tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660089177097719300.post494988560445100234..comments2024-03-27T23:59:01.850-07:00Comments on Writing About Writing (And Occasionally Some Writing): The Trouble With Short StoriesChris Brecheenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07819138776404280633noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660089177097719300.post-34330985275151208442014-06-17T17:50:54.283-07:002014-06-17T17:50:54.283-07:00With the demise of the pulp-fiction publications, ...With the demise of the pulp-fiction publications, short stories have unfortunately all but disappeared. In the 70's, if you read sci-fi, it meant you were mainly reading short stories - usually compilations. I loved them!I cut my reading teeth on Isacc Asimov, A E Van Vogt, Fritz Leiber, Roger Zelazny, Ursula Le Guin, Joe Haldeman etc.<br /><br />These publications paved the way for authors to get published - regularly. By paying them only a cent per word it kept costs down and ensured that they kept writing (even if they couldn't give up their day job). Paying by the word count did promote quantity over quality, but at least writers were being paid SOMETHING for their efforts - and they did appear in print (hey, I'm an authour!)<br /><br />Different authours made the transition from short-story -> novel in different ways. Most expanded upon their larger short stories (or novellas) interweaving richer plot elements. Some expanded the timeline - which made you feel like you were reading a trilogy in one book. A E Van Vogt simply glued totally separate short stories together and tried to make it sound like one story with the same characters (eg Super Mind), which really didn't work very well. Isaac Asimov simply wrote longer stories on the same theme but at different points along the timeline, he did this to great effect with the Robot series and the Foundation series, eventually tying the two together. Geek Ramblingshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15243735458957955818noreply@blogger.com