Building the Short Story Collection

About this course:

Even for seasoned short story writers, building a short story collection can seem daunting, hampered by the misconception that the process should entail nothing more than gathering the writer’s most recent stories in a manuscript that starts and ends with the strongest stories, with a title based on the most successful one of the bunch. In fact, building an inventive, publication-worthy collection entails much more. During this class, we explore, through our own writing and through published work, the process of building a short story collection by discussing the types of links between stories—such as character, setting, culture, and theme—that make published short story collections feel satisfyingly cohesive. We also discuss techniques to strengthen the links between your existing stories and develop ideas for additional linked stories. You also present a plan for your own collection that includes a statement of how it will be organized (e.g., linked by character, setting, culture, theme, etc.), a list of published collections to use as models, and a list of stories—both existing ones and story possibilities—to be included in your collection. Finally, you submit an excerpt from your collection-in-progress for input from the instructor and your classmates to help spark additional ideas for completing a creative, cohesive, publishable collection.