This summer, I managed to read a single book every day for a week. I enjoyed reading since I was a kid, but the time begins to be given away to other activities as I got older. It suddenly felt overwhelming to get through a single book. If I opened it, I would struggle to fight the urge to finish it as soon as possible. That's not feasible when I have studying, socializing, and classes that required my attention. Instead, I turned to short stories to satisfy my reading needs.

I fell in love with short stories when my mom gave me a collection of 21 short stories in sixth grade. I read each story in the compilation. Twenty pages was a breeze. It amazed me how an author could get me invested in a new character in a short period of time. Often, the characters would be quirky or in a controversial dilemma. Basically, they were so interesting I couldn't help but be dragged into a story. This is necessary since the author has much to tell a reader from the start and cram it into a small amount of space.

A short story's plot is usually eccentric. The world building happens incredibly fast and the writer tends to not waste too much time on exposition. I feel comfortable in the setting the author has created; I am already well-acquainted with the characters and their world. Short stories are the quick escape I need from reality without cracking open a whole book and leaving myself hanging at a nailbiting part.

One downside to short stories is that the conflict may not always be resolved at the end, but sometimes that's the best part of a short story. It was a brief encounter with a stranger similar to real life. In real life, you meet so many people and gain a small insight into their life before you part ways perhaps to never meet again. It's supposed to leave you thinking and continue the story in your mind.

Ironically, the other negative of short stories is that they are sometimes too short. What if I wanted to know what happened after the protagonist reached civilization? What happened to the other characters the protagonist met previously? Reading a short story is preparing yourself for a sudden cliffhanger that might not sit well with you.

For myself, short stories are a personal writing goal. I want to be able to pull in readers with interesting characters instantaneously. I want to think of an intriguing plot that can progress in twenty pages and stay in someone's mind for hours after they have read it. However sadistic it may be, I might be the author who left the readers at an open-ended conclusion so their imagination can run rampant trying to complete it. I want it to spur someone else's creativity. Additionally, writing a short story seems less daunting than trying to write a novel.

Don't let the 500-page novel discourage you from enjoying a quick escapade. Grab a short story and READ!