Let's talk about... Short Stories versus Prose611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMULd0RTRvW
I have had a very intimate and chaotic, yet ultimately uncommitted, relationship with long prose. Long prose and I are like those high school sweethearts that, despite moving on from each other, keep coming back for those brief collisions that ultimately end in tears and estrangement. 611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRncGuIaQmM
My relationship with short prose has only ever been fruitful, on the other hand.611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFsEo6nb6jm
Lemme tell ya now: Just like that bad boy with the leather jacket and a joint hanging off his lips tossing me a casual, "'Sup," I swoon right back into the habits I abhor. After all, chicks dig 'em for a reason, right? 611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpTO6qgB2Cp
Long prose has got me on a hook, man, and it keeps me comin' back.611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSk7EvRE5ab
Short stories are what I like to call the One-Night Stands of literature. They're pouring their all into you for a solid ten minutes and at the end of it, you both groan and roll over, satisfied, needing a smoke and a shot before bed. They get you thinking about one central idea or one hard-hitting lesson that's meant to stick with you, but... that's it, right? They're one-pump chumps who make you debate about asking, "Please sir, may I have some more?" but you don't want to sound needy. They did their deed and that's supposed to be the end of things, right?611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7DQDk6q56X
I like distributing short stories. To me, they're like sticks of gum to non-readers: an introduction of flavor, a bit of texture, no nutritional value whatsoever (unless we're talking about those weird caffeine-infused varieties). They're great for family and friends who know you're a writer, but don't want to commit to your longer stories, poetry or books. They are the goddamned Tweets of writing. 611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbthxNQypf7
But long prose... Mmm. That shit's cerebral, mate. I'm smitten and obsessed with it. It's multiple themes and ideas and people-for-fuckssake working in tandem together to take your reader on a blasted roller coaster of emotion. They are the escorts in the dark, the beautiful exes you go to in times of discord, the women that sweep into our lives and twist our insides through our ribs without even touching us. Novels and novellas, epics and odysseys, memoirs and histories, and bleeding mythologies... 611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkIyko2oVfs
Those are the stories that lend credibility to the idiom The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword. They're political and social commentaries, and journeys and legends that shape us as we read them; form us into vessels for some subliminal message we pass on to non-readers and readers alike.611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPNTFxyCeuw
They drive me crazy. I have published two fantasy novels, a children's book, a short story collection, and I've penned six manuscripts that will likely never see the light of day... That body of work is a drop compared to everything I've actually written (and as compared to, really, any other serious writer.) Because, as I mentioned before, my relationship with long prose is an uncommitted one. As soon as one idea is penned, another one begins to take shape. Like a mandala or kaleidoscope, the stories and characters and happenings and worlds spawn out from a single inherent design and the pattern eventually collapses on itself... usually out of mere neglect.611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsfkvBVhWtx
I'm sure many aspiring writers can relate to the truth of this tragic confession. 611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzSuSAYeR5r
But I fucking digress. When it comes to Short Stories and Long Prose, I don't think I'll ever railroad myself down one singular path. I'll always fall to the folly in writing long stories and I'll always dally with the strange and beautiful shorts that rise and fall within moments of taking in their first breaths...611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBLTIG0rZOA
Oh, but lordy... Don't even get my started on poetry.611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT6b0SvGkzs
Cheers --Blondie611Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSSpAFvNhio
