Close to a year ago, when I presented my short story, “All Revved Up and No Place to Go,” to the Rumpus Writers, the critique group of which I’ve been a member for roughly 15 years, the ten or fifteen seconds following the final passage were dominated by a heavy silence. I believe it was Ellen Crosby who spoke for the group when she said, “Oh, my God, I hate everybody in this story.”
To which I replied, “Thank you.”
“All Revved . . .” is, hands down, the darkest story I’ve ever written. You can find it in the recently published anthology, Bat Out Of Hell, edited by Don Bruns, and the story is inspired by the title of one of the songs on the famous Meat Loaf album from the 1970s. The story tells the tale of Ace Spade, an off-duty firefighter and search and rescue operator who’s trying to impress a young lady with his four-wheeling skills in the back woods of West Virginia when things go terribly wrong. After he wrecks his Jeep in the middle of nowhere, the man who they think is there to lend assistance turns out to be a killer who wants to hunt them down and kill them.
As regular Killzoners know, I don’t outline, so even I was surprised by the lengths to which our characters would go to stay alive. I don’t want to give to much away, but let’s just say that in the end, everyone acts in his or her best interests.
As a writer who’s carved a niche for myself by writing stories with moral clarity where good triumphs over evil, it was kind of refreshing to clean the creative pipes with a story where there really are no good guys–just . . . survivors.
Here’s my take on short stories: They’re not really part of an author’s permanent record, in the sense that I think they don’t necessarily reflect their true storytelling sensibilities. In a short story, I can feel free to kill a cat or cavort with vampires. I could even write a romance–even though I don’t think I’m actually capable of doing that.
This is why I cringe when I hear writerly advice given to newbies that they should cut their teeth writing short stories before they take on the burden of a novel. To me, that’s like telling a budding cook that they need to perfect the art of scrambling eggs before they bake Thanksgiving turkey. One has nothing to do with the other–or where the skill cross, the intersection is so tangential as to be meaningless.
It’s equally important to note that novel-writing skills can get you in trouble when crafting a short story. I was fortunate that submission rules asked for an approximate submission length of 8,000 words for Bat Out of Hell. If I’d had to turn in flash fiction, or anything under, say, 3,000 words, I would have considered myself unqualified from the start.
What say you, TKZ family? Are you a fan of short stories? Do you like to read them? Write them? Where do you go to find them?
Love this post. I’m a big fan of short stories. I like to read and write them. I’m currently halfway through JSB’s terrific collection Down These Streets, which is filled with delightfully twisty stories, and I just picked up three brand new story collections in print while at the World Science Fiction Convention last week. Collections and anthologies are the main way I find them, especially for mystery and thriller, while science fiction and fantasy still have a number of magazines publishing short stories.
There is a certain apples to oranges between short stories and novels, but I believe there are writing craft points where they intersect. Building a scene, characterization, creating tension, setting the reader up for an emotional payoff, for instance, are shared by both. Certainly they scale differently, but I feel writers can learn a lot from each.
One of the most compelling things about short fiction is the freedom the form gives the writer. As you noted, writers aren’t bound by a particular niche their novels might fit into. Anything and everything is fair game.
“They’re not really part of an author’s permanent record, in the sense that I think they don’t necessarily reflect their true storytelling sensibilities.”
You bring up a good point I hadn’t really thought about–short stories are a separate beast – a chance to change it up for the author. Except for the occasional anthology I don’t read that much short fiction nor write it. In fact, I had wanted to submit something for a recent anthology but missed the deadline – writing short fic to me is harder than writing a novel.
I’m impressed with the description of your short story in the anthology. To pack that much story into 8k or less is impressive!
Early on, one of the publishers I was with featured short stories. Not only that, but they had themes for their imprints. It was tough, but I learned how to write short(er). Didn’t much like it then, not overly fond of it now, so my ventures into “short” are for reader magnets or substack posts, and are generally peripherally related to my novels and their characters.
Who was it who said something to the effect of, “Sorry this is so long, but I didn’t have time to write it short.”
When I started writing seriously, I took a short story class at the community college. Each week I had to turn in a new story. That developed characterization, general writing skills, and discipline.
Flash fiction contests (usually under 1000 words) taught me how to be concise. Cutting even a few words increased the impact of a sentence, a paragraph, a page. That strict limitation really teaches you which words are necessary and important.
Short stories are a refreshing change of pace after the long haul of a novel.
Overall I like reading short stories. More or less, I was raised on them. I think I still have my well loved Twighlight Zone novelizations. Recently I have been reading more “theme” based anthologies, frequently with an entry from a favorite author.
Where do Novellas fit on this? I was really enjoying ICE BLONDE by Elaine Viets and it sort of up and stopped. That was when I realized I had a novella not a novel in my hand. Great story though.
I love writing short stories, but also make my living with fiction. So instead of trying to get one published in the mags like Alfred Hitchcock, I monetized them in Patreon (before I moved to Substack). Then re-monetized with my collection, which Dale kindly mentioned.
I agree that writing a novel is a different beast. I advise budding novelists to write novels. But there are ways short story writing can be a benefit to a novelist, including marketing. I wrote a whole book about that.
I could even write a romance–even though I don’t think I’m actually capable of doing that. Thank goodness, John! 🙂
I like short stories. Reading and writing them. The ones I’ve written, though, are securely tucked away in a computer file, For My Eyes Only.
I also am reading Down These Streets, and enjoying immensely.
Have a great Wednesday…
I like short stories. Favorite authors are O. Henry and Isak Dinesen.
I’ve written a few short stories, and I like the format. The writers group we belong to publishs an anthology of short stories each year, and I’ve contributed to two of them. Both of the stories I contributed have paranormal elements that I would never include in my novels. I think that’s further evidence of what you were getting at, John. Writing a short story is a different experience that frees the author to experiment.
If you’re interested, you can read my short story The Clutter Busters in the “Read Sample” on the Amazon book page for the anthology Stories from the Attic.
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Attic-C-Writers-ebook/dp/B0BLM19P7P/
What’s really sad about short stories is the death of the marketplace. I mean, one still exists, but a reader has to hunt to find it. As a kid, I remember finding short stories in virtually every magazine that arrived at the house, from Look to Redbook to Reader’s Digest. I imagine Cosmopolitan had short stories, too, but Mom kept Cosmo under pretty tight security.
I used to go to the library or the bookstore and page through the massive volume that was The Writers Market and dream of one day seeing a short story published in one of those magazines.
I guess change is going to continue whether I like it or not.
Although my goal was always to be a novelist, I began writing short stories for 2 reasons: to enter competitions and therefore write to deadlines, and to build a writing resume. What I didn’t expect was how much I learned. It taught me that every sentence and every word needs to earn its place in the story and when I edit I consider whether each one is right, or if there is a better choice. I agree it’s a different skill set and I now enjoy a well written short story much more than I used to because I see the skill that the writer has.
Great post for discussion thanks John.
I write both. My philosophy is that a story is as long as a story needs to be. No longer and no shorter. I don’t agree they are necessarily different writing skills around length. One thing I learned writing short stories is how to keep what is essential and no more. That same skill goes with me into novels. Probably why I’ll never be a literary fiction writer. I did cut my teeth on short stories and I think it helped with my story writing skills.