Reminded of this piece by a writing student, I read through it again yesterday, and I still enjoy some of the things King has to say about short stories. One passage, in particular, struck me, and I hope the writing at fwriction : review continues to shatter King’s feeling on modern short story writing:
Last year, I read scores of stories that felt … not quite dead on the page, I won’t go that far, but airless, somehow, and self-referring. These stories felt show-offy rather than entertaining, self-important rather than interesting, guarded and self-conscious rather than gloriously open, and worst of all, written for editors and teachers rather than for readers. The chief reason for all this, I think, is that bottom shelf. It’s tough for writers to write (and editors to edit) when faced with a shrinking audience. Once, in the days of the old Saturday Evening Post, short fiction was a stadium act; now it can barely fill a coffeehouse and often performs in the company of nothing more than an acoustic guitar and a mouth organ. If the stories felt airless, why not? When circulation falters, the air in the room gets stale.
Another reason why good publishers aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. We read through what’s out there to bring you the finest short story writers working today.
Including Mr. King.
