One of the most consistent (and most consistently annoying) pieces of advice I’ve gotten over the years is to write short stories and submit them as part of trying to build my brand as a writer. I’ve found the advice to be annoying mostly because I love epics, stories that build a world where I can follow the same characters or generations of characters—perhaps even an entire civilization—over decades or centuries or millennia. I rarely find short stories very satisfying, and when I try to write them I usually get feedback that I’m trying to pack too much in, or I’m doing too much “telling” instead of “showing”.
Having come to the conclusion that my distaste for reading short stories makes it nearly impossible for me to write them, I’ve decided to start a book club just for short stories. I’m still working out most of the details, but I’m starting with The Big Book of Science Fiction primarily because the Kindle version happens to be on sale this week. It has a little bit of everything from HG Wells to modern masters like Ted Chiang, so I figure it’s not a bad investment at $2.99. EDIT: Someone interested in joining suggested looking at the Hugo and Nebula short lists, and it looks like many of the nominated stories are available to read for free online, so we will probably do that!
If you’re interested in joining the book club and are available on Tuesdays at 7 pm Eastern time during the second full week of the month, please fill out this form! Please keep in mind that the book club will be focused on craft, so we’ll be reading as writers, dissecting beats, looking at structure and technique more than we’ll be discussing themes and other topics usually discussed in reader-focused book clubs.
Esmari Writes 