Enjoying Short Stories

Michael's first book, True Meaning

When you read something new, do you have a preference for short or long stories? I know sometimes when I read, I like a short and tantalizing read to enjoy before bed. Or maybe when you’re traveling and are on public transportation, in a cab, or just relaxing in your room you might pick up something short.

For writers, a lot of them are short story artists, sometimes never going over a certain word count or if they do write a long novel length it isn’t very often. Besides that, perhaps the author is a newbie and still developing their craft. That’s where you’d put me and the fellow muses.

As we learn more from editors and fellow writers all the releases have either been in an anthology with other authors or short stories below one hundred pages. Is there anything wrong with this? In my opinion, no. When sitting down to write a story especially when you’re a panster, the characters might only have so much to tell. Other times however, the story needed more and we didn’t recognize till after it was done.

I know this has happened to other writers too and they've either decided to feed their muse or characters with a full book like Michael is doing with True Meaning of Love and Vertigo or you can turn it into a series like what BL is doing in You Don’t Ask. Hers has more characters though that all have their own stories. Sure that might’ve been able to be released all in one book but something tells me it works better as standalones.

Either way, the author must do the job to tell the complete story. Did the characters achieve their goal and did we satisfy them and the person who might read it. Hopefully so with whatever way we decided to write the story.

Still, I enjoy a quick read especially a collection of them to find authors I’m not familiar with. Is there any shorts under 100 pages you’ve enjoyed. Leave your thoughts.