Who reads short fiction? Is it easier or harder to write?

Read and discuss classic short stories.
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Nina Rose
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Re: Who reads short fiction? Is it easier or harder to write

Post by Nina Rose »

I read fiction. It is easier to write in a way that you can create characters and places with more freedom. It is not based on real life so it does not have to be factual. There is more space for creativity in writing fiction.
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Kat Kennedy
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Post by Kat Kennedy »

I have always loved to write short fiction. Many times I have a character that just doesn't work, or a poem that won't come together and I usually end up writing a short story or novella using the character or idea behind the poem.
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Post by Rosemary Wright »

I write and read short fiction. Short fiction is not easier or harder. It is as easy and as hard as writing a long fiction. It takes the same creativity and ability. The only difference is time because surely a long fiction needs a longer time frame to finish writing.
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Post by Insightsintobooks729 »

I like short fiction. I think that short fiction would be harder to write than longer fiction due to its length. In short fiction everything has to happen in less time than in a traditional novel which I think could make it harder to write well.
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Post by Kinkini »

Short stories are exceptional. I think it requires higher precision and involves writing more through fewer words. There are innumerable jaw-dropping short stories. My most recent dig into short stories was Saadat Hasan Manto. His chronicles are heart-wrenching and can leave one gasping for breath.
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Post by Whippet »

I think short fiction is just as hard to write as long fiction. :)

Great compilation of lists. Disappointed to say I've only read 3 out of 12 in the first list!
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Post by Raksha Rakhecha »

I like reading short fiction stories. I think expressing your thoughts on paper is not as simple as it appears. It takes time and effort to write an engaging story. In all, I am neutral about the length of the story. The length should not be a measure to judge an easier or harder writing.
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Post by Lincolnshirelass »

I very much like reading short stories, and think it's a shame that the genre has fallen somewhat out of favour, though there's been a renewal of interest lately. Authors I would strongly recommend include such diverse ones as Katherine Mansfield (it's a shame so many people only know 'The Garden Party'), Daphne du Maurier, Raymond Carver and DH Lawrence, who was a prolific short story writer alongside his longer novels. I also write short stories myself, and have had some minor success. I would say the challenge is neither easier nor harder than full-scale fiction, just different.
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Post by DancingLady »

That’s a great list! I’ve read a number of those and all were very good. I’m not a big short story reader, at least not right now. I do think it would be much harder to write a good short story than a full novel since you don’t have enough space to develop a character really thoroughly like you do in a novel. I’m not a writer though, so it’s probably different for different people.
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Post by amcanelly3 »

First of all, love the list. Several of these I study with my students, but a lot I haven't heard of that I will now go peruse through. ^_^

Second, to answer your question, for me I think it just depends on the needs of the story you are writing whether or not it comes easier as a short story or needs to expand into a novel. I started writing what I thought would be a short story but turned more into a novella, not quite novel length (though I'm still not done so it might actually get there). Some stories by nature need the words a novel can provide, some stories can be given in the brevity a short story gives. Then again a short story can be pretty lengthy (or so I am told by my students--they think I short story always means four pages). I've written short stories mostly for my writing classes and not really as something I would have undergone on my own, yet I still enjoyed writing them.
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Post by lbhatters »

I love short fiction, especially some of the classics, and especially some of the foreign classics. I would say that writing a short story is not harder than writing a book, unless you want more complications and twists that a book can offer or just want or need to write more to create the story you want. Only the point that a full book takes time, so it would be harder. If you are passionate about the story, I don't think length matters.
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Post by Amanda Nixon »

This has some on there that I've never heard and started to look up and they sound interesting! Some of them I've read before and were definitely intriguing
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Post by crediblereading2 »

I don't get bored reading short fiction, especially if the contents are very creative. Sometimes when the story is so intriguing, then I would wish that it was a little longer.
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Post by RSchwartz »

I haven't read through all the pages of responses but I would imagine for those who are crafty with the language they write in short stories and other shorter works can be easy and fun to write and novelists like to have more detail to work out their stories
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Post by adorichristopher »

I do enjoy reading short stories, but sometimes when it get more interesting that is the concluding parts of it...
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