Short stories get no respect. Academics sneer at them with disdain. Even some writers will dis the calculus of a good short story. One snooty writer (rhymes w/ Wikki) once said, “I consider short stories to be typing practice.”
This seems strange in an age of shrinking attention spans.
Hell, Hollywood is creating empires based on comic books. “Graphic” novels appear to be the shape of things to come.
It seems to me that stealthy, slightly disguised, short stories are taking over the financially viable aspects of storytelling. What I think of that doesn’t matter and I don’t want to go down that particular rabbit hole.
Speaking for myself, every novel I’ve written started out as a short story; they were populated by characters from other short stories and plotlines turned on the events of short stories ramming headfirst into each other.
So, sneer if you must, but indulge me here. I publish very few of my short stories, but parts of them get woven into my longer stuff.
BTW: If I’m being honest, I have to confess that not having much of a timeline is one of my favorite things about writing a short story.
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