Sometimes the attitudes toward various aspects of writing boggle my mind. The two most recent are short stories are not worthy of our attention and the omniscient point of view has fallen out of favor. No sooner will I come across one of these narrow-minded statements, I’ll discover someone being recognized for doing them brilliantly. The same people who make these statements will then laud said brilliant person, and the rest of us flock to be like them. Really?
Today, I’m going to focus on the short story issue. I cannot image chucking any form of writing because the proverbial they have declared it no longer fashionable. What is this, writing high school where we all want to be in the popular clique?
I am bothered by the fact that frivolous trends, like those that, in my opinion derived from my perspective, define fashion, would also dictate the world of writing. Are we going to allow ourselves to be misguided and limited by believing that everybody should be writing in the same style and format? Or am I wrong in believing that writers are above this?
True, we can grow in our chosen art form, but it would be to our detriment to forget, abandon, or leave untried other styles and forms of writing. There are many reasons why the short story should be explored by the novelist and poet. In turn, writers of short stories will benefit from attempting a novel or poetry. Perhaps this stems from my being a proponent of cross training in the work place or the fact that short stories are where I first tried my hand at writing.
In any case, I hope you enjoy the following posts on why you should be writing short stories. Your feedback on these articles, as well as critiques of my own writing under the Read & Relax tab of my blog, is most welcome.
An Argument for Writing Short Stories
hl gibson, author 