Up for challenging yourself?

Harvard U.'s Constance Hale writes an intro to a couple of stories on the Nieman Narrative Digest that carries the headline, 'Narrative is not a synonym for long.'

I love that.

We've been talking about short narratives since we started focusing on narrative in '07, and several of you have written some (check the left rail for the story about the missing scarf, the guy caught on the York Fair fence, the hero dog who died ... there are lots).

No question, we can (and will) do narratives that are short, long and in-between. None is easy. But don't be intimidated into thinking that if you want to do a narrative, you're going to have to take months to do it. Be open to finding the right story, and it will appear.

Then you can be challenged about how hard it is to do short narrative well ... but after all, the challenge is the fun part.