Why Read Short Stories?

Have you ever looked at a painting, studied the details, and gotten lost in the beauty of it? Or listened to a song, fallen in love with the lyrics, and gotten goose bumps as the music reached a crescendo? 

A single work of art can make a lasting impression, and it doesn't always need a lot of time to do it. The same holds true for fiction. While there are great novels out there, there are also great short stories.

Short stories are an art form all their own. They have all the elements of a novel without as much backstory, or as many twists and turns in the plot. The writer gives you a full story in a smaller number of pages that can usually be read in an hour or less.

While a novel lets you stretch out the story and prolong the suspense, the short story uses the most important scenes, dialogue, and descriptions to move things along. Conflicts may get resolved sooner, but the plot can be just as intriguing and the ending, or the message within the story, can be just as powerful in a good short story as it is in a novel. 

I often think of a collection of short stories as being like a music album. As you  listen, you hear a variety of melodies and lyrics in one place. You may not like all the songs, but each one tells a different story. Some you'll want to hear again, and maybe one becomes your favorite.

In the time it takes to read a novel, you can enjoy a number of short stories and meet a lot of diverse characters. The variety makes them appealing to read, and it's what makes me like writing them too - that and it's easier to tame the influx of story ideas.