Never heard of that before, Terry, and haven't recognised it in the many American short stories I've read. Sounds more like the way they put films together. It does have simplicity at its core, though, so it may well be there but so well disguised I haven't spotted it.

Surprised new people haven't come onto this thread. Are there no short story writers on this site? Or just none that have an opinion they wish to express about novelists judging short story competitions?!

It tends to be used more by commercial short fiction writers. I usually offer it into the classes I teach, not prescriptively but because I feel a lot of writers, whatever genre they work in, can benefit from it. Without it, or similar structures, it's very easy to drift. And while I realise everything's supposed to be subjective, I have to say a lot of literary short fiction drifts too much for me. When a writer's developed mastery, then I think they can work exclusively towards, say, tone or atmosphere or the exposition of a single moment. Lorrie Moore comes to mind; someone who knows what she's doing. But I see too many writers trying to start at that level of accomplishment, without realising there is a lot of technique, structure and control to learn first.

We do have quite a few short fiction writers here but I think you'll find there are roughly two camps: those who are trying to become the best writers they can be and those who seem more interested in just scoring 'hit's - who submit to magazines which take a very high proportion of submissions. There's not a lot of mixing between the two, to be frank.

a lot of literary short fiction drifts too much for me.

Indeed, that is what I was talking about earlier.

Breath-taking at it's best, though.

Lorrie Moore

I seem to be the only person on the planet who doesn't appreciate Lorrie Moore. All a matter of taste, of course.

We do have quite a few short fiction writers here but I think you'll find there are roughly two camps: those who are trying to become the best writers they can be and those who seem more interested in just scoring 'hit's - who submit to magazines which take a very high proportion of submissions. There's not a lot of mixing between the two, to be frank.

Well, horses for courses, and all that, which is fair enough.

I'm very disappointed that no-one else has joined this discussion of what I feel is a valid and interesting topic. I've changed the title in the hope of attracting more interest. But perhaps people are unwilling to broach such a subject on a public forum but are, perhaps, furiously debating it in the private one! Perhaps they don't wish to offend anyone?

Or perhaps people here are more interested in talking about their own writing than about writing in general?

Well, looks like we're all going to be trapped under several inches of snow for the next few days, perhaps more will come on for a chat, in between bouts of snow-bound writing.

Correction, I tried to change the title but it didn't work. Trying again.

<Added>

No, obviously it can't be done!

Eleven days and no new contributions. Astonished, it's something a writers website should have got stuck into.

Thank you, Emma and Terry, for your contributions which were interesting but I'm afraid that, overall, this site has turned out to be what my daughter would call a yawnfest.

You're welcome,

Interesting thread, came to it at the end, can't comment on the technicalities other than to say that I sometimes wonder what, if anything, is happening when I read an extract from a novel out of context. (Case in point would be Franzen's Freedom which is an exercise in intense navel gazing on at least one level.) But that's the thing; it's out of context. Like the symphony that has repeated themes and variations that there aren't room for in a single, the thing has to be taken as a whole or not at all.

I'm somewhere in the middle on this, I think. A story is complete when it is the length it is meant to be and I doubt I have ever been aware of consciously using different techniques for different forms barring the awareness that I could not keep up the word-play I sometimes put in my short-shorts for the 100,000 words of a full-sized novel.

G