted to short fiction?
- From where do you partake of short fiction? Online zines? Electronic media? Print collections?
- If you do read short fiction do you mostly stick to genre fiction or are you an equal opportunity short fiction aficionado?
- What about the format appeals to you?
- Are there drawbacks to the format that affect your enjoyment of short fiction?
- What is your assessment of the current state of short fiction and the short fiction market?
- Do you find it important to try to keep up with the latest stories being released?
- What stories, classic or contemporary, would you recommend that most adequately capture your feelings about short fiction and/or highlight what the format can do?
3 comments:
1. Do you read short fiction, and if so how large a portion of your reading time is devoted to short fiction?
About 75% of my reading has been devoted to short fiction the last several years.
2.From where do you partake of short fiction? Online zines? Electronic media? Print collections?
Mostly online zines and print collections and anthologies.
3.If you do read short fiction do you mostly stick to genre fiction or are you an equal opportunity short fiction aficionado?
I read all over the map because each genre teaches me something new about writing.
4.What about the format appeals to you?
The ability to go anywhere and do anything. You don't have that kind of freedom in the novel format.
5.Are there drawbacks to the format that affect your enjoyment of short fiction?
Sometimes, but mostly with flash fiction, I feel like writers are only going for the punchline joke or gotcha line.
6.What is your assessment of the current state of short fiction and the short fiction market?
Since I write mostly in the crime genre I've noticed in the past year that the market is shrinking, for other genres there seems to be an explosion of markets looking for short stories. So as a whole short fiction and short fiction markets are stronger than ever.
7.Do you find it important to try to keep up with the latest stories being released?
As a writer, yes, because I like to see what's being done in the various genres. As a reader, not so much because I enjoy many of the older stories and finding authors I've never heard of.
8.What stories, classic or contemporary, would you recommend that most adequately capture your feelings about short fiction and/or highlight what the format can do?
The Payoff by Stanley Ellin and Soft Monkey by Harlan Ellison are two stories that have just stuck with me and really show what's possible in the short form.
Hey Sandra,
1. Maybe half of my reading is devoted to short fiction.
2. I read mostly print.
3. I read short fiction across the genres.
4. I think short stories are usually better stories than novels. The usual complaint ("I just wanted it to continue") is not a fault but proof how effective the short format can be.
5. Not are short stories are equally good. :)
6. For me, market questions have two parts: quantity and quality of payment. All I can say is I wish I was writing during the pulp era. :)
7. I learn more reading older stories than I do newer, but I think it's more important for me to read widely.
8. A large part of my sense of what a story can do comes from the shorts of Richard Matheson.
Stephen
Thanks for playing, Stephen! Matheson is genius who I need to read more of.
I agree with you about the "I wanted more comments". They want more because they were pulled into the story so far they didn't want it to end.
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