Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi
I often have many creative ideas, however I find it difficult to put things down on paper. I would love to write a book, but can’t.
Does anyone else have this?
in a perfect world what I imagine in my mind could be downloaded into YouTube.
Matthew
I have ideas, but I think they would be incredibly short stories. So... but thank you for the advice. Problems of an undisciplined mind!
Short stories are my most favoured form of reading and of writing. For reading, I need a narrative that I can complete in one sitting (which is also why I love films and watch so many). I place the short story next to the poem in order of merit in the canon of literature. You don't have such a broad canvas to work with as you do with a novel, so you need to make every word count. You have to encapsulate it all in a few thousand words - and you can say as much in just 2,000 words as you can say in 20,000. Some of the best prose ever written has been in the short story form. In this age of short attention spans and the need for almost instant gratification, too, the short story is seeing something of a renaissance. Most writers of prose write short stories, and many favour them. Some writers only write short stories. Alice Munro is a good example - though she brings a novelistic approach to her work, with many of her stories having overlaps (of place or character) into others (she also won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013). Sherwood Anderson wrote a wonderful collection of short stories all set in one mid-western US small town - Winesburg, Ohio - which is a great example, too, of how a collection of short stories can have the span and 'feel' of a novel. Raymond Carver was a great poet, but in prose work he's probably best remembered for his short stories. He only ever wrote short fiction because he simply didn't have the time to write novels with so many other responsibilities in his life. Even later, when he was famous and could write all day, he stuck to short fiction and poetry. Chekhov is probably best known for his plays - but he was a master of the short story. For anyone who wants to learn about writing and the true power of stories, I'd recommend reading Carver, Chekhov, Munro... plus John Cheever, William Trevor, Richard Ford, Annie Proulx, Guy de Maupassant, Arthur Conan Doyle... the list goes on and on. I haven't read a novel for years... but I read stories all the time.
Here's also a fine book that I'd recommend for all lovers of stories and all people who aspire to write them. It's a collection of some of the best short fiction ever written, plus commentaries and articles about writing by the writers themselves. There are also some exercises for writers to work on, if they so wish.
The Story and its Writer
I wouldn't say it's an undisciplined mind at all. Looking for a method to express it shows you aren't undisciplined at all. If anything, having to work around something shows more discipline.
Adding to what Song said, Phillip K. ***, Stephen King, Hemmingway, Roald Dahl, and a host of other authors wrote short stories. Hans Christian Anderson, James Joyce, and (I loathe to say it) Lewis Caroll were all indicated to be on the spectrum.
Even if you write for yourself and don't publish anything, have fun. I spend hours mostly making stuff barely anyone, if anyone, ever hears. It just feels good to get the stuff out of my head.
People read short stories and there are lots of authors that have written short stories as well as the longer novels they are known for..