Why I Love Short Stories

     Recently, I’ve been reading some blog posts and discussions about short fiction: short stories, novelettes and novellas.  In particular, these discussions have revolved around the fact that because of the e-book revolution, readers are once again embracing these much-maligned artforms.

     Of course, we all know that newspaper and magazine writers have been trying to announce the pathetic demise of the short story for a couple of decades.  Major magazines cut back or eliminated their fiction sections altogether and short story collections do not sell as well as full novels.

     I’m not going to go on about any of this, however.  Other writers who’ve studied all the data and have followed the trends can tell you about that.  I’m simply going to tell you why, as both a reader and a writer, I love short fiction.

1. Variety

     I love reading through the science fiction magazines and being able to completely switch gears between one story and the next.  Short fiction allows me to absorb different types of stories.  If I’m interested in a particular genre or sub-genre, short stories allow me to explore without committing to a full novel.  I can get just a taste to see how it coats my palate.  Reading a lot of short fiction also means that as a writer I can study many more plots, characters and ideas than if I only read novels.  These can feed my own work; I can expand upon an idea a short story just touched upon, or develop a character based upon a character I read in another story.  I know this sounds like stealing ideas but I’ll justify myself with two points.  First, all writers get ideas from the things they read.  An artful writer can take an idea and make it his own by giving it a unique twist.  You’ve heard the expression “There are no new ideas,” haven’t you?  It’s absolutely true.  Second, by reading many different stories, one is less likely to inadvertently be too inspired by any one story (and risk the chance of actually stealing ideas).

2.  Brevity

     Sometimes I just don’t feel like committing myself to a novel that’ll take ten or so hours to read.  If I want to do some reading without starting on another novel, short stories fit the bill.  They’re great for filling in those odd gaps of time while you’re traveling, waiting around for appointments, etc.  They also provide a nice respite if you find yourself in the middle of a particularly long or slow-going book.  As a reader of Henry James, I find this is often the case!

3.  Curiosity

     I've heard about a great book that everyone is raving about.  But there’s something about the reviews or the premise of the novel that gives me pause.  If the author has any short stories available I have a chance to try out his or her work and see if it’s right for me.  Or, sometimes I’ll just find a short story on Amazon and download it knowing nothing about the author.  Short stories allow me to do this without a large investment of time or money, in case that particular writer just isn’t my cup of tea.

4.  Audacity

     Short stories give writers a chance to explore, to try things that they might not if they felt they had to commit to an idea for a full novel.  Short stories allow authors to dabble in other genres and explore those weird, unsellable ideas without feeling as though they wasted two or three months writing a novel no one will buy.  But those stories are often the most interesting for those same reasons.  They are not “safe,” they do not fit the mold, they are not mainstream.

     As a writer this last point is of particular interest to me.  Not all of those weird story ideas will work, but those that did work I consider to be among my strongest pieces.  Unfortunately, magazine editors don’t agree!  This is one of the reasons I’ve embraced self-publishing.  In fact, one very short story I self-published called Sleep has become my most-rated work to date.  I also have a collection of three short stories called Inner Lives.  These are what I would call quiet, literary stories in the speculative vein.  I am quite proud of them but they won’t interest all readers and, indeed, did not interest magazine editors but they have been well-received since being released as an ebook.

     If you haven’t really given short stories a try I think you will find yourself pleasantly surprised by the quality and variety that is out there.  Here in this blog I have mentioned and commented on several short stories that I’ve read.  Give them a try and, if you like, have a look at my short stories as well.

Edit: I have now release a full, book-length collection of ten short stories called... wait for it... Short Stories. Read more about it here.

Related Content:

Inner Lives: Three Short Stories

Sleep - A SciFi / Psychological Horror Short Story

Three Short Story Recommendations

Review: "Requiem Duet, Concerto for Flute and Voodoo" by Eugie Foster

Review: "Tomorrow's Dawn" by Milo James Fowler

Review: "Ten Speeds at the End of the World" by Guinevere Robin Rowell

The Story Behind Sullivan's War

UPDATE: Sullivan's War: Book II is now available!

On January 20, I released Sullivan's War: Book I - All Good Men Serve the Devil. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to give you the story behind the development of this series.

It all began with a single scene, all dialogue, between one Sergeant Leonard Riley and Colonel Geary. It wasn't really meant to be a story at all but rather a vignette. It was, I suppose, nothing more than a writing exercise. But at some point, around two years ago, I went back to that vignette, which I had entitled Sergeant Riley's Account, and added narrative to the dialogue. Now it was a character study. But there was still a story there that needed telling. What happens to Riley after his debriefing with Geary? What is the outcome of this lie that he's being asked to tell?

By the time it was finished, Segeant Riley's Account was a novelette and came in at around 10,000 words. It was the longest complete story that I had ever written. I felt pretty good about it and planned to submit it to some of the science fiction magazines. But then I went to see a movie. That movie was called Avatar. Alien planet? Check. Technologically primitive yet intelligent species? Check. Soldier who defies command to try and protect that species? Check.

I was upset. No, I was angry. I knew that I couldn’t submit this story for publication on the heels of the massive success of that movie. Never mind that the story and theme are completely different, but the idea, I felt, would be seen as too similar. Anyone who read it would think, I know where he got that. It would be rejected on the basis of that alone.

So it sat. It underwent revision. It sat some more. I wrote several other short stories that made the rounds of the scifi mags. But my work, for whatever reason, did not attract the attention of publishers. Was I simply a lousy writer? Was it just a result of circumstance? I wasn't sure. But I had received very encouraging responses from some editors so I decided that my work at least deserved a chance to be seen by the public. I decided to try my hand at self-publishing.

