|
humorist-workshop
Advicenators discussion: Short Story 101
ductape_n_roses wrote Thursday August 14 2008, 7:04 pm:
What is a Short Story?
Edgar Allan Poe described it as a story that one can read in one sitting, but if you want to get more mathematical:
- 2,000 words is a short, short story
- 2,000 to 8,000 words is a short story
- 8,000 to 40,000 words is a novella
- 50,000 words is a novel.
Now, you may wonder if your 2,000 word or 8,000 word is a short, short story, short story, and/or a novella—or you may even wonder if your 45,000 word story is a novella or a novel. Frankly, I can’t tell you because there is no right or wrong answer. It really is up to you to decide, but be sensible about it. If your story is 40,001 words long, don’t round up to 50,000…
Before you begin to explore Short Stories 101, remember these things:
1. Everything that I have written below apply to writing stories in general, whether it is long or short—the basic principles will apply!
2. A story is your own creation: you are the one that ultimately decides what will happen, who the main character will be, if the skirt is going to be red or blue—every decision is yours so make them as you see fit!
3. The one great thing about stories is that they’re like rubber bands. You start off with a rubber band and when you need to get it around something, it stretches and clings on to different things. Stories are flexible and forgiving—you may have started a story with one thing in mind but there is a great chance that you’ll finish it with another thing in mind. You can change any part of your story any time you wish so don’t feel like you’re making life changing decisions.
4. Writing is a skill you can develop and perfect. No one can wake up one day and say, “I’m going to be a great writer!” Learning to write is more than learning to write down words. Experience is the best (and only) way to become great at writing.
5. Don’t say that people are born with talent in writing and that you don’t have a talent in writing. Someone once said that talent is something that you work hard for because you desire it so much—so much that you can taste it.
*******************************************************
The Elements of a Short Story
Before I go any further, let me point out one thing and engrave it in your head: a short story is short – hence the name – therefore you cannot be overly zealous about using the million and one story ideas you have on your mind. In other words, make sure you keep all parts of your story short and simple because if you don’t, it can get quite messy and confusing.
Part I: The Conflict
Most, if not all, of us have a lot of conflict ideas to write in our stories, which ultimately makes this part of a short story the most important. As we all know, a conflict is where the main character is having a few (or a lot) of issues with another thing or a person. It can be the character vs. another person, character vs. force of nature (earthquakes, wind, bears, etc.), or character vs. his or her internal conflicts (mental illnesses, guilt, etc.).
In a story (a long one), there may be one large conflict that remains throughout the entire plot and several minor conflicts that relates to the large conflict or just adds a little spice to the story. However, you should remember what I said above about short stories being short. This means keep your conflict number to one and make it simple.
Part II: Setting:
Setting, as many of us know, is the place, time, weather, and whatever surrounding factors you want to add on to the story. A setting can play a large role in your story (especially if your conflict is character vs. a force of nature) and really set the entire story or it can simply be the item collecting dust in the SALES shelf. Whichever you choose the setting to be, make sure you choose wisely. Again, it’s a great time to emphasize that short stories are short and that means you need to keep the “time” and “setting” factor simple!!!
Part III: Voice
Voice is basically the “personalities” of the story’s characters—funny, serious, sarcastic, rude, mean, bratty, or (my favorite) flat out weird. Each one of your characters should be looked at as if they were real persons—every one of your characters needs his or her own voice/personality. One may be dominant, one submissive, one bold, one shy—it’s all up to you. The key thing: you must assign a distinctive and unique voice to each of your characters.
“A story is only as strong as the voices telling it…Characters need to speak for themselves in their own distinct voices,”
-Richard Peck
Part IV: The Characters!
Characters in a nutshell: you can have characters alone but never a story without characters. They are the ones that make it possible for you to create a story, whether they are people, animals, or even inanimate objects. But, I must mention this again: make sure you have only a few characters because short stories just don’t have room for you to make twelve different characters, develop them, and keep the reader not confused! Keep it to 1-2 main characters and 1-3 minor characters.
Part V: Point of View
Point of view is through whom the story is told—
-First person: told by the narrator; great inside view of the narrator’s feelings and thoughts, but this is the most limiting point of view to write in.
-Third person limited: told by an outside observer, telling the story as the observer follows a single character throughout the story; this is a semi-limiting point of view to write in.
-Third person omniscient: told by an outside observer, telling the story as the observer follows several characters, if not all characters; little to no limits when writing in this point of view.
You may be tempted to use more that one point of view, but again, I will remind you that you should only have one point of view and one viewpoint only because short stories are too short to be messed with more than one viewpoint!
