Wanna write short stories - what short stories are best to read?

whatsamsn

I've read quite a few in my time. But now I want to attempt to write a few of my own. As a hobbie

can anyone recommend any good short stories for me to read? ... to get those creative juices flowing?

cheers

The Mad Hatter

Read everything. Hemingway, Chekhov, Kafka, Joyce, Carver, Bradbury, Gaiman would be my choices for short stories, but also anything else that takes your fancy. I think it's not about what you read, but how you read.

Here's a great blog with short stories, and here's an excellent podcast that will have famous(ish) actors read short stories to you.

Here's one of my favourite stories by Franz Kafka, which you'll read in under a minute and which, unlike his longer work, is actually almost optimistic.

James Joyce's first major work was Dubliners, which you should read if you haven't, especially the stories Eveline and The Dead. That's available on Project Gutenberg.

Ernest Hemingway said that his best story was six words long ("For sale: Baby shoes. Never Worn."), and a couple of years back Wired.com asked a slew of genre writers to attempt a story with the same word count. This is the result, with some very clever ("machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time" - Alan Moore), some rather silly ("The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly." - Orson Scott Card), and some approaching the same depth as the Hemingway, if not the same pathos ("Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?" - Eileen Gunn).

whatsamsn

Thnaks for getting back

Hmmmm, I hear I might sound like a fool thinking about this one ...


But "For sale: Baby shoes. Never Worn." - that mean the baby dies right? ... or never ceased to exsist right?

Insect Overlord

whatsamsn wrote: »

Thnaks for getting back

Hmmmm, I hear I might sound like a fool thinking about this one ...


But "For sale: Baby shoes. Never Worn." - that mean the baby dies right? ... or never ceased to exsist right?

That's all down to your own interpretation

The Mad Hatter

whatsamsn wrote: »

Thnaks for getting back

Hmmmm, I hear I might sound like a fool thinking about this one ...


But "For sale: Baby shoes. Never Worn." - that mean the baby dies right? ... or never ceased to exsist right?

What I love about that story is how much it's worth thinking about, and how utterly sad it is, given it's so incredibly short. It's almost the perfect short story - it gives you just enough information, and contains absolutely nothing unnecessary.

But yes, the baby probably dies, probably during or just before birth. More than that, though, is the fact that the parent(s) seem to have to sell the things they had for the baby, presumably because it's the only way to make ends meet.

whatsamsn

HMmmmmmmmm
thats very intersting

i dont think ive ever read a sentence that made me think so much (i dont much to be rude, if i am..... it just one line but powerful)

So can I ask, are short stories meant to make the reader think afterwards? ... or at least the writer tries to strive to make them think?

The Mad Hatter

whatsamsn wrote: »

HMmmmmmmmm
thats very intersting

i dont think ive ever read a sentence that made me think so much (i dont much to be rude, if i am..... it just one line but powerful)

So can I ask, are short stories meant to make the reader think afterwards? ... or at least the writer tries to strive to make them think?

Well, people have different reasons for reading. When I'm writing, I don't think about how the reader is going to treat the story - I think that gets in the way. I think it's more important that you write characters who are true, and stories that you'd like to read. Get those two things and you're off to a good start.

whatsamsn

thanks

can you suggest any great videos or websites online to improve on writing?
... youtube is good but i've already seen all the expertvillage videos that seem to populate it.

ahayzer42

Carver's great. His collection "Where I'm Calling From" is simply immense. Hemingway and Joyce also. The former particularly.

From an Irish perspective, Sean O'Reilly's 'Curfew' is also fantastic.

I have a book of stories I bought in Harvard for something like $2 last year which I haven't read yet but will update this post once I have. It might be worth a look. It's called The Task of this Translator by Todd Hasak-Lowy.

Also, anything by Richard Ford - if i remember rightly, he judged the Davy Byrne award this year or last year. His stuff's great too.

The Mad Hatter

ahayzer42 wrote: »

Carver's great. His collection "Where I'm Calling From" is simply immense.

Mm, I'm reading that now as it happens. Going to take a break away from it for a few days as I've begun to find it a bit heavy-going and many of the stories thematically similar - going to read some Roald Dahl short stories for a bit instead.

The Mad Hatter

whatsamsn wrote: »

thanks

can you suggest any great videos or websites online to improve on writing?
... youtube is good but i've already seen all the expertvillage videos that seem to populate it.

Sorry, meant to get back to you about this. I think again the best thing to do is to read what writers have said about writing (and most of them just say practice like hell). There are some very good links right here on this board, especially try this thread. Also, check out Neil Gaiman's blog - it tends to be fairly littered with good advice and encouragement (as well as other things).

davyjose

whatsamsn wrote: »

Thnaks for getting back

Hmmmm, I hear I might sound like a fool thinking about this one ...


But "For sale: Baby shoes. Never Worn." - that mean the baby dies right? ... or never ceased to exsist right?

It's without doubt one the of greatest ever lines in literature.

The words "For Sale" kill me. I can't even compute the sadness in a situation where tragedy has no time to linger: my baby is dead -- but I need money.

Staggering.