“Once I had started, I discovered the secret pleasure of writing a novel. It's such an immersive, deep commitment. With short stories, you're continually having to start again from scratch, but with a novel you only need one good idea every few years.” NeedsWritingYearsIdeasStoriesPleasureSecretNovelCommitmentShort StoryGood IdeasScratches Author:Debra Dean
“I've been writing songs since I was like six or seven. I've been writing poetry and short stories and stuff, but my first serious, serious song, I wrote when I was fourteen.” WritingFirstsStoriesSongStuffSeriousSixSevenShort StoryWriting SongsFourteenWriting Poetry Author:Gabrielle Aplin
“I don't revise a lot when writing short stories. As far as the novel, I definitely thought more about plot. Honestly, I'm still pretty confused about what "plot" means. I've been reading some of my Goodreads reviews and one reader noted that the The Last Days of California "reads like a short story stretched to the breaking point, padded and brought into novel range..." I don't know what people want, really.” PeopleKnowsWantWritingMeanStillsStoriesLastsReadingNovelReaderHonestlyRangeCaliforniaConfusedPlotReviewsShort StoryLast DayGoodreadsPoint BreakWriting ShortWriting Short Stories Author:Mary J. Miller
“The short story that eventually grew into Constellation was the first fiction set in Russia that I'd ever written, and that was right around the time I was giving up on a doomed, never-to-be-seen first novel. While I saw it could be something bigger, in hindsight fortuitous timing was as responsible as anything.” GivingFirstsStoriesFictionNovelSawsWrittenGrewGiving UpBiggerResponsibleRussiaShort StoryTimingDoomedConstellationsHindsightFortuitous Author:Anthony Marra
“From personal experience, I completely agree that it is often easier to go for monotone sadness. When I was starting out, I wrote a gazillion short stories that ran the gamut of human suffering - drug addiction, child abuse, terminal illness, loved ones dying by all manner of misfortune, etc. In hindsight, it's clear that I mistook the power of the situation for the power of the story.” HumansChildrenStoriesSufferingSituationClearSadnessDyingEasierDrugAbuseAgreeAddictionStartingIllnessRanEtcMisfortunesShort StoryLoved OnesChild AbusePersonal ExperiencesDrug AddictionHindsightDrug AddictStarting OutTerminalHuman SufferingTerminal IllnessLoved One Dying Author:Anthony Marra
“Some writers keep a tighter rein on that than others. For short story collections I'm definitely in the loose-rein camp.” StoriesCollectionsCampsShort StoryReins Author:Roy Kesey
“But it's hard for me to pinpoint where all my characters and dialogue come from - imagination or real life. My memoir, of course, was all about my past, and many of the short stories cleave very closely to my life, but the more stories I wrote in the collection, the more that seemed to be invented, but who knows... I think I'm writing about a young woman with acne who shoplifts, but I'm really writing about myself.” ThinkingKnowsWritingRealHardCharacterStoriesPastYoungCoursesImaginationReal LifeMemoirDialogueCollectionsShort StoryYoung WomenMy PastAcne Author:Said Sayrafiezadeh
“I decided to make myself a little less precious with my storytelling. I think you can see from the first three pieces in the book that I have a long term relationship with the short story as a form and I really love an elegantly crafted story that has several elements that come together in a way that is emotionally complex and different from when we started. That kind of crystalline, perfect, idealized thing that the short story as a genre has come to represent.” ThinkingWayFirstsKindLittlesLongBookDifferentStoriesTogetherFormThreeTermPerfectPiecesElementsDecidedComplexesStorytellingGenreLong TermShort StoryLong Term Relationship Author:Lucy Corin
“The short story is so much about inevitability and this feeling that things always had to be this one way, and I wanted the apocalypses to blow that idea apart. I hope it feels that way. I hope the book invites people to read the stories in order and then, if they feel like it, maybe not read them in order the next time.” PeopleIfsWayFeelsBookIdeasStoriesFeelingsWantedOrderNextBlowOne WayShort StoryInvitesNext TimeApocalypseInevitability Author:Lucy Corin
“Even while I was working on the novel I would also write short stories as relief, just to be in a wieldier world that could negotiated more easily and more quickly. In the novel, I even changed the narrator from a man to a woman.” MenWorldWritingStoriesNovelChangedReliefShort StoryNarrators Author:Leni Zumas
