Vonnegut Advice: Short Stories

I stumbled on this video of Kurt Vonnegut, another great short-story writer, describing what makes a good short story writer. Since this blog is about short stories and since some may be new to this shorter fiction format, I thought I'd share it real quick as an introduction to the short story format. Also, if you're interested in a more formal definition of what a short story is... click here.

Fresh Start

A few years ago I was looking for more writing outlets and a friend who enjoys reading and writing suggested I start a blog. So without thinking of any reasons not to... I started one. Needless to say it never really got off the ground. Excuses are really for ourselves, aren't they? So I won't bore you with all of mine, except for one... I didn't really understand what a blog was. So... anyhow... since then, I've been following a couple of blogs and I think I understand a bit more of what they are about, and what they can, and can not be.

So as you can tell from the title, I'll be blogging about short stories. If you don't know me well enough, you should know I love short stories. I love reading them and I've been trying to write them. But mostly this blog will be about reading them. And hopefully I will find at least a few subscribers who will enjoy reading the stories and will participate in discussing them in this format.

At the end of each blog I will announce the next story I will be blogging about, and I'll do my best to provide a link to an online version of it. With the hopes that people can read the story for themselves before reading my blog and then if interested can contribute your own observations on the featured story or on my blog in the comment section.

The first story I will be featuring is Johnny Bear (Click on the title of the story to be sent to an online version). It's from one of my favorite writers, John Steinbeck. For some reason, on this online version, the paragraphs are numbered. Which seems like it would annoy me while reading, but please do your best at ignoring them. If you live near me I can certainly loan out the, old fashioned, book format, but of course I only have one copy. Or you can buy the book itself from Amazon, all the stories in his book, The Long Valley, are fabulously amazing.