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The Short Story is a Literary Form That Deserves More Love
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A short story is a different thing all together; a short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger. — Stephen King
The short story is a sadly neglected art form today, which is surprising because, as I mentioned in an earlier chapter about flash fiction, we seem to have shorter attention spans than at any time in recorded history. We should naturally gravitate toward short stories, and there’s no better time to start reading them than right now.
The short story may not be hugely popular today, but this wasn’t always the case; in the past, up to the 1970s, they were read widely enough for an author to make a good living publishing nothing but short stories. Today F. Scott Fitzgerald is known for his novels (most notably The Great Gatsby), but during his lifetime all of his novels were commercial failures. He made his living writing short stories for The Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, and Esquire.
Even adult magazines like Playboy and Penthouse published short fiction and paid well for it. Stephen King survived before the publication of his first novel, Carrie, by writing for these magazines. His short story “The Children of the Corn” first…