“In my short stories there's a lot of focus on people successfully and not successfully responding to some sorts of discomforts or instabilities.” PeopleStoriesFocusShort StoryDiscomfortRespondingInstability Author:Leni Zumas
“In general, short stories are less read than before, they're less published than before and, not surprisingly, they're less taught than before.” StoriesTaughtShort Story Author:Lorin Stein
“I regret that there aren't more short stories in other magazines. But in a certain way, I think the disappearance of the short-story template from everyone's head can be freeing. Partly because there's no mass market for stories, the form is up for grabs. It can be many, many things. So the anthology is very much intended for students, but I think we're all in the position of writing students now. Very few people are going around with a day-to-day engagement with the short story.” PeopleThinkingWayWritingStoriesFormCertainPositionStudentsRegretMassMagazinesShort StoryEngagementDay To DayI RegretAnthologyDisappearance Author:Lorin Stein
“I like fiction that deals with matters that are of burning importance to us in our private lives. And not all short stories are like that. In general, short stories - and maybe this is a little bit off-topic - but I think short stories have this bad association with, like, waiting rooms.” ThinkingLittlesMatterStoriesBitsWaitingRoomsDealsFictionLittle BitImportanceBurningShort StoryAssociationTopicsBad AssPrivate LifeWaiting Rooms Author:Lorin Stein
“A lot of people who want to see the short story have a renaissance of readership - they tend to think of short stories, and sometimes poems too, as being well-suited to the way we now live, with all of these broken-up bits of time. I hope they're right, but my sense is that our fiction reading has become, if anything, more cherished as a kind of escape from fragmentation.” PeopleIfsThinkingWayWantWellsKindSometimesStoriesReadingBitsFictionBrokenShort StoryRenaissanceBroken UpReadershipFragmentation Author:Lorin Stein
“So, short stories have an even harder time, because they tend to get read during the day, between other things. They're interstitial. And yet the content of short stories tends to be very much "nighttime" content.” StoriesHarderShort StoryNighttime Author:Lorin Stein
“Chekhov used to correspond with aspiring writers, and once he gave this advice to Maxim Gorky when he was encouraging him to pare his wordy sentences: "When someone expends the least amount of motion on a given action, that's grace." The short story, by definition, embodies this notion of grace, because it requires such forceful compression to achieve its effects.” StoriesActionUsedGivenGraceAchieveAdviceEffectsAmountNotionDefinitionsSentencesShort StoryMaximsChekhovAspiring WritersCompression Author:Catherine Brady
“One easy mistake to make with the first novel is to expand the short story. Some things are better as a story; you cannot dilute things into a novel. I think the first hundred pages of a novel are very important. That's where you set things up: the world, the characters. Once you've set that up, it'll be much easier.” ThinkingWorldFirstsImportantCharacterStoriesEasyMistakeNovelEasierPagesHundredShort Story Author:Yiyun Li
“From a literary standpoint, I've been loving Raymond Carver's short stories, William Carlos Williams' poems, Richard Siken's 'Crush', John Fante, and Jim Harrison's book of ghazals. I love film and photography too, so many of my songs are very image rich from those influences.” BookStoriesFilmSongRichInfluencePhotographyCrushShort StoryStandpointLove FilmsCarver Author:Greta Salpeter
“Around the time I dropped out of college, I decided to start taking what I liked about short stories and apply it to writing songs - to make these things that would change and keep going.” WritingStoriesSongCollegeDecidedKeep GoingShort StoryWriting Songs Author:Avey Tare
“I'm very happy - if I can do even a little bit of work to get the short story out more, I'm thrilled.” IfsLittlesI CanStoriesBitsCan DoLittle BitShort StoryVery Happy Author:George Saunders
