Video: Stephen King Talks Short Stories

Posted on May 13, 2011

Stephen King talks about writing and short stories in the interview with Rich Fahle of Bibliostar for Borders. The interview coincides with the release of King's fifth short story collection, Just After Sunset.

The short story market is not very big. There is the possibility that ebooks - and ideas like Kingle Singles - could help bring it back. Stephen King says some novelists have lost the ability to write short stories.

King also talked about short story length. He says sometimes he starts out writing a short story and it balloons into a novel. King also says, "There really is that length of 22 to 25,000 words that's a 'twilight zone' for writers. It's too short to be a novel but it's too long to be a short story."

King also says that very talented writers like Raymond Carver have perfected this difficult craft that he calls an "art of miniaturization."