Too short?

[oggbashan]

I have had several comments in 2020 that my stories are too short.

I'm sorry. My writing is compromised by my restricted eyesight. It takes me as long now to write a one-or-two-page Lit story as it would have taken for five or six pages in 2019.

Every sentence as typed has at least three errors and I have to rely on Grammarly to spot them and go back and retype.

I made 14 errors in this short post. (Now 16 with that short sentence.)

 

[SamScribble]

I sometimes wonder if some of the readers realise the time and effort - not to mention skill - that goes into 'writing it short'. Was it Blaise Pascal - I think it was - who apologised for the length of a letter to a friend. 'I didn't have time to write it short,' he said.

Keep up the good work, Ogg.

 

[jehoram]

I think it was Mark Twain who said that children are the best storytellers because "they tell all they know, and then stop." I think that's good advice for writers everywhere.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm tending to alternate longer stories with shorter ones (two pagers) at the moment. The shorter ones are side projects written quickly while the main project moves steadily along. Problem is, I then get the taste for the shorter stories and their new characters and I'm writing more of them.

They're the nearest I get to writing stroke. Readers don't seem to mind. They're doing okay, pulling in a few more comments, a few more followers each time.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Nobody ever erected a statue to a critic, Ogg.

 

[Ginlover]

People find the most inane things to complain about, it’s human nature. They’ve read your story and clearly enjoyed it enough to feel the need to comment, at that point human nature takes over and they think it’s constructive rather than thoughtless

 

[Paul_Chance]

I'd take "it's too short" as a compliment (well, about writing at least). That means the reader enjoyed the story or characters and wanted it to last longer.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Nobody ever erected a statue to a critic, Ogg.

https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ebert.jpeg?w=800&quality=85

Suspect Ogg's critics aren't of quite that calibre, though.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Ogg, please continue writing and posting your stories as you wish and as your health allows. Most are glad you keep publishing your stories for the enjoyment of those who wish to read. Please ignore any unkind comments from those in the peanut gallery who enjoy their own grumbles and complaints more than any pleasure anyone else can provide them.

 

[R. Richard]

Illegitimi non carborundum.

 

[ChuckWolf]

I'm sorry to hear about your eyesight; I hope it'll improve or that science helps it improve.

 

[ChuckWolf]

Just a thought, but maybe you can just type up the story how you normally would and perhaps work with one of the site's volunteer editors to let them catch & fix the obvious typos and get back to you on the other stuff?

 

[Hypoxia]

Further eye surgeries now let me see to keyboard on the laptop nestled in my lounging lap but most of my recent writing (sparsely published) has still been on a tablet held close to my face in bed, and I find it difficult to sustain more than a single 3750-word LIT page on the tablet's virtual keys. My touch-typing skills don't support me there.

Ogg has long written short and ultra-short fiction. I'm alphabetically working through his catalog (on my tablet) this week, having just finished the Brigit series. I see some comments wishing he'd not ended a story so soon but often it's just enough. Not all tales need a tidy ending.

 

[KeithD]

Further eye surgeries now let me see to keyboard on the laptop nestled in my lounging lap but most of my recent writing (sparsely published) has still been on a tablet held close to my face in bed, and I find it difficult to sustain more than a single 3750-word LIT page on the tablet's virtual keys. My touch-typing skills don't support me there.

Ogg has long written short and ultra-short fiction. I'm alphabetically working through his catalog (on my tablet) this week, having just finished the Brigit series. I see some comments wishing he'd not ended a story so soon but often it's just enough. Not all tales need a tidy ending.

Good to see you still "giving it a go."

 

[jehoram]

I have had several comments in 2020 that my stories are too short.

I'm sorry. My writing is compromised by my restricted eyesight. It takes me as long now to write a one-or-two-page Lit story as it would have taken for five or six pages in 2019.

I've always had great admiration for people like Helen Keller, Jean-Dominique Bauby (of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" fame) and Stephen Hawking, who had to write at a pace that would drive most of us crazy.

They found the pace that would allow them to write comfortably. You'll find that pace, too, I'm sure. You're not being paid by the page, so take your own sweet time.

(And somebody beat me to that reference to Roger Ebert's statue. I'd have to say that he deserved every ounce of it.)

 

[oggbashan]

Just a thought, but maybe you can just type up the story how you normally would and perhaps work with one of the site's volunteer editors to let them catch & fix the obvious typos and get back to you on the other stuff?

With an average of four typos per sentence, that would be asking a lot!

 

[Athalia]

https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ebert.jpeg?w=800&quality=85

Suspect Ogg's critics aren't of quite that calibre, though.

Few writers are. I've gone back to read some of Ebert's reviews and found them paragons of clarity and wit.

I'd wager that there are quite a few statues of George Bernard Shaw around, too.

http://www.talkingstatues.co.uk/stockist_images/dublinadmin/530x1530_GB-Shaw-close-up.jpg

This one is at the National Gallery of Ireand, Merrion Square West.

 

[Hypoxia]

Good to see you still "giving it a go."

Thanks. It has been less than easy. At least I'm doing better than did James Joyce, who reportedly wrote on large paper pads on an easel, himself dressed in a white suit to reflect more light on the paper. His vision may explain his odd orthography.

Lessened pain also permits more writing. I credit recent back procedures. Alas, full-body transplants are not yet available. Ratz.

 

[Jada59]

I have gotten the same comment but... What I write here is fapping fodder. I want to keep it short. I have read stories that I felt were too short, but yours are not. Not the ones I've read anyway.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Few writers are. I've gone back to read some of Ebert's reviews and found them paragons of clarity and wit.

I can't remember the exact quote, but there was a nice one somewhere on the difference between the reviewer who tells you whether they enjoyed the film and the reviewer who tells you whether you're going to enjoy it.

 

[jehoram]

I can't remember the exact quote, but there was a nice one somewhere on the difference between the reviewer who tells you whether they enjoyed the film and the reviewer who tells you whether you're going to enjoy it.

I think that this is something that Roger Ebert actually discussed in his columns. When people called him out for giving a high rating to some action movie and said that it didn't compare to this or that masterpiece, he told them that he was comparing the movie to other action pictures, not movies in general. He didn't particularly care for horror movies, but he would often tell his readers that fans of horror movies might like a certain one he'd seen. Of one of them, he wrote something like "If you're the squeamish type, this film will make you squeam."

 

[TreskaNovell]

Another good idea might be trying to use talk to text to write your stories, If possible. I like to write short stories sometimes, and I mean short, like under 800 words. Sometimes a story can be really powerful without a lot of words.

 

[oggbashan]

Another good idea might be trying to use talk to text to write your stories, If possible. I like to write short stories sometimes, and I mean short, like under 800 words. Sometimes a story can be really powerful without a lot of words.

Talk to text doesn't recognise my voice...