My Long Time Love for Short Stories
Nothing is more confusing to me than the consensus in the book industry that short story collections aren’t worth publishing. Sadly, that happens because collections tend to not sell much, if at all, which breaks my heart in a million pieces because collections tend to be my favorite books. I’ve loved this format ever since I was a kid hunting for anything horror. I felt like I’d won the lottery every time I came across titles such as Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1981) or a kid’s version of Poe’s short stories. My adoration for collections has only grown in the years since; they have been my gateway to horror and continue to get me deeper into the genre to this day. In fact, my first ever Stephen King book was his short story collection Night Shift (1978): those tales made me fall in love with his writing and allowed me to appreciate his creativity in a way that’s just not possible with novels. In fact, Night Shift is, to this day, my favorite book of his, and every time I see a horror short story collection, I buy it (Well, not every time, because, you know, capitalism). As King himself said in the introduction to another one of his short story collections, Skeleton Crew (1985), “A short story is a different thing altogether. A short story is like a quick kiss in the dark from a stranger.” In the same introduction, he also mentions how most people have forgotten the “real pleasures” that this literary form brings. I hope that this piece might help you remember how truly wonderful they are.
Whilst writing my notes for this, I asked myself what the main reason is that I love short story collections so much, why they hold such a huge place in my heart. The answer was simpler than I thought it would be; they are much easier to get through than a novel, and the collections can be read only one story at a time without taking away from the reading experience. Mary Robinetter Kowal, during lecture seven for Brandon Sanderson’s YouTube Channel, explained the short story better than I ever could. As she puts it, they are designed for people that are looking for a specific experience; readers that turn to short stories are in search of a “quick fix,” something that will provide them with an “emotional punch.” That’s exactly what I want whenever I pick up a collection. I crave the adrenaline, the excitement, and the “fast punches” that I know only a short story can provide me. The brevity of the short story appeals to me in another way as well: it doesn’t demandas much time and energy as a novel does. As someone that struggles with mental illness, there are periods in my life when I don’t have the spoons (energy) to concentrate for long periods of time, and, during those times, collections are the only books I can get through. To quote King one more time (please forgive me, no one is more annoyed with my obsession with him than myself), “their very brevity forms their own attraction.” They provide the catharsis that we seek as horror readers, and they do so more intensely. Authors tend to not hold anything back in short stories because they know that there is less time to frighten the reader. Not only that, but I feel that authors are more likely to take risks with shorter fiction compared to their novels. Short stories explore different themes, paces, and characters, which makes the experience so much more interesting.
