PORTLAND, Maine — John Connolly, the best-selling author who spends most of his time in his native Ireland but also owns a home in Maine, has just had his latest book published, a collection of supernatural short stories called “Night & Day.” Connolly is a fan of the genre even though in the course of a year he might typically write one novel of about 400 pages and one short story of anywhere from 10 to 40 pages.
“That’s a really interesting way of looking at it,” he said when I pointed out the disparity. “I think sometimes we underestimate the difficulty of [writing] short stories. When people are in writing programs short stories are often treated like training wheels on a bicycle.”
Connolly believes that a good short story is, in its own way, as challenging to write as a novel. “There are fewer places to hide. And every word has to matter—it’s almost like poetry.”
Whatever the length of the story, the way to get it finished is to persevere. One hears about novelists who write the first 60 or 70 pages of a book, then put it aside because it’s not working. Sometimes they never return to the project. That’s an approach that’s alien to Connolly.
“I don’t like leaving things unfinished. It bothers me,” he said. “It’s true in any walk of life. You don’t go and give your car to the mechanic in the garage, and he comes back and says, ‘I did three wheels for you. The fourth one I’d be careful with.’ You’re not going to go back there again. You think he’s not a professional guy. Being a professional is about finishing things.”