Maybe I’m manifesting the collective unconscious: I’ve started to write a novella. Or maybe the fact I’m writing a novella makes me see small things everywhere, although I don’t think so. In fact, I think some pretty fascinating/scary stuff is going on as people struggle to keep life manageable.
Item: Scott Heller of the New York Times did an email interview with comedian Anthony Jeselnik about his new book club.[1]
Q. “What do your varied picks—ranging from Jim Thompson to Jenny Offill—have in common?”
A. “Most importantly, they’re short. I’m not naïve about the uphill battle I have in trying to get men to read literature. I feel like if I can keep things around 250 pages, I can convince guys to try to read 12 books a year.”
Item: A story in a recent issue of The Economist was headlined: What’s behind the big interest in miniatures? Sub-head: Nostalgia and a desire for control are fueling a boom in small things.[2]
“Miniatures are having a huge moment. Hobbyists are jumping on the model bandwagon as collectors, makers or both. Attendance at dolls’ house conventions is booming. Miniatures.com, one of America’s leading small-creation retailers, has seen more than a tripling of net sales over the past two years. The International Guild of Miniature Artisans—’miniature’ referring to the size of the craft, not to the artisans themselves—saw ‘a record number’ of new people attend their annual art course, according to Audrey Tripp, the director.
“The ability to control a world appeals during times of instability: hence the construction boom in dolls’ houses. ‘I can’t afford to have this massive dream home, but I’m going to make it from scratch,’ says Hannah Lemon, the winner of the second season of ‘Best in Miniature,’ a Canadian reality TV series.”
I could also quote endless studies about how social media is the culprit, frying our attention spans. But we’ve all read them, right? Or at least read news stories about them. Maybe the headlines?
Item: From Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention,[3] a book written by Johann Hari, published by Bloomsbury and originally excerpted in The Observer:
“I went to Portland, Oregon, to interview Prof Joel Nigg, who is one of the leading experts in the world on children’s attention problems, and he told me we need to ask if we are now developing ‘an attentional pathogenic culture’—an environment in which sustained and deep focus is harder for all of us. When I asked him what he would do if he was in charge of our culture and he actually wanted to destroy people’s attention, he said: ‘Probably what our society is doing.’ Prof Barbara Demeneix, a leading French scientist who has studied some key factors that can disrupt attention—she is an expert on the effects of chemical pollution—told me bluntly: ‘There is no way we can have a normal brain today.’ We can see the effects all around us. A small study of college students found they now only focus on any one task for 65 seconds. A different study of office workers found they only focus on average for three minutes. This isn’t happening because we all individually became weak-willed. Your focus didn’t collapse. It was stolen.”
It hurt not to break that long paragraph into three shorter ones. That didn’t used to be the case. I once had an attention span. I have actually read War and Peace all the way through.
We all know the modern world has been enshittified, and it’s tempting to wail endlessly about what we’ve lost. Yet while pressed for time, while ordering myself to stop doomscrolling, while continuing to doomscroll—I also insist on seeing the positives in our brave new world.
How intriguing to discover in the Economist story that aficionados of the miniature have mastered 3-D printing techniques to make old-timey dollhouses.
And what about the proliferating number of novellas being published? Along with all the short novels and non-fiction non-tomes hitting the market. I love reading them (at least the good ones).
In fact, to research my novella, I’ve picked up a stack of short books. I’m looking forward to studying the authors’ literary techniques, asking myself what works and what doesn’t. Meanwhile looking forward to sailing happily through an entire book—a whole world!—in one sitting.
A little more than two years ago I started this newsletter to focus on research. I’ll introduce myself to first-time readers by saying that since then, I’ve reviewed many of the books I found useful when writing my most recent novel.
But research isn’t just books. I’ve also visited Korean spas,[4] taken a class in Visible Mending taught by fibre arts star Arounna Khounnoraj[5], and looked back on a wonderful trip spent soaking in Chilean hot springs.[6]
Along the way, I’ve thrown in the occasional how-to piece about writing techniques, and not just for writers. Who doesn’t like seeing the curtain lifted on authorial secrets? And yes, finding that behind the sonorous voice of the Great and Powerful Oz is a small, fallible human pulling levers. But what fascinating levers!
Now that I’m writing a novella, I thought I’d start a (hem) short-term project in which I only write about short books here. I plan to review them for readers, and to include in each piece a tip or two for writers, looking not just at what the author did in her novella, but how she did it.
My own novella is a ghost story. “We must all write a ghost story,” Lord Byron once instructed. To get it right, I’ll be doing field trips to dig up some on-site insights. I’m currently back-and-forth with a medium as we try to schedule a brief visit to the other side. Haunted houses are definitely on the menu.
Finally, I plan to talk with several writers about their short-form work, asking them to tell us what they did, how they did it, and why.
I intend to write short myself. I also plan to publish a piece every week instead of every two weeks, at least for a while. Meanwhile, I’d love to get your suggestions of shorter works that have moved you, ones we might look at together.
Next week, I’ll dive into Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These. It’s a lovely book, masterfully written, and a good work to analyze.
It’s also just 116 pages long, and the type isn’t tiny. Stand by.
[1] You can find the interview in the New York Times Book Review dated September 17, 2026. Here’s a gift article.
[2] The Economist, dated September 15, 2026. Click here for a gift article.
[3] The excerpt from Stolen Focus by Johann Hari is available here.
[4] You can link to my post about Korean spas here…
[5] … and the post about Visible Mending here…
[6] …and the one I wrote about Chilean hot springs here.