Is it worth to write short stories? How to write them? p2

grayscale photo of tree on a snow covered field — Photo by Todd Trapani on Pexels.com

WHAT’S THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA’S TOPIC?

Survival.

We all like survival. We all are survivors of something. The displaced Russians from Tajikistan have fled their home to go and settle in Chernobil. They have gone from surviving war to surviving radiation. We, the rest of us with a lot less dramatic survival feats, survive sickness, nature… stupid bosses.

In short, The old man and the sea is short, subtle and kicks ass.

HOWEVER, THAT IS NOT AN ARGUMENT FOR SHORT

The old man could be shorter. And according to literary analyze, Hemingway wanted to take us into a fight against adversity through dense[1] (in some critic’s opinion) prose. And the ending is equally futile as the useless struggle of K in The castle[2] by Kafka.

TO THIS, <<MORE WORDS>> SEEMS BETTER, RIGHT?

This is the moment I bring up a very short letter. Once upon a day, Mr. Hugo —no one you would know but the author of The miserables, Our lady of Paris[3], The legend of centuries; delivered or had delivered some manuscript and as soon as he was told the manuscript was being sold, he went and took out his suitcase[4]. After jumping on it to be able to close it, he went on holiday.

Yet… he was restless about the book selling[5]. So much he couldn’t sleep and decide to write to his editor. Indeed his editor was a really busy person with lots of appointments in his agenda. Thus, Hugo wrote a really short letter:

… In a whole blank page with nothing else in it?

Yes.

And the answer?

Not always writing a lot is writing better. It is the how good you’re telling tales.

HOW TO WRITE SHORT STORIES THEN?

TO BE CONTINUED

[1] No wonder I didn’t like it. I’m a simple human being.

[2] Thos one I abandoned because I read the prologue. And its author had the great idea of telling me K never reaches the castle. Thus the dense and heavy prose feels like making line in any health bureaucrat’s department to end up being told there are no appointments available. No need to torture myself any longer.

[3] So far I’ve only read that one and Hernani, the one piece Paganini allegedly plagiarized to write Rigoletto.

[4] Spicing things up, I’m not sure it happened exactly like that.

[5] Precisely Les miserables.