It’s being said that short stories are making a comeback. Though I have to confess to a 30-year lapse from writing them, I don’t think the short story as a form ever went away. It has its solid tradition, its classic exponents, just as the novel does. In fact, long before there were things called novels there were short stories – the tales we all tell each other. As human beings we’re all short-story enthusiasts. It’s the novel that’s the oddity.
What there has been in recent times is a somewhat wilful separation of the two forms, resulting in the sense of a contest. Because one is “big” and the other “small” the short story has almost inevitably come off worse. This has led to the notion that, as publishing propositions, stories aren’t as viable as novels – a prejudice so ingrained that it’s become self-fulfilling.
But there’s no real contest. Much is made of the differences between short stories and novels, but I think it needs asserting that they have a great deal in common. Stressing the distinctions only creates the “two camps” mentality that can ultimately do the short story a disservice. The novel and the short story are both prose fiction. Both require narrative art. Both depend on the power of language. Both seek to embrace the human condition. A novel is a long story, a short story is a short one. Enough said.
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What there has been in recent times is a somewhat wilful separation of the two forms, resulting in the sense of a contest. Because one is “big” and the other “small” the short story has almost inevitably come off worse. This has led to the notion that, as publishing propositions, stories aren’t as viable as novels – a prejudice so ingrained that it’s become self-fulfilling.
But there’s no real contest. Much is made of the differences between short stories and novels, but I think it needs asserting that they have a great deal in common. Stressing the distinctions only creates the “two camps” mentality that can ultimately do the short story a disservice. The novel and the short story are both prose fiction. Both require narrative art. Both depend on the power of language. Both seek to embrace the human condition. A novel is a long story, a short story is a short one. Enough said.
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