Jonathan Taylor in Conversation

What initially attracted you to writing short fiction?

I've always loved short stories. After all, a lot of well-known children's books are collections of stories, or novellas. For me, there'll always be something childlike, in the best sense, about the form - something childish about their intensity. Short stories are instants in time, flights of fancy, moments of delight, horror, tragedy, comedy. They condense into a short space the kind of intense emotions which are associated with childhood. They are an attempt, if you like, to recapture that intensity in written form. Freud himself talks about Creative Writers as people who have retained certain aspects of childhood psychology (and, indeed, psychopathology) - and I think that's often true.

What would you identify as the main problems associated with writing short fiction?

I'd say it's all about compression - compression of style, and compression of content. We're so saturated in our mainstream culture with so-called Hollywood 'epics,' soap operas, and, indeed, novels, that concision and precision are rare and undervalued things. It's hard for a new writer to think beyond (or outside) these elongated forms, and distill in a few well- chosen words, a simple unadorned style, a couple of pages a miniature world. As many have said the West often overvalues 'size' (in its mainstream art, as in its sexual characteristics), at the expense of seeing what John Clare called 'the sublime of the small' of the world. That's what short fiction can help recapture.

What would you identify as the main rewards associated with writing short fiction?

The problems and rewards are, of course, related: if done well, conveying the significance of an individual's life and world through the prism of one key moment is rewarding both for a writer and a reader. It's a form which can demonstrate the world-shattering importance of individual moments in people's lives.

Do you regard writing for competitions as stimulating and productive, or largely an unfortunate necessity?

Neither: I don't think competitions should be a primary focus for a writer. At their worst, competitions and literary prizes distort the writing world, creating false hierarchies and artificially privileging certain types of writing over others. Prizes and competitions should always be of secondary concern (at the most) to the writing itself, and the dissemination of that writing to an audience (whether through publication, the internet, or live storytelling). Writers, I feel, should not 'aim' their work at them.

Do your target readers have a particular age or gender identity? And would you say what you write is 'genre fiction' or fiction aimed at a general audience?

I suppose my writing is for adults, primarily. I write what has become known as 'literary fiction,' which I think is a terrible title, imposed (partly) to ghettoise the genre. I suppose this means that the emphasis of my short fiction is as much on the musicality of the writing as the content. But, to be honest, I never set out to write 'literary fiction' (and, in a way, the term hardly existed twenty years ago). I set out to write what I think of as good writing - and that means that the style, characters, form are all as important as the plot. Interestingly enough, it's not just so-called literary fiction writers who feel like this - good writers in all genres feel that way too. Stephen King, for example, says something similar in his book On Writing. As regards gender identity, the answer is a simple No!

Have you yourself completed creative writing courses or had creative writing tuition, and if so, did you find them/it genuinely helpful? If not, what were the problems?

In the dim and distant past, I did a couple of Creative Writing courses, and found them very helpful. In one, I was taught by the wonderful poet and writer David Morley (I think it was about 1997), who has been responsible for a whole generation of writers since. He helped me understand the importance of style. Since 2001, I myself have taught Creative Writing, and currently am a lecturer of the subject at the University of Leicester. I think it's a very valuable subject - and not just for people wanting to go on to be so-called professional writers. Learning how to write well is a skill that's useful everywhere.

Do you regard writing short fiction as subsidiary to the main thrust of your novel/script writing, or as an end in itself?

I think it should always be an end in itself. I have seen weak short fiction written (for example) by poets as a sideline, who think of short fiction as a kind of offshoot of poetry. It's not. It's absolutely its own form
- and a very different one to poetry or novel writing. It demands a very different kind of concentration, a very different use of language and structure. That's not

to say you can't cross between forms - after all, there have been some wonderful short story writers who are also poets or novelists. But first and foremost, it has to be treated as a separate discipline. In some ways, I think it has more in common with music, and scriptwriting (for radio or screen) than novel-writing, because of the importance of structure and voice.

Do you see short fiction and flash fiction as separate disciplines, or simply a matter of applying some different techniques?

Having said what I said above, I do think flash fiction and short fiction should be seen as overlapping forms. There have always been short-short stories, and I see very little difference between short-short stories and so-called 'flash fiction.' In fact, I prefer the term 'short- short stories.' There are some wonderful contemporary writers who specialise in short-shorts, including Tania Hershman and Dave Eggers.

What would be your advice to anyone who wishes to start writing short fiction?

Well, my primary piece of advice would be fairly obvious - read as much as possible. Read Hemingway, Carver, Mansfield, Rushdie, McEwan, Poe, Hawthorne, Joyce, and so on and so forth. Also: read your stories out loud both to yourself and others. Think of short stories as having their roots in oral storytelling, and therefore the musicality and 'vocality' of short fiction is of vital importance. Find out how your stories sound to others. Enjoy hearing them, and enjoy performing them.