Short stories fall in a gray area between full-length novels and poetry, not quite long enough to consume a printed book all on its own in most cases, but not short enough to be limited to a few pages of text. It is easy to write pages and pages of words to convey an idea or message, but it takes masterful writers to compress their stories in such a way that they can be told in only a few dozen pages. The way short stories are written is tricky, as the author has to utilize carefully constructed sentences to imply storylines and details that aren’t explicitly written.
Stephen King does this masterfully in his short story “Fair Extension”(2010). Only covering a couple dozen pages, King makes the reader feel the same existential angst that the protagonist is going through. Poetry takes this brief writing style even further, but short stories are still able to maintain word flow. Short stories turn into a deceptively understandable form, fooling unobservant readers into only skimming the surface of a larger story hidden beneath.
When I go to a bookstore, one of my favorite types of books to find -- purely based on what catches my eye in the description -- are short story collections. I found this with Paul Auster’s “New York Trilogy” (1985 - 1986). Collections can be by one author or many, and the stories themselves may be related or not. The editor or the author organizes each collection so that even if their stories take place in completely different universes, together, they still have a purposeful impact on the reader. I particularly enjoy when a subtle theme arises across each story, connecting them in hugely meaningful ways for the reader.
Not all short stories are perfect, though. There are many times when I pick up a collection eagerly, only to find the stories are poorly written or don’t fit with one another. This is especially evident in Jarod Kintz’s “Emails from a Madman” (2006). Although hysterical, his short stories are disjointed and unclear. Sometimes it’s a clear artistic choice to completely separate the stories from each other, but when a collection is made up of stories that are there “just because,” it ruins the experience of reading the collection. The short stories feel more like a novel with pages torn out.
Short stories don’t have to be pages in length, even the ones written so that the story could be interpreted in a dozen ways. For instance, I highly recommend any story by Edgar Allan Poe. Although dark, his stories are crafted with such detail that they immediately transport me to another world. Short stories aren’t lacking in plot because of their length; rather, they use that short space to put together a complex puzzle using only a few pieces.
