January 25th, 2010 / 11:25 am
Behind the Scenes & Craft Notes

Collectors Of

Writer: What do you think about when placing stories or flashes or essays or poems or whatnot in a collection?

Order? Disorder? Intent?

Reader: How do you ingest a collection? Start to finish, left to right, top to bottom—blar!

Reader: A while back I was reading Drift and Swerve by Samuel Ligon and found myself intrigued by Nikki, a reappearing character. So I read all the Nikki stories first, then read the others.

Writer: Is a collection an album? Greatest hits, do you hear a single, does anyone remember the term concept?

Reader: This Richard Russo collection, it had a spectacular story, one, and the others…well.

Seems like you can crag in more tone shifts, more gnashes, poet. Can the prose writer do the same, or do these texts need to have some similarity?

You say hybrid, I say what?

Let’s bale these tendrillic texts, bathtub them, and call everything a novel! So clean!

OK.

Was just wondering. Etc.

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25 Comments

  1. jereme

      so after the bathing, wouldn’t the new clean material simply be good or bad writing?

      why is that a novel?

      oh because you are pushing your agenda.

      never mind.

  2. jereme

      so after the bathing, wouldn’t the new clean material simply be good or bad writing?

      why is that a novel?

      oh because you are pushing your agenda.

      never mind.

  3. Caleb J Ross

      I as writer: when putting together my collection, two things were most important. 1) the stories must support the overall theme of the collection; in my case that being physical deformities enhancing a character’s mental health. 2) if the story can be read for free online, I didn’t include it.

      I as reader: definitely, I read from beginning to end. I always assume that the author ordered the stories with purpose. Even if that isn’t true, thinking that helps me find connections and a common thread through the stories.

  4. Caleb J Ross

      I as writer: when putting together my collection, two things were most important. 1) the stories must support the overall theme of the collection; in my case that being physical deformities enhancing a character’s mental health. 2) if the story can be read for free online, I didn’t include it.

      I as reader: definitely, I read from beginning to end. I always assume that the author ordered the stories with purpose. Even if that isn’t true, thinking that helps me find connections and a common thread through the stories.

  5. drew kalbach

      what agenda is he pushing?

  6. drew kalbach

      what agenda is he pushing?

  7. Laura Ellen Scott
  8. Laura Ellen Scott
  9. jereme

      “novel’.

      really i was just playing around though.

  10. Sean

      Agenda?

      Would that be pro-novel or anti-novel?

      I am pointing out the tendency for linked stories to appear, on the artifact of the book, as a “novel.”

      Either from us (readers, editors) or from elsewhere (marketing folks?), the word novel has taken prominence.

      Ever been to a beach and witnessed readers? What percentage are reading ss collections?

      This is an entirely other post.

      Agenda: lunch.

  11. jereme

      “novel’.

      really i was just playing around though.

  12. Sean

      Agenda?

      Would that be pro-novel or anti-novel?

      I am pointing out the tendency for linked stories to appear, on the artifact of the book, as a “novel.”

      Either from us (readers, editors) or from elsewhere (marketing folks?), the word novel has taken prominence.

      Ever been to a beach and witnessed readers? What percentage are reading ss collections?

      This is an entirely other post.

      Agenda: lunch.

  13. jereme

      i was fucking around.

      and no i have never seen people read at the beach?

      actually, why on earth would you be reading in a public place full of half-naked women/men depending on your swagger?

  14. jereme

      i was fucking around.

      and no i have never seen people read at the beach?

      actually, why on earth would you be reading in a public place full of half-naked women/men depending on your swagger?

  15. drew kalbach

      i always got the feeling he had some subtle agenda too. just wanted to compare conspiracy theories.

  16. drew kalbach

      i always got the feeling he had some subtle agenda too. just wanted to compare conspiracy theories.

  17. Sean

      That is reading, j. The rise of the hybrid text. I’ve seen print on bikinis I know.

  18. Sean

      That is reading, j. The rise of the hybrid text. I’ve seen print on bikinis I know.

  19. drew kalbach

      it’s hard reading at the beach. the sun is very strong, and makes the white page bright. i find it is easiest to read while wearing sunglasses at the beach.

  20. drew kalbach

      it’s hard reading at the beach. the sun is very strong, and makes the white page bright. i find it is easiest to read while wearing sunglasses at the beach.

  21. Kyle Minor

      I think there’s as many answers to these questions as there are books.

  22. Kyle Minor

      I think there’s as many answers to these questions as there are books.

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  24. jesusangelgarcia

      yes, please, call everything a novel, even if a small set of shorts “loosely connected” by same spout, i.e., author’s brainstem, or a very long story, once novella but too like poetess, prissy, demeaning, no, demand NOVEL for its ringtone, heft, implication of the new for readers who would rather vlog on youtube anyway.

  25. jesusangelgarcia

      yes, please, call everything a novel, even if a small set of shorts “loosely connected” by same spout, i.e., author’s brainstem, or a very long story, once novella but too like poetess, prissy, demeaning, no, demand NOVEL for its ringtone, heft, implication of the new for readers who would rather vlog on youtube anyway.