The Art of the Short Story

By Lucy Burns

“The only way to write a good short story is to write a good short story.” John Steinbeck was told this in one of his first ever story writing classes at Stanford, Shena Mackay also stands by this.

On Thursday at Words by the Water Shena Mackay and Tom Lee read from their own short stories and gave the audience an insight into the art of writing. Shena read from “The Atmospheric Railway” and Tom from “Greenfly”.

 Shena was first published at the age of 16 when she won a poetry competition run by The Mirror. Evidently she’s been in the business a long time, she even recalls meeting Melvin Bragg 40 years ago here at Keswick, just as he was about to bring out his first novel. Shena loves to write short stories, and explained how thrilling it is to “create a whole world in such a small place”.

In comparison Tom is new to the literary scene, “Greenfly” a collection of 12 short stories is his first book. Throughout the session Tom continuously joked of how he’s struggling write a whole novel, so look out for one in the future.

For any budding creative writers out there Shena quoted John Steinbeck to warn that the short story “is a most difficult form” so good luck! But while it can be, in Shena’s own words “very grueling” she persists because it is “very important” to her. Her advice is to look at and listen to everything on a daily basis and read as much as possible, classic and contemporary. Tom added “Write every day and never give up.” it will be worth it in the end.