Georgia Behrens writes about her salvation: the short story

As anyone who has read a newspaper column in the last 10 years will know, citizens of the 21st century have a short attention span. Gone are the days, generic columnist bemoans, when we’ll settle down with a good book or literary journal for a few hours on end, one hand holding a cup of tea and the other stroking the fluffy ginger cat in reclining in our lap. Instead, we all rush around in a perpetual frenzy, “twitting”, “Facespaceing” and “text-messaging” until our poor, cancer- and-RSI-ridden bodies drop dead at the end of our superficial, unfulfilling lives.

I’ll be the first to admit that modern life is hectic, and that I rarely do one thing at a time. However, I’ll also be the first to jump to the defence of everyone who has a Twitter, a Facebook and an overcrowded schedule and proudly proclaim: my life is neither superficial nor unfulfilling, and I like my attention span just the way it is. It allows me to have a broad ranges of interests, engagements and activities, and I feel like I know quite a lot about a wide range of subjects.

The one thing that I do lament about my somewhat overcrowded life is that, between my university commitments, my part-time job, my internship, my relationship, my family and my half-hearted attempts to exercise on a semi-regular basis, I often find myself with very little time to read. Enter my salvation: the short story.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a single-memory of a three-hour bloc of my life in which I’ve been particularly happy. Rather, my brain is full of fleeting fragments of my existence; single, isolated moments in which I’ve been particularly happy or upset or anything in between. By the same token, I’m rarely able to recall novels in their entirety; to accurately recount a complete plotline; or to analyse the complete structure of a 500 page brick that has taken me a month or so to finish. My literary memory is comprised of particularly moving scenes, particularly astute observations or particularly striking or realistic characters: all of which can be easily (and, most importantly, quickly!) found in the treasure trove of short fiction available for lazy or time-lacking readers one and all. The best thing about it is that, rather than spending six weeks reading a book, only to arrive at the end having forgotten what all the characters were doing at the beginning, your mission is completed within fifteen or twenty minutes: ideal for a coffee break, bus trip, or quiet moment alone in your bedroom.

So, in my eyes, short stories- like Twitter and texting- are ideal for use and consumption in the modern era. Admittedly, I do find that I’m not able to derive as much intellectual credibility from tweeting that I’ve finished a 10-page story as I am from triumphantly declaring War & Peace conquered to my various Twitter followers. But, for me, the purpose of reading is to throw yourself into contact with as many worlds, worldviews and world-weary whingers as possible. Doing confirms and clarifies the way you look at the world around you, and challenges stereotyped or ill-informed views you may have. It makes you- to be horribly cliched-a better smarter person.

Short stories allow you to do all of these things, within the time constraints that the hectic modern schedule imposes upon you. And, I will be honest: I have, on occasion, found myself wishing that an author of a must-read literary tome had placed slightly more emphasis on brevity in the creation of their masterpiece. As far as I’m concerned, David Bader put Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre much better in his book, One Hundred Great Books in Haiku-

Oh woe! His mad wife-

in the attic! Had they but

lived together first.

If you’re interested in short stories, check out our panel “The Short Story” , part of our series, The Library of Unwritten Stories.

The Library of Unwritten Stories is an eight week program which alternates between panels and writing group meetings.

The NSW Writers’ Centre and the City of Sydney Libraries are teaming up to present The Library of Unwritten Stories, a dynamic new program for young writers aged under 30 with a chance to establish a new writers’ group. The importance of Writers’ Groups – small meetings where writers can read and comment on each other’s work – is often underestimated. This will be a chance for young writers to meet each other, explore the potential for collaborative projects, be mentored by industry professionals and develop their own work.

The Library of Unwritten Stories will alternate weekly between talks from industry guests and the writing group meetings. Talks will focus on the short story and each guest will set a writing challenge for the next week’s meeting.

When: Wednesday evenings: September 5, 19 & 26; October 3, 10, 17, 24 & 31, 6-7pm

To book a place please visit the Library of Unwritten Stories Eventbrite page.