At first, I couldn’t manage more than a poem, but the poems came so fast I carried a notebook with me everywhere. I wrote my first short story when I was eighteen on a manual type writer bought at Clevinger’s Thrift Shop downtown Aberdeen. Coincidence that I had just finished Still Life With Woodpecker?
So much time has passed since then. I’ve written three first drafts of novels, started a couple more. And yet, here I am, cozying up to the short story again.
What do you think is the essential difference between the a novel and a story? What are your favorite stories?
A short list of stories that have truly moved me?
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood
The Swimmer by John Chever
Corporal and 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 by Richard Brautigan
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates
Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
To Build A Fire by Jack London
Tell me the stories that have left you burning for days. Those are the ones I want to read.
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Some past posts to keep you making time:
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone
At some point I always ask a newly important person in my life to read Andre Dubus’s A Father Story. Sometimes we discuss the story, sometimes not, but it’s always shared.