Banned Books Week, Days 4, 5, and 6
Story Collections Versus Novels
When I tell people that I’m a [fiction] writer, they tend to assume that I write novels. I don’t. Or, to be more precise, I haven’t yet. Maybe in the future. But here’s the thing: I love short stories, and I love short story collections. The reason? Brevity of form.
For many years, I wrote poetry because I could write a whole first draft in one sitting, often in less than an hour. It allowed me a sense of accomplishment that I couldn’t get from all the unfinished novels I’d ever started (beginning at age 11 or 12). I have oodles of beginnings of novels. In some cases, I’ve even written 150+ pages of a novel before aborting the draft. From a young age, I kept thinking that I had to write a novel in order to be a writer. I thought I had to write a novel in order to have written a book.
But a book doesn’t have to mean a novel.
Celebrating Books
We’re nearing the end of Banned Books Week, and my intent of the blog this week was to celebrate some of my favorite books, banned or not. My intent was one book per day, but you get a “bonus” book in this post!
I had originally planned to include a variety of titles and genres, covering nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. A well-rounded kind of list–that’s what I thought. Without thinking much about it, though, almost all the books I plucked off my shelves were short story collections. (The exception was my post for Day 1, as well as what will be my post for Day 7.) Which got me thinking: Why do I love short stories so much?
I certainly like that I can sit down and write a first draft of a story in one sitting. I don’t always do it in one sitting, but it’s certainly possible. (For the time being, let’s simply ignore the weeks, months, or even years of revision that each story entails!)
But I also like the flexibility of the form. (Oh, there’s certainly flexibility in the novel form, too, but the scale is a lot larger and more intimidating (for me).) I love the technical preciseness of the short story form. And, yes, I even love spending hours perfecting a paragraph only to decide later that it should be cut altogether. The conciseness of the form allows for easier in-depth analyses. It allows for (or requires?) more “perfection.”
Mastering the Short Story Form
Aspiring writers are often encouraged to successfully master the short story form before endeavoring to write a novel. I believe this is sound advice, but there will most certainly be exceptions. Just as some people are drawn to poetry, some are drawn to either short forms or long forms. Just because someone can write brilliant poetry does not mean that they will also excel at fiction. Likewise, just because someone can write a brilliant short story doesn’t necessarily mean that they will excel at writing a novel (or vice versa).
That said, a writer can learn a lot from studying the short story form. It’s perhaps because I’ve studied so many short stories in the course of my education that I’m drawn to writing them. But I also love sitting down and being able to read and contemplate a whole story in one sitting.
On his website “Writing about Writing,” Chris Brecheen writes that “when a writer really has limited space (like, say, 2500 words), they have to start being a writer.” That means focusing on craft and not just writing; it means focusing on aspects such as narrative arc, voice and characterization, word choice, and tension and plot. “Being a writer” involves strategically knowing what to keep and what to delete. In fact, in my experience, the shorter the story, the more difficult it can be to write it.
In an article lauding the short story form, Rosemary Jenkinson asserts that the length of the form is unimportant; rather, it’s the “length of thought behind the form” that’s important. In other words, sometimes less can be more.
Short Story Collections: Recommendations
Suddenly, A Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret
Suddenly, A Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret (translated from the Hebrew by Miriam Shlesinger, Sondra Silverston, and Nathan Englander) is my absolute favorite book of short stories. Many of these stories are fewer than five pages. Keret really excels at this very short form of short fiction. In fact, in browsing at a bookstore recently, I happened upon a copy of his latest story collection, Fly, Already, and read the first story in just a few minutes, just standing in the bookstore.
Usually when I read a collection of stories, there are a few stories that stand out and engage me fully and others that I find more lackluster. I fully expect this from a story collection–it’s understandable. But Suddenly, A Knock on the Door defies the odds. There are 35 stories in this robust story collection, and almost every single one of them is superb.
I admire Keret for his brilliant strangeness, absurdity, and dark humor. His stories are fresh and imaginative and never wear thin. Additionally, because they’re short, it’s a treat to be able to read them again and again, even at one sitting.
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties is another book of short stories that I admire for its diversity, creativity, and strangeness. The first story in the collection, “The Husband Stitch,” is fairly well known and often read/studied in creative writing classes. My favorite stories in the collection, though, are “Inventory” and “Especially Heinous.” Both are clever and wholly unique in terms of both plot and structure.
“Especially Heinous” goes through 12 seasons of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, using the actual episode titles but creating a kind of alternate reality for Detectives Benson and Stabler. This “short story” is actually 60 pages long, but each “episode” is just a few sentences. I’ve never read anything like it before, and well-crafted originality is exactly what I look for in a story.
The Dark Dark by Samantha Hunt
The Dark Dark by Samantha Hunt is another story collection that displays brilliant originality, especially in regards to form. The two stories that bookend the collection, “The Story Of” and “The Story of Of,” are amazing and if you were to read no other stories in the collection (which would be a shame, to be sure), you should certainly read these two.
Tenth of December by George Saunders
I am currently reading George Saunders’ Tenth of December. Saunders’ work is always enjoyable (his nearly 70-page story “Pastoralia” is a particular favorite of mine). Tenth of December contains Saunders’ trademark originality; he creates bizarre–yet very real–characters, scenarios, worlds, and realities. “Escape from Spiderhead” is delightfully quirky and darkly humorous, but like the other stories in this collection, it’s also marked with a profound sadness. Saunders really gets at the core of human pain and heartache. Importantly, though, he does it with the utmost creativity and absurdity.
Read On!
Obviously, we all have different tastes in literature. My tastes lean toward the absurd, strange, and darkly humorous. I’m also a nitpicker and critic when it comes to writing. That is to say, the absurdity, strangeness, and dark humor need to be done skillfully.
The more I read experimental fiction, the more I look for work that pushes boundaries and shows me something new in regards to the writing craft. I’d love to hear what experimental works you’ve read and recommend (regardless of whether they’re novels or story collections). So, please feel free to leave reading suggestions in the comments!
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