Bruce holland rogers biography of william

Writing Short Stories

Bruce Holland Rogers

Willamette Writers June 2012

http://shortshortshort.com

• Metaphors of length
• a novel is like a house, where you can explore all the rooms, even the closets
• a short story is intended to deliver the reader to a single effect: one specific idea or feeling. 
• a short story invites the reader to stand outside of one the window of one room, and look in and see what is going on.
• a short short story
• requires the reader to kneel outside the door the peer through the keyhole.
• it is also a story of a single effect, but… the story gains something by the effect of being so short.
• the short short allows you to take advantage of the fact that a reader will read a page or two of almost anything.
• so if you want to do something experimental, something demanding of the reader, then do it as a short short.
• if you did it as a longer work, they might punt by page 3.
• terminal pleasure.