Short Stories, Novellas, Novels?

I've gotta say - I don't really get into mainstream short stories much.

To me, a short story is like a short escape into another world. That's why I usually read genre fiction. SF, fantasies, mysteries, historicals etc.

When done right, the author pulls you into their dream and shows you something new and different. Something exciting and far removed from my everyday life.

Being an adult, I've seen all kinds of drama, known heartbreak and success, lived and loved, won and lost, been both the dog and the hydrant.

But I sure haven't traveled to other worlds, or chased down international conspiracies or traveled through the mind of a serial killer. Now to me, that's entertainment.

So I don't get into mainstream shorts much. But I have read and enjoyed mainstream novels because I think that since they have more room to show and tell you a story, they're naturally richer. They are better able to lure me into the fictive dream and keep my attention. But once again, the premise has to be intriguing and the author capable of not only seducing me - but actually delivering on their promise!

I read mostly novels. Some I've read this year include November 1916, by Solzhenitsyn and A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes. One written twenty-five years ago and the other about eighty. My next read will be Arundel by Kenneth Roberts written about 1930 or so or Phillip Roth's new one. Its fair to say that I like modern fiction but dislike post-modern stuff. Its the same with short stories. I like de Maupassant but I like John Cheever too. I was a boy when Cheever was at his peak and he transported me from the the great dry plains of Colorado to Westchester County. Haven't read a novella in years - last one was Heart of Darkness, I think.

I prefer to read and write novels. I like to lose myself in another world for a while, and as far as writing I do a lot of character development, and you can't exactly fit a lot of that into a short story. I think I've written three short stories in my writing life, not counting any that I wrote at school.

I read both novels and short stories. I write short stories though, only because I haven't had the ambition to sit down and start a novel yet.

A short story can have developed characters, it just has to be very consice. There can't be any wasted words. In fact, the more character-driven the short story, if you didn't have developed characters, the story wouldn't even work. And then you can only really develop one, maybe two, characters - where in a novel you could develop a few.

Soren, I keep hearing about John Cheever from people. What do you recommend?