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Recently, I was asked to edit a small manuscript by an upcoming writer. As I read it, I became increasingly puzzled. The manuscript did not seem to fit comfortably into any of the categories I normally associate with fiction. There was no sustained plot carrying the reader from one chapter to another, nor was there the kind of narrative development one would expect in a conventional collection of short stories. Instead, the manuscript consisted of a series of short pieces, each capturing an incident, an observation or a fleeting moment.
I eventually realised that I was reading a collection of vignettes. What fascinated me was that the author herself did not seem to know the genre of her work. My first reaction was not particularly charitable. I almost sent the manuscript back with the suggestion that these were the kinds of pieces that belonged on social media rather than between the covers of a book. The short sketches seemed to capture moments rather than tell complete stories. I later thought I was being too dismissive. What I was looking at was not a failed collection of short stories but something else.
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