WRITING
Mavis Gallant Would Not Get Published on Medium
The seven-minute Medium glass ceiling
The New Yorker published one hundred and sixteen (116) stories written by Mavis Gallant. Today, alas, she would never be published on Medium.
Why? Because her stories are too long, is why.
Reading one of her short stories recently, I was struck, again, as so often, by her brilliant use of language, by her deep insight into the human psyche and our day-to-day problems, by her compassion, and by her storytelling skill.
I was so struck and inspired that I wanted to do nothing more than sit down and write an equally magnificent story myself (we are allowed to dream, are we not, we writers?).
What hit me next, like a soft but very palpable blow, was that I should not, could not, write a story like that, because a story of such caliber and length would hit the seven-minute Medium glass ceiling and never be accepted.
Inspirational flight crash landed. Stillborn.
Having chosen Medium as my vehicle to publish and share my writings I now seem, insidiously, to have fallen into the poisonous bog of seven minutes max.
Publication after Medium publication warns against too long a narrative. Seven…
