This one is a short story. Because stories
don’t have to be long to matter. I bet you can find many examples of this,
maybe all around you or in the lives of people you know. Maybe you are one of
those short stories. Don’t be scared. It’s nothing bad, not always at least.
One would think of death right away but that’s not what it’s all about.
Sometimes a short story is only short because there’s not a lot of tragedy and
drama to tell. Maybe it’s just a nice little story, one to read children when
they feel hopeless.
Being a short story is probably difficult but
getting used to it can be fun and interesting. After all, you don’t have the
large amount of layers that other stories have. And again, don’t be sad. Having
layers does not mean you are less deep or profound in any way. It just means
that people can really get to know you easily, and don’t have to be constantly
digging for something to find. Simplicity here is key and, again, it is not
something good or bad. It depends on what your story tells to others.
Maybe your story is a short one because
everything happens in a fraction of time, a tiny piece of a huge ocean of
things that happen. That makes it special, it makes it one of a kind and it
certainly makes it interesting for people that know how to appreciate things
that have particular characteristics. Yes, I know we all want to have twists
and turns and many surprises in every single corner. But not every story has to
have them, just as not every person in the world has to have the same kind of life.
Sadly, we have done with the short story the
same thing that we have been doing with people. We only value them if they are
appealing from a distance, as if we were choosing fruit in the supermarket. But
stories are more elaborated; it doesn’t matter if they are short or long. We
all have a value, we all have something someone can see and find appealing.
Some people say there cannot be books about tastes and what that means is that
you cannot put everyone in the same group just because you want to.
No, short stories are filled to the top with
magical things that we can see in plain sight, maybe they are even common but
done in a new way, so we appreciate them as if they were new. A short format,
in any kind of way, makes it all much more fun: it makes us explore and learn
from things we already thought we know. It makes us feel as if something tiny
and personal can also be ours. Its obvious big things can be for everyone.
Their size helps. But it’s not always that smaller things can become something
for everyone, making us feel a little bit more special than we already are.
I know what you’re thinking: I said this story
was a short one. And it is. Because I’m about to sum it all up and tell you
what it is about short stories that I find so appealing, so great. And it’s
very simple: they enable me to create entire worlds in one second and it gives
me the possibility to give those worlds to other people, that could read my
story once and again, but they could even continue from my words into theirs, creating
the perfect work of art: one that reunites more than one person, more than one
world.
Of course, anyone knows that writers are
creators of the universe. We make sense of everything that is around us and we
use all of that to create new things. Maybe some of those things are not really
that new or interesting, but our goal is to make anything turn on its head and
become something else. That’s the magic of writing, of creating in any type of
art. That’s why we do it: because we are able to bring into the world new and
exciting things that first appear in our brains and that we then translate into
words.
Short stories are all around us, in poetry and
painting, also in dance and cinema. So many art forms use the concept of a
short story to tell whatever it is that they want to transmit to their
audience. And they use it because it works, because when people hear or read or
see one a short story, they can instantly imagine it all. They don’t have to be
awfully educated, or live in a certain way or in a certain place. All that is
required is for them to be part of the human experience and they will
understand it all, in a heartbeat.
So that is all. This is today’s short story,
about short stories. Always remember that there is more than only one way to do
something, anything. Don’t ever let anyone tell you different. And, like me,
just keep going. Not for them, but for you. Because you won’t forgive yourself
if you don’t.
