Short Stories on Wednesdays was created and hosted by Risa of Breadcrumb Reads. I later volunteered to take over after she made an announcement to quit blogging. Her concept of sharing short stories through this weekly event is just too good not to be continued. I’ve been hosting this event since then for more than 15 weeks already.
For the most part, I think the success of this event is attributed to the interaction among and postings of bloggers who enjoy short stories, including H. Katz of The Sill of the World, Mel U of The Reading Life, Fanda of Fanda Classiclit, Lemon Tree of Half-filled Attic, Jay of Bibliophilopolis, and Che of From Kafka to Kindergarten. Thank you so much for participating in Short Stories on Wednesdays!
Before I went on a long business trip recently, I evaluated how Short Stories on Wednesdays is doing so far. I know that the structure is loose and the goal, while it’s pretty much clear, is limited to sharing short stories. On a personal level, I want to do more for short stories. I am looking at covering as many genres as possible. I hope to discover more worlds and cultures. And honestly, I don’t think I can achieve them if I merely wait up on Wednesdays to come and make my weekly posts.
Hence, inspired by the successful mechanics of The Poetry Project (where I am also a proud participant) hosted by Lu of Regular Rumination and Kelly of The Written World, I am taking Short Stories on Wednesdays to the next level, starting with its name and badge.
It will now become a monthly event called, “The Short Story Initiative”.
How to get started
Think of your own goals and how you can make The Short Story Initiative work for you. In my case, I wanted to read as many short stories from across diverse cultures as I can. I wanted to show the literary merits of short stories, which is often considered a neglected literary form. I hope to bring the fun experience of reading short stories to Simple Clockwork. If you’re not sure what to read for the month, the event has a list of monthly themes to help you out. These themes are NOT mandatory. If you already have your own short story list to read, that’s great!
All you need to do to participate in The Short Story Initiative is post about a short story once a month in your blog. And if you feel like it, you can make as many posts as you want about short stories within the month.
You don’t have to worry about Wednesdays anymore because there is no more time constraint. You can post on any day of the month! However, if you have gotten into the habit of posting every Wednesday about the short stories you have read, then I say, keep it up!
The monthly start-up post and bundle
The start-up post will be where Mr. Linky will stand by so you can submit the links to your posts. Provide me a link to your posts on or before the last day of the month so that I can include you in the monthly bundle, a summary of posts featured by the participants for The Short Story Initiative. And there is no limit, you can provide me all the links of all your posts about short stories!
The non-mandatory themes
If you have trouble deciding what short story to read, here are monthly themes to guide you.
September - Getting to know each other
October - Crime/suspense short stories
November - Indian short stories
December - Sci-fi short stories
January - Russian short stories
February - Classic short stories
March - Japanese short stories
April - Speculative fiction
May - Irish short stories
June - Short stories by feminist writers
July - African short stories
August - Award-winning short stories
September - Short stories adapted into movies
You can even make your own list like this one to guide you on what to read every month. Remember, you are not required to follow these themes. Just read any short story, make a post on it, and provide me a link. I also encourage you to hop over to the posts of other participants to nurture the shared love for short stories.
September: Getting to know each other
Do you want to know other short story lovers? Yes? I do, too! Come up with a post containing your answers to the questions below at any time of the month and then link me up in the September start-up post where Mr. Linky is. You can also start or resume reading and blogging about any short stories this month and I’ll include you in the monthly bundle at the end of September.
1. Why do you want to join The Short Story Initiative?
2. What kind of short stories do you read? Is there a specific genre or culture or nationality you would like to explore through short stories?
3. Who is your favorite short story writer? Why?
4. What is the most memorable short story you have read?
5. What is your experience with short stories in the past? Is it a good or bad experience?
6. Share one book confession when it comes to short stories?
7. Share something about yourself that has nothing to do with short stories.
Thank you very much for participating in Short Stories on Wednesdays! I am really excited of how the new version, The Short Story Initiative, will turn out. I look forward to reading your posts and hearing from you. If there is a part of the mechanics that is not clear to you, please do not hesitate to hit the comments section or send me an email to enarse@gmail.com.
