In Praise of the Short Story by Tracie McBride

I’m something of a rarity amongst my peer group of emerging and independent authors; I’ve had over 80 short stories and poems published, but never even attempted writing a novel. I am an ardent admirer and practitioner of the short form.
Why, you might ask, would I do that to myself? There’s no money in it, you say. Nobody wants to read short stories, you say. Novels are where it is at, you say.



Why, indeed?



I first started writing short stories because I believed that, because they were short, they would be easier to write. Ask the author of a 500,000 word fantasy trilogy just how easy it is to write short…nobody told me at the time that I was mistaken in my belief, so I carried on in blissful ignorance. One thing is for certain, it’s much quicker to produce a completed, polished short story than it is to finish a novel, so writing shorts feeds my need for instant gratification. Along the way, I discovered that I enjoyed both the freedom to experiment with form, voice and style that is harder to get away with in a novel, and the discipline imposed by the short form to express one’s ideas in as few words as possible. Money? Money never really entered into it. I’m a firm believer of the idea that whenever possible, one should work for reasons other than money, and if money comes along with it, then that’s a bonus.





Readership is another thing, though; I don’t write just for my own amusement, but with the hope that I will bring to the readers some new insight into the human condition through the metaphor of speculative fiction. And if I can’t do that, then at least I’d like to give readers a few minutes of pleasant diversion. It’s true, my book “Ghosts Can Bleed” has on occasion fallen into the wrong hands; I’ve heard the wail, “But I don’t even like short stories!!!” And let’s not even mention the poems (although I like to think of most of my poems as just extremely short stories). But I’m not so naïve as to think that my writing has a wide appeal. I don’t write for the whole world, I just write for people who appreciate snippets of dark speculative fiction. I know they’re out there; I just have to find them.



So that’s the why of it. Now for the how. I’m not qualified to conduct a master class on writing the short story; in fact, I’m not even sure I can deconstruct the processes I use to write short stories. Perhaps the easiest way to describe what I look for in a short story is to describe what I don’t look for.



A short story doesn’t have to tell me everything. I don’t need to know where the characters came from and I don’t need to know where they are going. I just need to know what is happening to them NOW. Show me that one fateful moment when their world changed forever and just give me a tantalising hint of what lies in store for them after “The End”.
A short story doesn’t need a complicated plot with several dozen sub-plots, several dozen exotic locales described in loving detail and a cast of thousands. One of the best horror short stories I have read in recent times was “Button” by Simon Kurt Unsworth. It featured one man, alone in his house, and a button. And that’s it. There is elegance in the simplicity of the short form.



A short story doesn’t have to have a happy ending. When you’ve spent several hours in the company of characters in a novel, you’re somewhat less inclined to accept total annihilation at the end (and besides, the author probably has one eye on the movie adaptation), but in a short story you can go all Hamlet on their asses. To me, a tragic ending is more satisfying because it is often less predictable and often carries a more poignant message than “and they all lived happily ever after”. Oh, but you still have to make the reader care about the characters, even in 5,000 words. Especially in 5,000 words. And therein lies the challenge to the short story writer.



A short story does not have to use a conventional structure or voice. Try writing an entire novel in second person and you’ll most likely alienate more readers than you will entrance, but it can be a highly effective device in a short story if handled well. A short story can be a series of diary entries, letters, or fictitious email correspondence. A short story can be composed entirely of dialogue. A short story can have several different viewpoint characters, and all of them unreliable. A short story is where you as a writer get to play.



I’ve already snuck in a sales pitch a few paragraphs back, but just in case you missed it, here it is again. I’d love to enter into a discourse with you about the stories in “Ghosts Can Bleed”. May is THE month to purchase it, as the publisher, Dark Continents Publishing, is having a birthday sale and you can get it at bargain basement prices. Email me via my blog. If you’re not already a short story fan, then I hope I can make a new convert of you.



Purchasing links: 

Paperback: http://darkcontinents.com/2011/04/ghosts-can-bleed/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Can-Bleed-ebook/dp/B006R6VB54/

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ghosts-can-bleed-tracie-mcbride/1100833329?ean=2940012487162&format=nook-book


* * * *


Author Bio
Tracie McBride is a New Zealander who lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and three children. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in over 80 print and electronic publications, including Horror Library Vols 4 and 5, Dead Red Heart, Phobophobia and Horror for Good. Her debut collection Ghosts Can Bleed contains much of the work that earned her a Sir Julius Vogel Award in 2008. She helps to wrangle slush for Dark Moon Digest and is the vice president of Dark Continents Publishing. She welcomes visitors to her blog at http://traciemcbridewriter.wordpress.com/