How to Find a Good Short Story

When was the last time you read a short story in second person? To be honest, I couldn’t remember reading one before. First and third person tend to be the easiest way to build characters and plot. Whenever I thought of second person I felt it was a way of commanding you to do something, not a perspective to write a story from. However Lorrie Moore proved me wrong. The first story I read by her was, “How to Become a Writer.” The short story begins like a list, “First, try to be something, anything, else.  A movie star/astronaut.  A movie star missionary.  A movie star/kindergarten teacher.  President of the World.  Fail miserably.” At first you feel she’s addressing you, but then she provides anecdotes, which take you away from the “list.” The steps segue into these comical anecdotes about how Francie, the main character, found herself changing her major to English and deciding to pursue a career as a writer. The anecdotes take you from fourteen-year-old Francie to her college years. The second person creates an intimacy between you and Francie, you understand you are not her and yet your grasping exactly how she felt and what was going through her mind all these different times. It also helps being a teenage girl, and having moments where you felt similarly. Moore’s perspective of second person really intrigued me as a writer because I had never seen something like this done before, and pulled off. My interest in her writing style pushed me to buy more of her short stories from the book, Self Help. So far I have been really impressed with “Self Help,” I found more second person point of view short stories, which I loved like “How to Be an Other Women.”

Basically, if you're looking for some good short stories, check out Lorrie Moore.