[Link] An Argument for Writing Short Stories

by Emily Harstone

“Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.’ — Ray Bradbury

“A good [short story] would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit.”
— David Sedaris

Writers who are serious about improving and developing their craft should write short stories and get editorial feedback on them, even if they are never planning on publishing these short stories. Short stories are one of the best ways to hone your craft as a writer.

When I teach creative writing courses one of the assignments is always to write a short story. Over the years I have discovered that students are more and more reluctant to do this. Instead they submit novel excerpts disguised as short stories.These classes have a workshop component, which means that every student has a chance to receive feedback from all the other students in a discussion about their short story.

If the short story is actually a novel excerpt the feedback they receive will not be as insightful, because the story is not self contained. Writers get much better, more helpful feedback on short stories, because all of the information they contain is easier to read, understand, and dissect, even in short periods of time.  However when I point this out in the first class, a couple of them protest. They don’t know why anyone would write a short story, because no one reads them anymore. They are not publishable.

Read the full article: https://www.authorspublish.com/an-argument-for-writing-short-stories/