- Nancy -
Great idea and wonderful themes. I am doing a long term project on my blog on Indian Short Stories.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mel! I've been inspired by your long term project, which is why I dedicated one month here on Indian short stories. I want to explore this culture, too. I hope you'll join The Short Story Initiative.
DeleteNancy, this is a great idea, and I plan to be on board for it. By the end of the month I'll put up a post answering those questions :) I like how your monthly themes are a suggestion too (and an inspiration to branch out to other cultures or genres).
ReplyDeleteHi, HKatz! Thank you! I was really inspired by how Lu and Kelly successfully managed The Poetry Project, so I decided to replicate their best practice and placed it in the context of short stories. I look forward to your participation! :)
DeleteHello, I'm so glad I stumbled across this post! I used to take part in Short Stories on Wednesdays when Risa was doing it, but I hadn't even realised it was still continuing, much less in a new and improved format. I'd love to take part - I need a bit of prodding to read more short stories and this sounds perfect to get me motivated. I'll write a start-up post this week. Thanks for hosting :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Sophia! Am I glad to meet you! The Short Story Initiative will have a lot of featured short stories going on every month, so I hope this event will keep you motivated to participate. I sure look forward to your posts! Thank you!
DeleteGreat! I've done my sign-up post so I'm ready to go! I don't see a Mr Linky (not sure I'm I'm being dense or have a technical glitch!), but here it is: http://www.pageplucker.com/2012/09/the-short-story-initiative.html
DeleteMr. Linky will be up tonight on my own get-to-know each other post. I will also provide links on the sidebar for the convenience of all participants. Thanks so much for joining in! And guess what, Risa will be joining us as well. I'm heading to your post now. :)
DeleteHi again, Sophia! I hope it's okay that I took the initiative to put your link on Mr. Linky so that other participants can go and visit your site and get to know you. :)
DeleteI got this comment from Risa of Breadcrumb Reads via email because she is having problems with posting comments on my blog (I'm sorry for the inconvenience!)---
ReplyDelete...all I wanted to say was that I love how you've continued with this, and the new focus you have on the monthly issue of short stories is great! I'm looking forward to taking part in it. I'm not sure how often (if at all) I will follow your monthly themes since most of the anthologies I have at home are by white men and women of the western canon. But i love this opportunity to pace out reading of short stories and gathering it all up in a month. Like you've pointed out...one week flies by so fast!
warm regards,
Risa ^_^
My reply over email:
DeleteOh, no. There must be something wrong with Blogger. I have a friend who experienced the same thing not long ago then suddenly he was able to make comments. I will check out my settings and all. I apologize for the inconvenience you went through.
Thank you for your support! For a moment, I thought it wouldn't be okay to change most of the mechanics. I looked at Short Stories on Wednesdays at a bigger perspective and hoped that a monthly event will gather more short stories than a weekly one. In my case, with growing responsibilities in my full-time work, there are weeks I could not catch up with the weekly postings.
I really look forward to your posts. Thank you again!
Here is my opening post for the event- I have answered the suggested questions and included a post on Saadat Haasan Manto and one of his short stories (including a link to where you can read this story.
ReplyDeletehttp://rereadinglives.blogspot.com/2012/09/kingdoms-end-by-saadat-hasan-manto.html
I really admire how quick you can make a post on what you've read. But I shouldn't be surprised because you have read more than a thousand short stories over the years. Thank you for joining, Mel! I'm excited how The Short Story Initiative will turn out. :)
DeleteI've been quietly lurking on 'Short Stories on Wednesdays' for a while, but I think I will try and play. I'll get my start-up post up soon. Hurray!
ReplyDeleteHi Nina, that's great! Lurking is a scary word... hahaha Anyway, I'm happy to know you'll be joining and playing along. I enjoy your posts very much! :)
DeleteThanks! Working on my intro post now :)
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