Stephen King’s book, Bazaar of Bad Dreams, is a collection of short stories. He says in the introduction about the stories, “You’d be surprised- at least, I think you would be at how many people ask me why I still write short stories. The reason is pretty simple; writing them makes me happy because I was built to entertain.”

He refers to the short story as a more intense experience. He adds, “short stories require a kind of acrobatic skill that takes a lot of or tiresome practice.” Short stories are not forgiving. Your mistakes are just right there in your face. In a novel, you work past them.

 Stephanie Valente, in October 2018, wrote an article in Melville House * titled “Stephen King on why writing short stories is important” and said, The author argues a solid point for short fiction writing: it’s excellent practice and endurance for more extended form writing.  King feels that more writers should be working on short fiction instead of only penning novels.

*Melville House Publishing is an American independent publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.