Begin typing your search above and press return to search.
proflie-avatar
Login
exit_to_app
The smouldering of anger in Ladakh
access_time 29 March 2024 4:20 AM GMT
Democracy that banks on the electorate
access_time 28 March 2024 5:34 AM GMT
Lessons to learn from Moscow terror attack
access_time 27 March 2024 6:10 AM GMT
Gaza
access_time 26 March 2024 4:34 AM GMT
The poison is not in words, but inside
access_time 25 March 2024 5:42 AM GMT
DEEP READ
Schools breeding hatred
access_time 14 Sep 2023 10:37 AM GMT
Ukraine
access_time 16 Aug 2023 5:46 AM GMT
Ramadan: Its essence and lessons
access_time 13 March 2024 9:24 AM GMT
When ‘Jai Sree Ram’ becomes a death call
access_time 15 Feb 2024 9:54 AM GMT
exit_to_app
Homechevron_rightEntertainmentchevron_rightWriting short story...

Writing short story more difficult than novel: Booker-winning writer Ben Okri

text_fields
bookmark_border
cancel
camera_alt""

Jaipur: A short story's call for discipline makes it a more difficult format to write than a novel, which is more responsive to spontaneous inspiration, feels Booker-winning author Ben Okri.

The noted Nigerian writer said a short story often "betrayed in every sentence". A novel, however, he said, was "very generous and forgiving".

"Short story is more difficult, it is very scary... You have to be more rigid and rigorous. Short story is all about discipline," the 59-year-old said.

The idea of a short story begins with expansion, but as one goes along, it insists on concision, he added.

The writer was speaking at a panel discussion at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival, alongside writers Tania James, Vikram Chandra and Pulitzer Prize-winner Andrew Sean Greer.

According to Okri, writing as a practice comes out of experience, adding that what interested him the most was the "subliminal mythical structure of experience".

He said experience helps awaken what is "deep inside us". "I am interested in the subliminal mythical structure of experience. Relationship between myth and life and myth and craft is what makes storytelling," Okri, who won the Booker Prize in 1991 for his book "The Famished Road", said.

Considered as one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions, he has often been compared with authors such as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

He went on to dismiss the idea of "writer's confidence" as a "con".

"The writer is only confident after the work has been done. Once the work has begun, you are as vulnerable and as much a novice as any writer or any human being has ever been.

"You start growing in confidence as your work grows and are confident only after your 25th draft," he said.

Show Full Article
News Summary - Writing short story more difficult than novel: Booker-winning writer Ben Okri
Next Story