To Make a Story Short

Kevin Coolidge


There were no bookstores in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, when I was a kid. Sure there were places to borrow books. The Green Free library in town, the bookmobile that visited my elementary school, and the library at the middle school were great resources.

There were fewer places to buy books. I bought the Hardy Boys at the local five & dime, an occasional paperback at the grocery store, but the nearest real bookstore was an hour away, and it didn’t take long for me to go through my allowance when I visited.

Reading wasn’t a habit I could just shelve, and I found ways to feed it. My mom loved going to yard sales, and in the summer I would often go with her. People sold their books? People would often take less than what was marked, and if it interested me, I bought it.

One of my early loves is science fiction, and a staple of the genre is the short story. I was able to find short fiction by such authors as Ray Bradbury, Gordon R. Dickson, and Isaac Asimov. Science Fiction is incredibly diverse and hard to define, as is the short story.

This brief work of literature emerged from oral storytelling traditions and has morphed into an important and exciting literary form. What is a short story? Short stories have no set length. No set word count. It’s more than an anecdote, but it’s less than a novel.

The short story is less complex than a novel. It evokes a mood and does this by focusing on one incident, a single plot, a single setting, and a small number of characters. All covered in short period of time.

It may use many of the same literary techniques as a novel—such as plot, rising action, and climax. It may start in the middle of the action. It may not offer a practical lesson. It may have an abrupt ending. It may take you to a place you’ve never been.

Books broaden. Stories can show us things we’ve never seen. Limiting your reading defeats that. It limits us. I believe the short story matters, and so should you.

May has been declared National Short Story Month, much like April is National Poetry Month. I’m not sure who decides these things. I don’t remember voting, but I love a good short story.

Get your lunch to go, grab a bench, soak in some sun, and read a good anthology like Warriors edited by George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois. Martin is known for his fantasy, but it’s not a fantasy anthology, though it has some good fantasy in it.

Gardner Dozois has edited science fiction for decades, but Warriors is not a science fiction anthology, but it has some great science fiction. It also has some pieces I won’t label. I’m not even going to try. They are stories. Just stories…

Novel idea? Or, short on inspiration? Email me at from_my_shelf@yahoo.com and let me know. Miss a past column? Get inspired at http://frommyshelf.blogspot.com Hobo, the cat, tells his story in “Hobo Finds a Home” a book that is child-sized, but not short on story…