The Art & Craft of the Short Story

make payments on the Studebaker, and have something left over for a Florida vacation.

Five thousand dollars in 1947 is the equivalent of twenty to thirty thousand now

He was paid five thousand dollars for it.

prize-winning story

Fifty years ago, it was possible to be paid several thousand dollars by a major magazine for a single short story.

Fifty years ago, a professional writer could make a decent living writing nothing but short stories.

compromise your love with economic need:

Love is the only acceptable motive. (Love can sometimes be obsession. In writing, the two are synonymous.)

You write the short story for love—not for money, fame, or tenure.

“… it might be truer to say,” O’Connor continues, “that while we often read a familiar novel for companionship, we approach the short story in a very different mood. It is more akin to the mood of Pascal’s saying: Le silence eternel de ces espaces infinis m’effraie.”

The short story at its best examines a pivotal moment in a life, whether it is one of spiritual crisis or domestic ennui, with an unflinching gaze. Consequently, says O’Connor, “The storyteller … must be much more of a writer, much more of an artist …” than the novelist. More, in any case, of a poet.