I’ve always contended that the purest short story is a song.
I remember a third grade teacher telling us that songs, were stories and I questioned that, saying that Hound Dog certainly didn’t seem to me to be a story. She of course explained what a story was and how Hound Dog most certainly told the story of a relationship between man and dog…or possibly was the story of a man and woman.
As I got older and started working as a musician, I found my favorite songs were from the great story tellers of the time.
Harry Chapin, with Taxi, Jim Croce with his wonderful cast of characters, Jimmy Buffett, Brian Wilson, Steve Goodman John Prine and others. Then I started writing songs, and even recorded a CD called Last Flight Out. There are 11 stories on that CD that I love.
I conceptualized an anthology where writers/musicians wrote a short story, then wrote a song about that story, then recorded the song. Jeff Deaver, Peter Robinson, Rupert Holmes, John Lescroart and others are in my anthology A Merry Band Of Murderers.
If you can build characters and plot, keep the excitement, suspense and romance all in a three minute song, then you’ve got the perfect short story.
So the other day I was remembering Harry Chapin and a song popped into my head called Corrie’s Comin’. It’s a song about an old railroad guy who remembers stories that never happened. When questioned by a young man, the old man says “Reality is only just a word.”
At the end of the song, he dies and this woman who never really existed shows up at his funeral. I think I’m going to write a long story…maybe a novel about that song.
Switching the whole concept. A pure short story that is a song now becomes a full length novel. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to it, but I’m intrigued by the idea.