Part VI: Dialogue
“Hey, how are you?”
“I’m doing fine, and you?”
A dialogue, as many of us already know, is a conversation between two or more characters in a story. Dialogues are where a character’s voice is shown as well as his or her hopes, wishes, knowledge, etc., etc. Stories are often told through the mixture of dialogues and descriptive sentencing, unlike a play where it solely replies on dialogues to carry it through.
Now, to contradict the “conversation” part: dialogues are not meant to sound like everyday conversations! Do not try and mimic that conversation you had with your friends or with your family because it’s kind of boring after a while and you’re taking away the characters’ voices! That does not mean, however, that your dialogues have to be in complete sentences with proper English. You need to find that balance between dinner table and speech giving conversations to find a dialogue that flows and is natural to read.
Part VII: Mood
“A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it.”
-Edgar Allan Poe
The mood is the personality of the book (not to be confused with voice, which is the personality of a character): funny, scary, happy, romantic, etc., etc. It may be appealing to say…make your story a love story while having some action moments in there that later appear to be funny—but, as you know short stories are short so keep the mood to one mood only!
*******************************************
Hunting and Gathering
In order to write a story, you have to have something to write about. But sometimes, we all have problems trying to find that something so here is how to go about in trying to find a topic. However, note that good story ideas that you want to write about would be an idea that appeared in your head in a snap—not something you strained your brain to come up with.
Story source #1: You
If you are having trouble coming up with an idea (and you’re new to writing), professional writers will probably tell you to write about something you know well—what better do you know other than yourself? It can be something that happened to you (even if you have had a really dull life, a 3 second exciting moment in your life can spark your imagination!), something you want to achieve, something you want, something you (put in a verb)! Think about your childhood, home, meal times, school, family, special events, vacations, jobs, even your dreams!
“If writers stopped writing about what happened to them, then there would be a lot of empty pages.” -Elaine Liner
Story source #2: Some you know
Okay, so maybe you don’t want to write about yourself – why? I don’t know – but have no fear because there will be at least one person you know that would love to be written about. That someone can be a family member, friend, partner, team member, etc., etc. The next time you have a big gathering of your family, friends, work members, team members, go around and ask people, “What is (are) the most interesting highlight(s) of your life?” and unless they’ll all very dull and/or hostile, you are sure to get a lot of responses. From there, build off whether you’ll write things as they happened, put in a little twist of your own, or just use that highlight as a part of your completely made up story!
Story source #3: Media
As you know, the media knows how to capture reader’s/viewer’s attention in a snap. Go through the newspapers and magazine or turn on that TV. Whatever your source of the media might be, if there is something that captures your attention, think about the topic. Say, a headline that said, “Mother of Two Boys,” and if that captured your attention, you may write about a single mother going through a tough time raising the boys but being rewarded at the end, you can write about how the mother became single (divorcee or widow?), or you can write about the mother going on dates to find a new husband and maybe the kids are a plus or minus to her profile.
Whatever captures you attention, take note of it or cut the article out and use it!
Story source #4: Imagination
Imagination is a writer’s weapon – trust me, a total stranger online, when I say that it is. For some, it may be hard to get an idea from their brains, but for some, ideas can be overflowing in their heads. Whether you find it easy or hard, here are some ways to get your creative juices flowing:
-Listen to music
-Go shopping or just get out of the house and observe things around you
-Ask the “What if…” question to yourself about certain topics, events, places, people, etc. and use the answer to that “What if…” to build your story off of
-Build a character in your head and think of what you want him or her to do or face.
BAD story source: Movies, books, and the likes:
While it may be extremely tempting to get an idea from that movie you saw last night or that book you read in class, it’s also extremely easy to have your story ending up as an exact copy of that book with different characters. Now, I’m not saying that you should never use these as a source, but if and when you do, you must approach writing your story very carefully.
“In comparing various authors with another, I have
discovered that…writers have transcribed, word for
word, from former works, without making acknowledgment.”
-Pliny the Elder
Think INSIDE the Box:
Yeah, yeah, they all say, “Think outside the box!” In this case, though, you should think inside the box rather than out. What am I talking about? As you’re hunting for ideas, you’re bound to find pictures, articles, quotes, etc. that inspire you. Now, what do you do with them? You pile them in a box! Put anything and everything that inspires you and put it in a box. Later, when you want to begin writing, you can go through the box and see what you want to write about! See, thinking inside the box can pay off.
