Thursday, January 30, 2014

The charm of short stories

Once upon a time, I used to read a lot of short stories. At the beginning, it helped me to improve my language skills in English, Spanish and French. The more I was reading the more charmed I was by the strength of small stories. The power of words to recreate worlds in only a number of words was immense and I was always dreaming about me writing such stories. But I wasn't successful and I always preferred to get involved in long term, big wording projects. 
For almost 10 years, I focused mostly on novels, and non-fiction books and abandoned the reading of small stories about perfect worlds. I realized that I do not have too much time and I rather prefer to keep myself busy with big lengthy stories. As I have a vivid imagination and I prefer to create long narratives and stories, I did not paid too much attention to improving my skills for a better management of words and a deep knowledge of the special short stories techniques.
A couple of days ago, I discovered how wrong I was. True is that compared to a big novel project - that I haven't started yet to write either - the short stories are more demanding but equally rewarding. You may need more time and a lot of focus, but it is such a beautiful success to recreate so many words. 
Right now, I think it might be possible that one day, I will be able to have my own collection of short stories ready, but till then, I might need to return to the world of reading more short stories. I feel that many of my travel stories can fit very well this format and it can be an easy start as I live for the stories of my journeys and their memories. Before starting it, I need to learn more and be more focused. A mantra that I keep repeating for so many blog posts already.
For someone very active, with many interests and a genetic distributive attention, it is not always easy. I write fast, I read fast and I need a lot of interests in order to keep focused. Otherwise, once the vital energy is lost, I get lost myself too. 
The conclusion of the day is that the short stories are back into my world and this time, I promise to be more faithful. Another big lesson is that all our treasures we gathered during the life journey should be kept somehow and used at the proper moment. This time, I don't want to forget once again the beautiful crafts and art of polishing words. Maybe soon, I will start a new writing project: one story a week, but till then, there are so many priorities waiting for me. This blog post is a testimony that I am interested in bringing more to my writing adventure. 

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