Patrick’s Comments (group member since Feb 28, 2011)

Patrick’s comments from the Spring Short Story Panel group.

Valerie wrote: "A colleague of mine, an English professor, asked me, "Well, isn't that just the way things are going in the 21st century? People are more interested in expressing themselves than reading the work of others?" He asked it in a tone that suggested there was nothing wrong with this trend. Maybe there isn't. But for me, writing is still fundamentally an act of communication. I'm primarily interested in technique, in *how* stories get communicated from one mind to another. So I get a little sad when I think about the prospect of having more writers than readers."

This is a very interesting point, and of course, it raises the question of how you decide what is worth reading. When there is more published online in a single day than you can ever hope to read in a lifetime, how do you decide what to read next (be that a book, an article, a story...)? I think the answer for me has always been "my friends." I like to think I surround myself with bright people, and when one of them recommends something to me, that carries a lot of weight.

Since I'm sure there's a lot of interest in this, I thought I'd start a thread about the business of short fiction. Ted Genoways, editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, wrote a well-publicized piece about the diminishing readership of literary magazines and the ever-increasing submissions they receive:

http://motherjones.com/media/2010/01/...

What is your take on the world of literary journals? Do you read them, and if so, which ones do you most value? And how difficult was it for you to publish your story collection? Did you find that publishers were generally more interested in novels?

Lastly, I'm particularly interested in Emma's experience of publishing with two start-up presses (She's recently sold a novel to Riverhead -- who published Danielle's collection! -- but her first two books were put out by relatively new companies).

It's somewhat odd to talk about endings in the middle of the week, but I thought this might make an interesting topic. It seems to me that so much of a story's success depends on the ending, maybe more than any other art form (even a great song can just kind of end, like Sonic Youth's "Teenage Riot").

How does the end of a story factor into your writing process? Do you have a sense of where your character will end up early on? Alan, I'm particularly interested in the ending of The Staying Freight in this regard, as I think the last line really adds a layer to the story (I'll let those who haven't read the story yet discover it for themselves).

And what are some stories that you think have particularly strong endings?

Welcome to the first-ever Spring Short Story Panel. Thanks to all of our panelists for taking part.

To kick things off, I'd like to discuss the form of the story, specifically how it relates to the process of writing it. It seems to me that the short story is something of a contradiction, in that it demands that the writer have total control over pacing and character and that he or she know precisely what he or she wants to do. Yet at the same time, the story can be nearly anything -- it can span years or take place in a moment, it can be 3 pages long or sprawl out over a comfortable 60 pages.

How do you approach a new story with all of this in mind? Do you start from a character and proceed from there? And for those who also write longer fiction, do you know from the outset that you're working on a shorter piece?

A special thanks to all of our authors who are taking time from their busy lives to share their thoughts on short fiction, publishing, writing process, and more.

And thanks to all of you for joining the group! The discussion will kick off on March 14. Until then, please feel free to introduce yourselves.