What makes a good short story?
Short stories are puzzling beasts. On one hand they're how many of us hone our craft- especially if we're prone to entering contests! On the other, many readers have a marked intolerance towards them; it's almost impossible to get short stories published unless you've already got a body of work under your belt. My gran's lofty declaration, "I never read short stories," seems to be a common opinion. They're associated with magazines- Take a Break, Women's Own and the like. One of my favourite exercises at my university writer's guild was to write a pastiche- I don't think my spin on it (zookeeper leaves his wife for a panda) was quite what they were looking for, but never mind!
This seems to be a case not only of snobbery but small mindedness. What is Death in Venice, if not a short story, or The Turn of the Screw? (Both favourites of mine, as you've probably guessed). The form's ripe for adaptation, yet- even more than a book- can result in a lacklustre film or show. When done well, the results can be dazzling. So many books are full of padding or needless bit characters who could be excised with no overall impact. In some ways it's the most perfect example of the form- you draw up a plot and some characters, then get on with it. Though it's true both my novels began as short pieces (The Governess as a poem, of all things).
At the moment I'm reading Daphne du Maurier's short story collection The Breaking Point. Probably my favourite all round writer, her short pieces are particularly good, even the 'less successful' ones. Everybody knows Don't Look Now and The Birds, but I've found others just as unsettling, whether The Blue Lenses (which I've just finished reading- eek!) or The Doll, where the hero's love interest seems to have a mannequin with ... ahem ... moving parts.
Favourite short stories generally? Olivia by Olivia Strachey (though it's possibly a novella), Lady Into Fox (ditto), The Canterville Ghost (I firmly believe Oscar was at his best in his short fiction) and, oh, Angela Carter! I love The Bloody Chamber. We can't forget Sylvia Plath either; I love Superman and Paula Brown's New Snowsuit and Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams. Finally: Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected. There are lots of dull ones about gambling, but I really like (in no particular order): Taste, Nunc Dimittus, Galloping Foxley, Lamb to the Slaughter, Royal Jelly and William and Mary.
This seems to be a case not only of snobbery but small mindedness. What is Death in Venice, if not a short story, or The Turn of the Screw? (Both favourites of mine, as you've probably guessed). The form's ripe for adaptation, yet- even more than a book- can result in a lacklustre film or show. When done well, the results can be dazzling. So many books are full of padding or needless bit characters who could be excised with no overall impact. In some ways it's the most perfect example of the form- you draw up a plot and some characters, then get on with it. Though it's true both my novels began as short pieces (The Governess as a poem, of all things).
At the moment I'm reading Daphne du Maurier's short story collection The Breaking Point. Probably my favourite all round writer, her short pieces are particularly good, even the 'less successful' ones. Everybody knows Don't Look Now and The Birds, but I've found others just as unsettling, whether The Blue Lenses (which I've just finished reading- eek!) or The Doll, where the hero's love interest seems to have a mannequin with ... ahem ... moving parts.
Favourite short stories generally? Olivia by Olivia Strachey (though it's possibly a novella), Lady Into Fox (ditto), The Canterville Ghost (I firmly believe Oscar was at his best in his short fiction) and, oh, Angela Carter! I love The Bloody Chamber. We can't forget Sylvia Plath either; I love Superman and Paula Brown's New Snowsuit and Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams. Finally: Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected. There are lots of dull ones about gambling, but I really like (in no particular order): Taste, Nunc Dimittus, Galloping Foxley, Lamb to the Slaughter, Royal Jelly and William and Mary.
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