₦airaland Forum

INVISIBLE ARROWS

I do not see them,
But they go straight to my heart; and deep!


Sent by her,
Whose breasts pillowed my head,
Whose tongue moistened mine...


My name is Nostalgia as I watch her leave my life,
My pillow of flesh and meaty fountain with her...


Somehow, I have to rid my heart of these arrows,
Pillow my head somewhere else, and seek fresh moisture for my arid tongue...

I tip Bulawayo's We Need New Names and Ifeanyi Ajaegbo's Sarah House for the award. Goodluck to the others, though.

...because the readers of such
prefer to read a story once and be done
with it.

Yes. Which is why the enjoyment is usually short-lived. Personally, I prefer short stories because, like Zakura said, I don't really have the consistency (time) for serials.

Seun: Long stories and serials simply deliver more enjoyment to Nairaland members. Short stories simply need to be much better written to compete.

The ''enjoyment'' of serials is majorly inherent, and not because they are better written.

Serials, by default, gives the writer enough 'play room'. Short story, on the other hand, is more compact and direct. There is little room for plot/character diversification and every word counts. Excuse this example, but a short story is like a quickie, while a serial is like an all-night love-making. Clearly, more people would prefer the all-night affair, because the pleasure is lasting; and not so much because of the doer of the action. However, some quickies leave better memories, so do some short stories have more substance than some 'nollywoodified' serials.

KingzPen: That's where your creativity comes to play... I just gave that as an example...

You can give it a very captivating title which will trigger any story lover to open... After that is achieved then you blow their mind with your short stories...

You can also point it out to them that you write short stories...


With that, you would be known for that 'brand'...

Now, I see your point. Makes sense.

princesa: Its survival of the fittest i tell you. Short stories don't just have a 'competitive edge' on the literature board, and that's the truth.

Even if a child board is created for it, people would hardly go there. Imho.

On the contrary, Princesa, I think people will visit it. My first short story on nairaland, THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLE, made it to the front page. I have other short stories, but the thought of seeing 'my baby' slip into 2nd/3rd page oblivion is, well, discouraging. So I'd rather work on them with a view to publish ASAP.

Now, I have started a series that I'm yet to post on nairaland. Frankly, I feel like I've been forced to do it. A child board won't be such a bad idea. Afterall, short story is a sub-genre of literature.

KingzPen: If I were in your shoes, I would create a thread, name it 'My Short Stories.' Then, I post any short story I have subsequently on the thread to give it the kind of attention I want.

This is possible if and only if you really mean to keep writing short stories because you cannot just post a short story today and after one month post another, this wouldn't improve one as a writer and also wouldn't achieve the aim of creating the thread.

My little advice, create a thread then inject all your short stories there anytime anyday you want...

Good point, but I have a question: What would the Literature section look like if we have, say, twenty ''My Short Stories'' threads on the first page?

Victoria's voice held
worry.

I love this, by the way.