Your Second Shadow will be a notebook and a writing utensil. Often, ideas for stories or just plain “Spark my imagination!” ideas come at random times so be prepared to write them down!
**************************************************
Don’t You Dare Think About a First Draft Yet!
Before you put your ideas into a first draft (yes, there will be drafts), you must organize your thoughts. Some writers like to wing it and write as the story unfolds, some like to plan what will happen to the smallest details, some are in between. If you’re new to writing, planning out details, details, and more details will help. As you become more comfortable, you may choose to either wing it or plan it—whichever you’re more comfortable with.
“A lot of writers…outline in great detail. But the system of…letting the story grow, seems to me to give you the advantage of letting your characters develop in a way that seems real and natural.” -Tony Hillerman
Tony Hillerman is a smart man. As I have mentioned above, stories are more flexible than you might imagine it to be. Just because you write an outline with precise details does not mean that you need to follow it like a slave. An outline is flexible and just an “I’m here if you need to reference me!” kind of thing. As you write your story, you may want to change this detail and even that detail over there. By all means, do so! Remember that you are the one controlling the outline—not the other way around! If you want to change something, do it.
The “outline” of the outline I am going to give is very useful if you are planning to write a short story closer to 5,000+ or a novella or a novel. But don’t get me wrong; shorter stories can use the help of an outline as well.
-Title: (This should reflect the story you are planning to write, but it should not in any way give away your entire story. Make sure the name is catchy, creative, and original! You can come up with one before you write, as you write, or after you write—just know that you can change it any time you want to just like you can change your outline!)
-Setting: (This should include the location the story is taking place and the time period that is appropriate for the story. It is completely up to you to decide how specific (or not specific) you want them to be—it mostly depends on whether you want to utilize the setting in the story or you want it as a “sort of there” factor.)
-Point of View: (This is pretty simple—do you want it in first person or third person? If you want it in third person, limited or omniscient?)
-Format: (This applies mostly to longer stories. For this, you are trying to decide how you want to write out your story—how you want it do be told. Is it like a blog, diary entry, or just flat out chapters? Is it going to be told by a narrator, one person, or switch between two or more characters? Is it going to be a person telling his or her past or is it going to go back and between present time and past memories? There are a number of way you can tell a story—be creative!)
-Mood: (Again, this is simple as well—do you want the story to be a funny one, serious one, romantic one, etc. Refer to Part VII from The Elements of a Short Story—and keep Poe’s quote in mind!)
-Characters: (This should list your major character(s) then (if you want) the minor character(s). Make sure, though, that for your major character(s), you describe him or her—sort of like making a profile on eHarmony.com or something. You don’t have to commit much time to doing the same thing for minor characters—unless you want to, that is.)
-Conflict: (This is straight forward—write down the conflict that is going to occur in the story. Be as specific or broad as you want it to be.)
-Events: (This is what will happen in the story. What helps is if you pick one thing that you really want to happen. Now, take that as a central point and create events that will make it possible for your character(s) to reach that event, the event, and events leading to an ending you want.)
-Summary: (Write a really brief summary—it should be about 3-5 sentences long, covering the basic beginning, middle, and end. It doesn’t have to be fancy or anything—it’s just something you can reference to see a gist of what you will be writing in greater details.)
Here is a blank one:
Title:___________________________________
Setting:
Location:_________________
Time Period:______________
(Whatever else you may want to add)____________________
Point of View:___________________________
Format:_________________________________
Mood:
Character:
Name:_________
Age:__________
Sex:__________
Occupation:___________
Appearance:___________
Personality/Voice:_______
(Repeat the above as much as you need)
Conflict: (In this line, write the major one)
Sub-Conflict 1: (This is for longer stories where the plot is more complex and there are little conflicts that add onto the major conflict or branch off form the major conflict).
Sub Conflict 2:
(Repeat above as needed)
Events:
1._____________________________
2. _____________________________
3._____________________________
4._____________________________
(Repeat above as needed)
Chapters: (This is completely optional and only for stories that are to be written with chapters in them!)
Chapter 1: (describe what will happen in this chapter—briefly!)
Chapter 2:
Chapter 3:
Etc. etc. etc.
Summary:____________________________
*******************************************
What’s Your Favorite Sandwich?
There are three parts to a story: beginning, middle, and end—in an overly simplified way. But it’s better to think of your story as a sandwich:
-Top bread: it has to look pretty from the top or you won’t want to sink your teeth into it. It is the same with any story—the beginning must be interesting in order for a reader to want to continue reading it. Don’t simply state the character, setting, and conflict (as a beginning should include)—incorporate it into the story slyly so that the reader is informed but doesn’t realize that he or she is being informed. The greatest beginning, however, is not the beginning but the middle of an action or a speech—think about it.