“In the beginning this was just an idea. Then it was a short story. Then it was a script. Each step was pretty exciting to see people come on board to support the project. It's gratifying to know that more people are seeing my work in this form than my work as a playwright. And it's been fun to hear people's response to seeing it. I've been having some deep conversations with strangers and friends about how much it has made them think about slavery and its impact today.” PeopleThinkingKnowsMadeIdeasStoriesTodayFormFunStepsSupportSeeingConversationProjectsExcitingSlaveryImpactResponseScriptsStrangerBoardsShort StoryPlaywrightStrangers And Friends Author:Steven C. Harper
“Writing is my number one passion. I've written two novels. I've written a screenplay. I also write short stories and poetry.” WritingTwoStoriesPassionNumbersNovelWrittenShort StoryScreenplays Author:Evangeline Lilly
“The short story feels like the most natural length for prose fiction, or certainly for the kind of ideas and situations I like to encounter.” FeelsKindIdeasStoriesNaturalFictionSituationEncountersProseLengthShort Story Author:Nicholas Royle
“I've written over 100 short stories. You could say I'm obsessed with short stories.” StoriesWrittenObsessedShort Story Author:Nicholas Royle
“What the short story needs above all is for one of the big publishers to get an equivalent series up and running and to support it and promote it.” NeedsStoriesBigsRunningSupportSeriesShort StoryPublishers Author:Nicholas Royle
“I never know exactly where I'm going with a story, whether it's a short story or a novel. If I did I'd soon grow bored of it. The fun, for me, is in the finding out and the making sense of it.” IfsKnowsStoriesFunGrowsNovelFindingsMake SenseBoredShort Story Author:Nicholas Royle
“I had a story-telling mother; she's written novels and short stories. So I feel like maybe I'm staying alive by telling tales.” FeelsStoriesMotherNovelAliveWrittenTalesStayingShort StoryStaying Alive Author:Ayshay
“I have had, like most women, a lifelong preoccupation with my weight. My first published short story was a love story between an elderly man and a very young morbidity obese woman.” MenFirstsStoriesYoungWeightLove StoryShort StoryElderlyLifelongPreoccupationObeseMorbidity Author:Lori Lansens
“It's an essay that Sigmund Freud wrote about E.T.A. Hoffman's short story called "The Sandman" where someone mistakes an inanimate object for a living, breathing human being. And one of the things that Sigmund Freud really felt was that in modern life people assign qualities to objects around them that may not exist there whatsoever.” PeopleHumansMayStoriesFeltHuman BeingsMistakeQualityModernObjectsBreathingShort StoryEssaysModern LifeSandmanInanimate ObjectsOne Mistake Author:DJ Spooky
“We were friends with Jonathan Demme. We were all down on the West Side of New York, and I think I met Kurt Vonnegut through Edith Demme. And then I was lucky to do Who Am I This Time? 1982, which was an adaptation of his short story that Jonathan Demme directed with Chris Walken and I, and that really cemented the friendship.” ThinkingStoriesSidesNew YorkMetsLuckyWestShort StoryAdaptationWest Side Author:Susan Sarandon
“I was also a good writer, by the way. My, you know, my English teacher and writing teacher loved my writing. You know, I wrote short stories and things like that. And they liked them very much.” KnowsWayWritingStoriesTeacherShort StoryGood WritersEnglish Teacher Author:Robert Barry
“I've been doing morning pages: the first thing I do when I wake up is sit down and write three pages of whatever comes into my head. The more I do them, the more creative I get and the smaller my problems seem. I can turn something that I hated a few days ago into a short story or a song.” WritingFirstsI CanStoriesProblemSeemsSongTurnsThreeMorningCreativePagesWake UpDown AndHatedShort Story Author:T. Mills
“[Jorge Luis Borges] had short stories, and I was trying to learn how to write short stories, and then he had these things in the middle that were like fables, and I loved hearing fables.” WritingTryingStoriesMiddleHearingShort StoryFablesBorges Author:Sandra Cisneros
“If you read my short stories, there's a lot of sex in those in all different ways. To me, it's a really good, useful thing to get to have in a story. And in a movie, it's amazing, because you actually get to show things.” IfsWayDifferentStoriesShowsSexDifferent WaysShort StoryUseful Things Author:Miranda July
“I think because I write so many short stories, it's not that hard to come up with characters that are not me.” ThinkingWritingHardCharacterStoriesCome UpShort Story Author:Miranda July