By this time, summer of 2011, I'd had a novel I’d been working on for a couple of years called Chrysopteron. I was--and still am--in love with that project and am intentionally taking my time with it. But I went back to Sergeant Riley’s Account and had another look. This Edaline rebellion still captured my interest. Maybe, for the first major work I would publish, I could write about that. I decided to publish a few short stories first so I could understand the process and those stories, one collection called Inner Lives and a stand-alone short called Sleep, were well-received and have earned all 4- and 5-star reviews. I decided that this self-publishing business was something that I'd like to have a serious go at.

By this time I had written several stories (most of them as of yet unpublished) that took place in a universe I called the Myriad Spheres Universe, hence the name of this blog. These stories take place about 500 years in the future and humanity has discovered hyperspace travel. Hyperspace, however, is not instantaneous. It can take anywhere from three weeks to over five months to travel from one planet to another. A governing body, called the Stellar Assembly, rules over many of these planets.

One of these Myriad Spheres stories was about a high-profile politician who is murdered on Earth. Somehow, that tied in to this idea of Edaline trying to get into the Stellar Assembly. Then I wrote about a bounty hunter after a wanted criminal. Was he the same man who had murdered the assemblyman? (Note: the bounty hunter story line will be introduced in Sullivan's War: Book II)

All these different stories began to weave themselves together and I began to see the tale they were all leading me to. I would not write a story about the Edaline rebellion, or even the events that take place around the time of the rebellion. The novel (now trilogy) would be set about 12 years after the rebellion and would be the story of a man from Edaline who is trying to prevent the planet from entering the Stellar Assembly and, further, wants to begin a new rebellion against that planet’s oppressive government.

I wrote an outline and looked at Sergeant Riley’s Account again. Could I incorporate this story into it, to somehow give my protagonist, now named Rick Sullivan, further motivation? No. Sergeant Riley’s… was too fully formed; it had its own story to tell and was too long to be an in-book prologue. But with this wonderful ebook platform there was no reason it could not be released on its own and still serve as a prologue.

Sergeant Riley's Account does not directly impact the Sullivan’s War trilogy but it will, I think, enrich a reader’s understanding of the universe in which Sullivan’s War takes place. The short story Sleep also takes place in this Myriad Spheres universe. I hope it is a world that readers find engaging, as I have a few other stories planned that also take place within it.

So, Sullivan's War will be my first major undertaking as a writer. I hope you all decide to follow along with Frank Allen and Rick Sullivan on this journey they have begun in All Good Men Serve the Devil.

Please click the following links for more information:

Sullivan's War: Book I - All Good Men Serve the Devil
Sullivan's War: Book II - A City without Walls
Sullivan's War: Prologue - Sergeant Riley's Account
Sleep - A scifi/psychological horror short story that takes place in the Myriad Spheres Universe
Inner Lives: Three Short Stories - Three tales of literary speculative fiction

December Writing Update

Well, here I am, about a month and a half since I first published Inner Lives: Three Short Stories. I am still very fond of that collection but the breakout hit has been my short SciFi/Horror story Sleep. I think I hit a ground rule double with the cover and description. And the reviews have absolutely blown me away! Such high praise is definitely not what I was expecting for a short story that made the rounds of the fiction magazines and was rejected by them all without so much as a "how do you do." Now I only hope that my future work is received as warmly.

About that future work. My last post introduced you to Sullivan's War. This series will span four books of varying length. The prologue, Sergeant Riley's Account, will be out this coming week. It is a novelette at about 10,000 words. Part I of the main story line, All Good Men Serve the Devil, is currently sitting at around 30,000 words (a novella) but there are some scenes I need to expand (not to pad, but because it is needed). Parts II (A City Without Walls) and III (Edaline's Dawn) have yet to be written. Part II  has been outlined and looks like it will come in as a novella as well.

So, since each part will probably be less than novel-length, I am going to hold off on producing print versions of each title. Near the end of 2012, when the series has been completed, I will then compile them all and release the whole story arc in print.

In short fiction, I have recently completed a story called "Main & Church." It is a quiet, literary story like the ones in Inner Lives and I am quite happy with it. I will be revising and editing it before too long and will then submit it to a few markets. If it doesn't sell I'll then think about releasing it as a stand-alone ebook. I also have a collection in the works called Visitors. I have three stories about alien visitation that I am still tweaking and if I get to a point where I am happy with them Visitors will probably be out sometime next year.

And then there is Chrysopteron, my epic, generations-spanning saga chronicling the triumphs and failures of the human race. This is my baby, I've been hand-holding it for a long time (it's been in the works about two years) and I feel so strongly about it that I want to be absolutely sure that it is as perfect as I can make it before releasing it out into the world. It may or may not be released in 2012. It will depend on how long Sullivan's War takes to complete. But have no fear, Sullivan's War will be completed by this time next year. That is my major goal for 2012.

I have one other SciFi novel (and, as always, many short stories) that I want to work on sometime within the next few years as well as a non-speculative fiction novel called Disreputable. If you have read Henry James's The Aspern Papers think of an updated version of that with some very important differences.

Watch for the release of Sergeant Riley's Account this coming week. I hope you find the description engaging and that you'll take a chance on it. As always, thank you to all who have bought my ebooks, reviewed them, mentioned and RTed me on Twitter or even just browsed my blog. Without all of you I am nothing as a writer.

Best,
Michael