-Meat (or vegetarian meat): it’s what makes the sandwich delicious. With a story, the middle part is what makes the story. Without it, the story will be just two pieces of dull bread.
-Bottom bread: it doesn’t show but it’s important because if you don’t have that slice of bread, everything will fall apart. With a story, if you don’t have the ending, your story won’t be complete.
-Other things: so a sandwich won’t be delicious without some dressing or vegetables in it. A story, while it is still a story, will be dull and boring without any details.
****************************************
Skipping Grades
Now that we have covered the anatomy of a sandwich, it’s time for you to go from second grade to sixth grade to eleventh grade to even senior year of high school (and maybe pit stops in between grades).
“All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go onto greater things.” -Bobby Knight
Second Grade:
First draft should begin here. Write your short story as it is completely dull, bland, and down to the point. Just write it from start to end—don’t go crazy over how to describe something or what a room looks like. Write your story as it is without the fluff. Then stop writing—just stop and walk away from it.
"Advice to writers: sometimes you just have to stop writing. Even before you begin.” -Stanislaw J. Lec
Sixth Grade:
Okay, so four years have passed (in real time, it’s the next day). You pull out your first draft and you are going to look at it in three parts: beginning, middle, and end. Make marks on the page (assuming that either you wrote it with paper and pencil OR you printed out your typed draft)—find places where you can cut it, add something, describe, and fix to make it better.
“A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?” -George Orwell
This is where the story becomes a little more “developed” (for the lack of a better word). You’ve made all the mark, all the changes that should be made—and you make them. This is usually the process that takes the longest but it’s worth it in the end.
Make sure to put in descriptions, details, feelings, emotions, etc., etc. Without them, your story is like a dry piece of cake, which may I add is not delicious. Nothing is worse than a story without anything but the bare “bones.”
“Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing.It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting.As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors.”
-Rhys Alexander
Eleventh grade (optional to skip, but not recommended):
In real time, another day has passed by. After updating your story the day before, you stepped away from it and did something else. Now, it’s time to re-read what you have updated and do some more editing. There will be changes that need to be made: pointless parts of the story, lacking parts of the story, vague parts of the story, overly detailed parts of the story, and the famous misspellings and wrong grammar!
Rewrite (or retype) so that it looks pretty darn good. Then step away.
“In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages, which are almost completely lacking in meaning.”
-George Orwell
Senior year (optional to skip, but definitely not recommended):
“You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.”
-Ray Bradbury
All writers face two problems: it’s their own story and they spent too much time with it. Sometimes it’s hard to catch new mistakes or new words when you have re-read something over and over again, and sometimes you just don’t want to catch them because it’s yours and you don’t want to acknowledge that there are going to be mistakes and changes that could be made, no matter how talented of a writer you are.
So you give it to a friend, a family member, or to anyone you know. Heck, you should give your story to as many people as you can. Ask them to read it, correct it, and make suggestions. Never take it as a nagging thing or an insult. It’s [constructive] criticism and it’s best to heard them from those who you know than from some stranger or from a grade you’re not particularly proud of.
Put aside the black and white frame: do not ever think that it’s your way or their way—collaborate ideas, open up to suggestions. One part of being a writer is to be open-minded and to listen.
“Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.” -David Searis
***************************************
How Many Grades?
Well, there is not one number to the question, “How many drafts are enough?” You can have three drafts or ten drafts—I say that it’s when you and a reader (or readers) find it to be 92% satisfying (because as a writer, you will never be 100% satisfied with a piece of work).
Make sure you check off on this list, though:
-Every word is spelled correctly.
-100% correct grammar.
-Someone has read and made suggestions.
-You listened to that someone.
-You have a title.
***********************************************
Just Because You Graduated Doesn’t Mean You Were Valedictorian
With any kind of writing, it is either a piece of wonderful work, just another piece of paper with ink on it, a piece of work with too many colors, or a piece of work that is in a dead language nobody understands. It’s true that there is no perfect writing, but there is good writing and bad writing. Follow these rules and your writing can be gold:
“It's not about the writing. It's about the feelings behind the words.”
-Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata
“This is the challenge of writing. You have to be very emotionally engaged in what you’re doing, or it comes out flat. You can’t fake your way through this.” -Real Live Preacher
Writing is not just words—it is words filled with emotion and feeling. Without them, the words will be words and the story not a good one. Engage yourself in it, include feelings and emotions—make the characters, the events, the situation—everything—real.
“Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.” -Stephen King
“Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.” -John Ruskin
Words are a tricky thing. They can be your friends or enemy, it all depends on how you use them. So here are the basic rules:
1.Never look in the thesaurus and if you do, never use a word because it sounds fancy and pretty and clever. It will change your whole voice and effect the voice of the other characters as you write. Besides, that big word you used with stick out screaming, “Look at me! I’m trying to use fancy words that I don’t know!”
2.Choose your words carefully! Make them interesting words (that you know, of course). Instead of saying, “She was happy,” say, “She was ecstatic.” By replacing happy with ecstatic, you will portray a stronger emotion.
3.However, do not use a word simply because it sounds more interesting but doesn’t fit in!
“Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely'when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.” -C.S. Lewis
4.Adjectives are a nice touch to bring a vivid image to the audience so utilize them. However, don’t go into long, length descriptions about something that is not too important. For example: “Her room was blue,” is lacking adjectives, “Her room was blue with pink polka dots. And within those pink polka dots were little Irish men dancing on a podium. Then there was her bed, 3 inches to the left of her chest that belongs to her dying grandmother…” is way too descriptive. “Her room was painted in blue with furniture that held great importance,” is a better way.
5.Comparison: metaphors and similes—they are great tools to bring to the readers what you have in mind or are trying to have them feel. However, do not use the “The night was silent as a mouse,” or any other trite comparisons. Also, don’t make 80% of your story metaphors and/or similes. Another thing:
6.Adverbs are good when used sparsely. But you don’t want to tell the readers what’s going on; you want to show the readers. Also, a lot of times, what an adverb is describing is mentioned or implied—so no need to enforce an idea again (unless it’s a point you really want to emphasize). Besides, it’s better to say: “Don’t do that!” He said with his fists clenched and his face growing red, then this: “Don’t do that!” He said angrily. Because 1) readers are aware that he is angry because of what he is saying and that exclamation point, and 2) it really is better to show that he is angry than to say it. What I’m saying is, don’t rely on adverbs to tell what’s going on.
7.Don’t try to make your story sophisticated or a puzzle itself.
8.Make your story logical. Yes, it’s your story, your imagination, your work—but it won’t be a good story unless there is some logic to it. For example, you don’t want to be writing, “The fairy was skipping across the water when the motorcycle came straight at her.” Motorcycles, I’m sorry to say, cannot go cross the water.
**********************************************
By: ductape_n_roses
**********************************************
Fabulous Links!
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location) -- Dynamic Fiction was developed to establish an online presence for amateur writing. Our goal is to provide a central internet location for users to read and comment on fictional stories, book reviews, essays, poems and more. Dynamic Fiction’s content is rooted in the idea that group effort yields higher quality material, so we encourage you to give us feedback and we wish to entertain each and every user by doing so. We hope you find our resources useful and enjoy writing with us.
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location) -- free tips on writing related things
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location) -- Welcome to Teen Ink, a national teen magazine, book series, and website devoted entirely to teenage writing and art. Distributed through classrooms by English teachers, Creative Writing teachers, Journalism teachers and art teachers around the country, Teen Ink magazine offers some of the most thoughtful and creative work generated by teens and has the largest distribution of any publication of its kind. We have no staff writers or artists; we depend completely on submissions from teenagers nationwide for our content.
We offer teenagers the opportunity to publish their creative work and opinions on the issues that affect their lives - everything from love and family to teen smoking and community service. Hundreds of thousands of students have submitted their work to us and we have published more than 25,000 teens since 1989.
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location) -- helpful information on writing and a competition you can submit your works into.
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location) -- submit your poems online and you may just get published because this site looks for unknown poets!
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location) -- I have been on this site for years and I love it. You get your own page, you can post up your stories (long or short), people can read them and comment them (all of them are nice!), you can make your own competitions (no real prizes, of course), you can enter competitions made by other users, and it’s just a great place to show off your stories, get constructive criticism back, improve your writing, and meet other writers!
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location) -- this is a sister site for Storywrite.com. It’s the same thing, except this one is for poems. If you make an account for Storywrite.com, you automatically get an account on Allpoetry.com and vice versa!
***************************
Sources:
“Extraordinary Short Story Writing” by Steven Otfinoski – basic outline for this Short Story 101
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location) -- where I found many of those wonderful quotes
My own experience in writing (of five years)
Reply to topicWhoa, hold up there! You have to be logged in to reply to this topic.Register for free!
|