Young Writers Society

I'm curious, how were the masterpieces of short fiction created? It's true that all the masters, Carver, Cheever, Hemingway, Saunders, Borges, were/are prolific about their craft. Perhaps one can not talk about great short fiction and the abundant creation of short fiction without mention Bukowski, who seldom took a break from his typewriter and only did so when his wine glass was empty.

Now, it's clear that all of these authors have poorly written stories published as well as masterpieces. So it's clear they are all capable of producing less than perfect prose and stories. I've also read a quote -- Joyce, I think said it -- it says something to the effect of "I write 99 pages of rubbish to every one page of quality, the genius is knowing which 99 pages to throw away."

On the other hand, I have also read that the greatest stories are the ones that stay with the author. The ones that are whittled down, that are endlessly polished. The ones the author wrote, blindly stumbling upon something that if treated delicately, extracted carefully, become amazing eventually.

It seems novels are too much of a commitment to write a lot of them until one is good enough to polish. Short stories for both the reader and the writer are low commitment. They can be written, read and edited in one sitting. So this argument does not exist for the longer form of fiction.

Some stories, such as "In the penal colony" by Franz Kafka are so meticulously written, plotted as a perfect allegory that it is hard to think that such a story could be a happy accident extruded from an over active writer. It surely is designed. Plotted like a novel. Then glossed over with a final polish.

Naturally, I'm certain the answer is simply a combination of the two. That is to say that throwing enough darts and being patient enough to nurture a good story into a great one is of equal importance. Of course, this is the intuitive answer but it's boring. I want to know this:

Are the masterpieces of the short form of prose great from conception?
Or do they transmutate from something else?
Are they the result of endless editing or the result of a relentless dedication to writing new stories every day?

(For reference, when I speak of masterpieces, I do not speak of stories that have touched or affected you. I speak of recognised and acknowledged literary masterpieces. I speak of stories anthologised over and again. Here's a short list:

A & P - John Updike
Where are you going, where have you been? - Joyce Carol Oates
Are these actual miles? - Raymond Carver
What we talk about when we talk about love - Raymond Carver
A small good thing - Raymond Carver
The swimmer- John Cheever
Borges, and I - Jorge Luis Borges
In the Penal colony - Franz Kafka
The Telltale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe
A clean well lighted place - Hemingway
The cat in the rain - Hemingway
The garden party - Katherine Mansfield)