“What's impossible not to notice, though - it's all around us - is the diminution of American prose: How pedestrian it has become. Pick up any short story and listen to its voice, the tedious easy vernacular that mistakes transcription for realism. This would display an understandable pragmatism if it were a pandering to common-denominator readers; but it is, in fact, a kind of hifalultin literary ideology, the less-is-more Hemingway legacy put through an up-to-the-minute industrial blender.” IfsKindFactsStoriesEasyVoiceCommonMistakeImpossibleMinutesReaderPicksIdeologyLegacyProseShort StoryDisplayRealismTediousPragmatismCommon DenominatorPedestriansLess Is MoreVernacularBlendersTranscription Author:Cynthia Ozick
“Sometimes I do work on a longer manuscript in tandem with one or two shorter pieces - whether it's a short story or an essay (though I don't write many of the latter).” WritingTwoSometimesStoriesPiecesLatterShort StoryEssaysManuscriptsTandem Author:Christine Sneed
“I sat down and wrote a short story in two weeks and submitted it to Marion Zimmer Bradley. And Marion bought "Wound On The Moon" .My first sale and my first pro sale rolled into one.” FirstsTwoStoriesWeekMoonDown AndWoundsSatShort StoryTwo Weeks Author:Vera Nazarian
“Short stories are like individual jewel stones on a necklace, wonderful in themselves like standalone gleaming entities of semantic intensity.” StoriesIndividualWonderfulStonesIntensityShort StoryEntityJewelsNecklaces Author:Vera Nazarian
“I began by doing book reviews on the typewriter and then went over to short stories on the machine, meanwhile sticking to pencil for poetry.” BookStoriesMachinesReviewsShort StoryPencilsTypewritersBook Review Author:Conrad Aiken
“If Francoise Sagan hadn't written a book called A Chateau in Sweden, I would certainly write a short story called A Chateau in Puerto Rico. And I may yet.” IfsWritingMayBookStoriesWrittenShort StorySwedenPuerto RicoRicoSagan Author:Truman Capote
“I couldn't sit down and write a novel or a short story - even now - because of my dyslexia. But I learned narration through movies.” WritingStoriesNovelDown AndShort StoryNarrationDyslexia Author:Robert Benton
“I'm much more drawn to fiction, to short stories, and to plays, than I am to diarists.” PlayStoriesFictionShort Story Author:Regina Spektor
“I had a short story collection come out in 2006, and then I couldn't work on large projects for a long time because I was finishing my doctoral degree.” LongStoriesDegreesProjectsLong TimeCollectionsShort StoryFinishing Author:Theodora Goss
“Though The Kite Runner was my first completed novel, I had been writing on and off for most of my life, primarily short stories, and primarily for myself.” WritingFirstsStoriesNovelShort StoryRunnersAnd OffKites Author:Khaled Hosseini
“I found myself sitting at the computer, and I thought I was going to write a kind of simple nostalgic story about two boys and their love of kite fighting. But stories have a will of their own, and this one turned out to be this dark tale about betrayal, loss, regret. The short story which was about 25 pages long sat around for a couple of years.” WritingYearsKindLongTwoStoriesFightingFoundDarkLossSimpleBoysRegretCoupleComputerPagesSittingBetrayalTalesSatShort StoryNostalgicKites Author:Khaled Hosseini
“In March of 2001, I revisited the short story, and found that thought it did not work well as a short story, it might work much better as a longer one. The novel [The Kite Runner] came about as an expansion of that original, unpublished short story.” WellsStoriesMightFoundNovelOriginalsMarchShort StoryExpansionRunnersKites Author:Khaled Hosseini
“The novel [The Kite Runner] came about as an expansion of that original, unpublished short story.” StoriesNovelOriginalsShort StoryExpansionRunnersKites Author:Khaled Hosseini
“[Irony] has everything to do with what Tillie Olsen so powerfully imagined in her short story, "As I Stand Here Ironing" and elaborates on polemically in her 1978 book, Silences, in a chapter first delivered as a talk in 1967. As Olsen clearly saw it for women, my not being a writer was a material consequence of my being a woman - a wife, mother, housewife, and a certain kind of feminist teacher - attentive, one-on-one, face-to-face, nurturing, the kind who receives high ESCI evaluation scores from undergraduates and graduate students.” FirstsKindBookStoriesFacesMotherCertainSilenceSawsTeacherWifeStudentsMaterialsConsequenceFeministIronyScoreShort StoryGraduatesChaptersFace To FaceNurturingBeing A WomanHousewifeEvaluationOne On OneGraduate StudentsWife Mother Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim