Short Training for Your Long Game: Recommended Reading
In the March/April 2017 Writer’s Digest, StoryADay founder Julie Duffy shares how and why short stories can be a fabulous creativity tool, even for writers who are primarily working on…
In the March/April 2017 Writer’s Digest, StoryADay founder Julie Duffy shares how and why short stories can be a fabulous creativity tool, even for writers who are primarily working on a novel. Drawing on experiences from acclaimed writers who ascribe to this practice, including Hugo Award–winning short fiction writer and novelist Mary Robinette Kowal, she emphasizes the importance of reading fiction in the short form as well as experimenting with writing it.
In this bonus online-exclusive reading list, Duffy and Kowal offer up some of their favorite stories that are a good size, a little bit odd, and pack an emotional punch—handpicked to spark your creativity.
- “The Appropriation of Cultures” by Percival Everett
- “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” by Rachel Swirsky
- “The Fog Horn” by Ray Bradbury
- “Instructions” by Neil Gaiman
- “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal
- “Laws Concerning Food and Drink; Household Principles: Lamentations of the Father” by Ian Frazier
- “Orange” by Neil Gaiman
- “Sticks” by George Saunders
- “Strike and Fade” by Henry Dumas
- “The Standard of Living” by Dorothy Parker
- “Subsoil” by Nicholson Baker
- “They’re Made Out of Meat” by Terry Bisson
Guest ColumnAuthor
Related Stories
