What do you love about short stories?
Sorry if it’s taken me a wee while to get to your question, it’s been a busy time over here but I LOVE this question and wanted to give you a proper answer.
What do I love about short stories?
As a reader, opening tumblr, the @drarrymicrofic blog or ao3 looking for short fics, is like opening a box of Celebrations or Quality Street or whatever your preferred chocolate selection is: I’ve got tons of different flavours of fic to pick from. This means I can just have the one as a sweet treat (maybe before bed, maybe on the go, maybe while I'm taking a break from work), or I can sit on the sofa with a cup of tea and demolish the whole box, trying a ton of different flavours in one sitting.
To stick to the metaphor, this doesn’t mean I don’t like a good slice of chocolate cake. I love longfic. However, longfic requires the emotional bandwidth to get attached to a story for a little longer, the time to read it and appreciate all the nuances, all the details I’ll have to remember further on into the story.
This doesn’t mean longfics are better (or worse) than shortfics — shortfics are often incredibly well-written pieces (there is a very specific skill to packing a lot of plot and/or feelings into a short piece, but we’ll get to that when I get to the writing part of this question) and some have stayed with me for just as long as some longfics.
I’m often left thinking “how did this writer make me feel all these things in such a short word count?” I think, especially in the Drarry fandom, longfic is (used to be?) the norm — which is great! We are so lucky to be part of a fandom that has numerous fests happening all at the same time and such a great variety of works being written, topics being explored through a Drarry POV and wordcounts. There really is something for everyone. Not everyone likes short fics, and that’s absolutely fine, there are long fics being posted every single day. But short fics (yes, even the 50 word microfics and 100 word drabbles) are complete stories in their own right.
When I don’t have the emotional disposition and the time to dive into a longer fic, short stories are there for me. I don’t have to feel FOMO, I am still participating in fandom actively by reading, commenting, chatting about fic and supporting other writers and I can do it with the little time and availability that I have.
As a writer, short stories are harder to write, in a way. Writing short fic and specifically microfics has really helped me explore tropes and topics I wouldn’t have the time and availability to write as a longfic and I believe it has made me a much better writer. Practising with short form has given me the opportunity to play with different POVs, different narrative voices, different genres that I definitely wouldn’t otherwise feel comfortable writing.
There is an expectation of a longer fic, which requires much more work and time. You have to plan your timeline, there’s the worry of consistency, of engaging the reader for a much longer period of time, of balancing out tension, suspense, revelation and a whole neverending amount of feelings. Shorter fic sometimes lets me get an idea out of my head so that it stops bugging me. I often have ideas that could, of course, fit into a bigger fic — but why should they? If all I want to write is a short scene to let go of some happiness or some lust or some grief, why should I have to turn that into a bigger story? Often when I already have at least four or five longer fics I’m working on when I have the time, on top of that?
Short fics give me the freedom to do my writing organically, to write what I want when I want to, post it and let it go, and move on to other projects, while challenging me to become a better writer and to play around with form.
TL;DR: I’m here for fic of all lengths. Sometimes I want a nibble, sometimes I want a full meal, sometimes I want a tapas dinner where I get to taste lots of different things in one go, or sometimes I want a long, drawn-out multi course dinner with different accompanying wines.
Thank you for this lovely question, anon! It really made me think about my fic writing and reading experience, especially at a time I’m not feeling particularly present/connected in fandom because real life is really demanding. I hope you have a lovely day, and I’m sorry I wrote you a whole bloody essay.