Here’s a nice piece on the Glimmer Train literary journal site from Roxana Robinson, talking about the difference between writing a novel and writing a story:
“Writing a short story is, I imagine, sort of like driving a team of horses—stylish, high-stepping Hackneys, say, with a polished harness and an immaculate carriage. My task here is to control the energies and the spectacle, to restrain the faster horses and urge the slower ones, so that all of them pull in concert, so the story will reach the finish line with all the parts of it—the plunging narrative drive, the hidden emotional baggage, the formal vehicle that contains it—are moving in unison, and so that everything will arrive together.”
As you might guess, the novel is a slightly less tidy endeavor.
Speaking of Glimmer Train, the Very Short Fiction Award contest closes on August 31. Details for entering are here.
