In the latest Glimmer Train bulletin, Laura van den Berg discusses the evolution of how her stories get written and shaped into a collection, or a book. She begins:
In my early days of writing stories, I somehow came to operate under the following assumption: whenever you amassed 200 pages worth of fiction, your work would undergo a miraculous transformation into a book. I took my first stab at writing a story collection in college. The result was a 210 page manuscript entitled Hush, an ungainly mishmash of domestic realism, ill-conceived Beckett homages, and flash fictions about trees with real human feelings (true story!). While I can think of many excellent collections that demonstrate great stylistic and technical range, the “eclectic” approach was not working for me.
She goes on to discuss the difference between a “group” of stories and a collection. Read the entire piece.
Other pieces in this month’s bulletin:
- Reading Before Writing by Roxana Robinson
- Habits by Samsun Knight
- Empathy by Ming Holden
- The Writer-Traveler by Lisa Gornick
Jane Friedman has spent nearly 25 years working in the book publishing industry, with a focus on author education and trend reporting. She is the editor of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2023. Her latest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press), which received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with organizations such as The Authors Guild to bring transparency to the business of publishing.
[…] How a Collection of Stories Comes Together via @JaneFriedman featuring @lvandenberg on @glimmertrain […]
Thanks for posting the piece of Laura van den Berg. I struggled with finding a form to combine my short stories into a collection that makes sense. This article from Laura helped me to put my next collection together.
Thanks for finding and posting great information.
Johanna van Zanten
That was a great piece. I bookmarked it. Cheers.