A Conversation for MVP's NaJoPoMo - A is for Avocado

S is for Short Stories

Post 1

minorvogonpoet

For a while, it looked as if short stories were in danger of becoming extinct. True, women's magazines carried short stories, which could be rather formulaic, but few books of short stories sold. However, all that has changed recently and it's not difficult to see why. Short stories work well on the web.

But how about writing them? People say that short stories are the hardest form to write. I can understand why, because they consist of the same elements as novels: plot and characterisation, but the writer has less space to develop them. Besides, short stories vary widely. They can range in length from 1,000 to about 15,000 words and it is difficult to say what makes a good short story. A comparison of stories by writers from Checkov through Katherine Mansfield to Raymond Carver shows a wide variety of approaches.

When I first learned to write short stories, I read that the writer needs to give her character a problem. The character sets out to solve it, but encounters complications. By the end of the story, he has either solved the problem or completely failed to do so. However, in a short story like Hemingway’s Hills like White Elephants, it is not obvious what the problem is. Is the girl pregnant? Does the man want her to have an abortion? The reader gets the impression the girl has become disillusioned with her lover. That is all.

It is, I think, safe to say that, at the end of the story, something should have changed. That change may be dramatic. For example, Prosper Merimée’s story Mateo Falcone ends with the title character shooting his own son. But the change can be much more subtle. One of your characters may have come to a realisation about his or her life.

In Writing Short Stories Flannery O’ Connor advised writers that, if they start with the character, something would happen. However, you need to place your character in a situation where his peculiarities produce actions. If you want to write about a man who is obsessed with collecting junk, you might want to give him a house or a flat which he can fill with junk and a wife who objects. So your character and plot evolve together to build a story.


S is for Short Stories

Post 2

cactuscafe

Why were short stories in danger of becoming extinct, for a while, I wonder?

It must be quite a challenge, as a writer, to pack it all into a much smaller space.

I like the way you end this piece, about giving the guy who collects junk a flat or house to cram it into, plus a wife who objects.

I get that, about building the structure of a story.

I wonder what's the shortest story ever written?

I guess this would take one into flash fiction and that sort of thing.




S is for Short Stories

Post 3

minorvogonpoet

Hemingway wrote a six-word story that goes, I think "For sale: baby shoes, not used."


S is for Short Stories

Post 4

SashaQ - happysad

It is interesting about what's easy and hard in terms of writing...

I tend to have a very concise style in general, so I used to enjoy writing short stories for English lessons in high school. When I did NaNoWriMo for the first time, I had a plot outline, but by the time I had finished writing the story around the outline, I only had 10,000 words out of 50,000 smiley - laugh I read through what I'd written and was able to add more detail in quite a few places, but I had to introduce a whole new plot to get the winning number!


S is for Short Stories

Post 5

minorvogonpoet

Yes, when I did NaNoWriMo last year, I found I'd run out of plot by the time I'd written 40,000 words and had to go back and add bits. But then, it can take a very long time to write a novel, with all its complexities.


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