Journal Entry #6: ONLINE PERIODIC SOURCE

Stein, Lorin, with Stein, Sadie. “The State of The Short Story.” Publishers Weekly. (PublishersWeekly.com) Oct. 26, 2012.

The article is from an editor who believed short stories were “dead” when he worked publishing books, and then learned better when he began working for a magazine that included short fiction.

Here are the five most important things I took from this article:

1. “Suddenly it was my job to think about short stories, a lot. And to question my own reading habits — because that’s all we editors really have to go on, what we like to read in our free time. For the first time I found myself wondering why short stories weren’t a bigger part of my life.” What I take from this is: editors will enjoy the stories that appeal to their personal taste. Of course, I have no way of knowing an editor’s personal taste–but when I am sending my story out to editors, I must a) send it to several different editors and b) read through the stories that have been put through in past issues of the magazine, to see if mine could be a good pick.
2. “But popular entertainments are vulnerable to technological change. Along came the radio serial, the movies, and TV. As readership softened, the big magazines saw that it was easier to attract advertisers by publishing fashion tips — in general, by featuring products — than by giving up pages to fiction.” This is one of the reasons the author gives for the decline in readership of short stories–and I agree with it.
3. “On the one hand, stories demand the focus of bedtime. They’re meant to be read straight through from beginning to end. You can’t read a story and multitask.” Here, the author talks about some of the reasons why he personally stopped reading short stories–but this is useful to me because it explains I need to keep the reader’s focus from beginning to end when I write my short story. No unnecessary information must be included.
4. “They demand a wakeful attention; a good one keeps you thinking when it’s over.” This one speaks for itself.
5. “There is a time for multi-tasking and a time for losing yourself. The short story offers something else: a chance to pay close attention — and have that attention rewarded because, for once, every little plot twist, every sentence, counts.” This one also speaks for itself–while he wasn’t intentionally attempting to give possible short story authors good advice, he did.