(*Stephen King on the short story)
Recently I’ve gone back to writing short fiction. It’s a joy – my first writing ‘home’. After three non-fiction books published in the last four years, returning to ‘making things up’ is vitally refreshing and the short form engrosses me. It also recalls me to my first writing and first published work (28 years ago!), the story Life Drawing which won a major competition. I was only writing ‘short’ for pragmatic reasons – a first-time writer with a full-time job. But I discovered that I loved the form, and I still do. Although I’ve also written long-form fiction, short stories seem to come from a much more mysterious place and offer profound rewards. But they are rarely short in the writing – not a word or image can be out of place.
According to the Scottish Studies Review at the time of Life Drawing’s publication, ‘…when artists master the art of the short-story, their miniatures may convey a reality as complicated as that of any novel..’. There is emotional intensity and profundity in the weight of what isn’t explicit. It takes subtle reading as well as well-considered writing.
There used to be a good number of short story commissions from BBC Radio – in my view one of the most perfect ways to spend 15 minutes as a listener. Sadly, their output has now reduced to one short story per week on Radio 4. I still get occasional commissions including one that is still available for listening, The Give and Take, set on Perthshire riverbank.
Read more of this article on Substack.