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Sep. 15th, 2005 11:34 amMy mind is still churning about how readers engage with short stories. I begin to suspect that writers-as-readers engage wit short stories for mostly technical reasons, but that only a few of the best stories engage in a dialogue with most readers.
I have been sampling short stories yesterday and today, and not that many of them formally drag the reader in. Most of them seem to expect the reader to accept that there won't be that many expectations and that those expectations won't be filled and that the exercise of reading will be more intellectual than emotional.
I don't like these conclusions at all. They just don't fit the self-view of the writers I know or the way writer groups examine stories, or, well, most things. So what am I missing? Have I been unlucky in my choice of stories to check? How *do* short stories engage readers?
It doesn't make sense to me that I can't make sense of this. Maybe it is my current flu speaking (yes, I have flu again - wobbly legs and all). I write short stories - I ought to know *something* about how the reader is lured into loyalty. I can see it with BFF and I have never written a BFF in my life.
I am stymied. Can anyone help?
I have been sampling short stories yesterday and today, and not that many of them formally drag the reader in. Most of them seem to expect the reader to accept that there won't be that many expectations and that those expectations won't be filled and that the exercise of reading will be more intellectual than emotional.
I don't like these conclusions at all. They just don't fit the self-view of the writers I know or the way writer groups examine stories, or, well, most things. So what am I missing? Have I been unlucky in my choice of stories to check? How *do* short stories engage readers?
It doesn't make sense to me that I can't make sense of this. Maybe it is my current flu speaking (yes, I have flu again - wobbly legs and all). I write short stories - I ought to know *something* about how the reader is lured into loyalty. I can see it with BFF and I have never written a BFF in my life.
I am stymied. Can anyone help?