Are short stories a dying art?

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   dawnangelicgreenposted 13 years ago

   I just got drawn into a really good book of science fiction short stories - one of those "Best Ever" collections.  They are a great way to find something good to read when you are in between authors because they require so much less of a commitment.  I really don't think they will ever go away because they are one of the best ways to get introduced to new authors.  I don't think Stephen King would be a household name if it weren't for the short stories he published in Cavalier and Playboy before Carrie landed a publisher.

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   uncorrectedvisionposted 13 years ago

   If the short story dies than Edgar Alan Poe will die and that cannot be permitted.  No literary form is so compact and purposeful as the short story.  Humanity has been telling short stories since we huddled around the fire and told of fearsome things lurking in the darkness beyond its glow.  It the short story dies I am throwing my laptop in the trash.  I am doing what little I can do but this tragedy cannot be allowed to happen.  If you want to fight the scourge of the disappearing short story send your checks or money orders to....

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   bojanglesk8posted 13 years ago

   Yup.

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   dwilliamsonposted 13 years ago

   Hi! I have written over 1,000 short children's stories. I don't think it is a dying art at all.

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      JR Whiteposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Will a parent read a bedtime story to a child on a Kindle, do you think?

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         JR Whiteposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I meant no irony.  I am curious about it.

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   backword_65posted 13 years ago

   Check out www.duotrope.com.
   
   It's a huge collection of short story magazines that would wager that the art of SHORT story telling is quite the opposite of dead, but still kicking and screaming!
   
   I use this website to submit my own short stories, of which I have amassed 53, working on 54.

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   Marcus Teagueposted 13 years ago

   I really doubt the art itself is dying. It's a rather explosive and highly sought way of entertainment in the younger crowds; especially in the area of fan fiction.
   
   It's not the art that's dying, nor even the way to publish them. It's ways to make money off them that are dying. Before the Internet, the only way to read short stories as an audience was to buy newspapers and magazines. Sure lots of people wrote stories then and now.
   
   But the Internet is killing the potential authors have. Unless you have a collection of short stories in a book, you're going to get buried under a mob of possibly millions of authors publishing content for free on the net.

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   arthurchappellposted 13 years ago

   Many novelists began their careers with short stories when the print magazine market was stronger, but fewer magazines run stories so short stories tend to be less commercially viable. Writers after an income go right to producing novels, but internet and -e-book producers are reviving short story writing traditions which is great.

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   Docmoposted 13 years ago

   No!
   
   The death of short story has always been forecast. But it keeps rising like the phoenix from the ashes of dead print magazines. Online fiction, E-books, compilations and anthologies, short films, radio plays, comics all have fostered short fiction and it will live long and forever. I certainly want to do my bit for it as I try to dabble in different genre short fiction writing. I love reading and writing short stories...end of.

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   Paradise7posted 13 years ago

   I don't think short story WRITING is a dying art but certainly the market is shrinking.  The original short stories were usually published in magazines, print magazines, not e-zines.  Now I don't think people read magazines as much, not since the advent of the internet, and so the market is seriously shrinking.  It worries me somewhat--I think the print market for writing in general is shrinking somewhat because many people do most of their reading on the internet.
   
   Still and all, there's nothing like a good book, or a good story.  Right, guys?

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