It won't pay the bills but...

My photography skills aren't that great. Sorry.

Last weekend was the first Short Story Festival in London. I had tickets for a beginning and end talk, but missed the beginning due to a friend's birthday. I made sure I forced myself to make it to the closing, which was on Sunday. It was held in Waterstone's - the big one in Piccadilly Circus. The specific event was titled "In Praise of the Short Story" and it consisted of three writers reading one of their short stories to us and then discussing their technique with the host writer, Alex Preston. I took away a lot - and now I'm going to share it with you.

A.L. Kennedy introduced herself as a "short Scottish person" and "savagely un-commercial" and was immediately likeable. She told us writing is an odd life decision to make because it has so few rewards and the ultimate aim is respect. Her reading was funny, uplifting and I found her stance on love to be greatly imaginative and at times, clinical, which is an interesting take on the concept.

(Around the time Kennedy had finished reading, I noticed a few people crouched behind the bookshelves, trying to listen in without being seen. Which was ridiculous. You were supposed to buy tickets but I applied for a freebie and got one - and then nobody checked my ticket. So anyone could have sat down at the event. Ah well.)


Kennedy also explained that she doesn't write for a living, she gets paid to buy more time to write. M.J Hyland added that she can't pay her bills losing short story prizes, either, and that we should expect her next novel in 2032. So, not much hope of me earning a living from writing, then. Hyland came across as something of a perfectionist with her writing, which is completely understandable. After she read to us - in the most seductive, poetic voice since Lana Del Rey, might I add - she confessed she changed the story as she went because she simply couldn't help it. And that was a published work.


Helen Simpson's reading taught me that a story can change based on who is reading it aloud. Author readings are good, but only if the author has a voice that's nice to listen to, in my opinion. I did consider that Hyland might have made me biased but Hyland read after Simpson, so I'm not swayed by her dulcet delivery. I swear.

It was decided at the end of the talk that there was no value for short stories nowadays because every form of writing is earning much less than it used to, short story collections just seem to have it the worst. One of the points that was raised was if writers were footballers, we'd all be making millions - but also have groin strain. Hey, we can't have it all.

What do you think the future of short stories will be?