Problem with Short Stories
If you have spelling or grammar questions, please post them in the International Grammar section.
If you want feedback for poetry or short stories you have written, please post the poem or short story in either the Creative Original Works: Short Stories section or the Creative Original Works: Poetry section.
If you have a book that you want reviewed, click here to submit your book for review.
- BookLover7
- Posts: 7
- Joined: 24 Feb 2014, 19:28
- Bookshelf Size: 0
Problem with Short Stories
- Bibliophile97
- Posts: 212
- Joined: 17 Feb 2014, 21:45
- Favorite Book: So so many. . .
- Currently Reading: 80 A.D. The Tekhan of Anuket
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-bibliophile97.html
- BookLover7
- Posts: 7
- Joined: 24 Feb 2014, 19:28
- Bookshelf Size: 0
-
- Posts: 233
- Joined: 10 Feb 2014, 14:28
- Favorite Book: See Favorite Author
- Bookshelf Size: 2
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-klyons1.html
- Latest Review: "A Vision of Angels" by Timothy Jay Smith
- Bibliophile97
- Posts: 212
- Joined: 17 Feb 2014, 21:45
- Favorite Book: So so many. . .
- Currently Reading: 80 A.D. The Tekhan of Anuket
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-bibliophile97.html
-
- Posts: 22
- Joined: 28 Feb 2014, 01:40
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-hillaryjones92.html
- moskolights90
- Posts: 9
- Joined: 26 Feb 2014, 16:12
- Bookshelf Size: 0
I have always preferred writing shorter pieces, because my attention span was unable to cope with anything longer, but that's just me. Perhaps experiment, you'll need a tighter framework to work inside as you need to cover all the basics in a shorter piece. I quite like the idea of 'flash fiction' and 'micro fiction' (i think they're different) its incredible if you choose your words carefully you could write a simple yet wonderful story within a few lines! I've read several which were really something amazing. I usually look at winners of competitions and read the winning entries, maybe you could get some ideas from these.
in a short piece, you don't have to reveal everything (e.g. character's history...etc) which already gets the reader thinking more about what the characters past could have been.
i hope this somehow helps.
- ALynnPowers
- Posts: 8536
- Joined: 21 Aug 2014, 07:14
- Currently Reading:
- Bookshelf Size: 417
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-alynnpowers.html
- Latest Review: Sarah's Dream by Eileen Bird
- Reading Device: B0051QVF7A
- Publishing Contest Votes: 13
I am in the same boat. Can't write a short story to save my life! Let's hope that my life is never dependent on writing a short story, because then I would be screwed!BookLover7 wrote:I was hoping that I could get some advice on how to write a short story. I tend to write way too much, and am always thinking on a novel, or series level. I don't want to give things away too soon, I want my characters and their motives to be mysterious in the beginning; hence I write too much. Any suggestions for how I can master the art of the short story?
- moderntimes
- Posts: 2249
- Joined: 15 Mar 2014, 13:03
- Favorite Book: Ulysses by James Joyce
- Currently Reading: Grendel by John Gardner
- Bookshelf Size: 0
Ha ha.... writers have been trying to do this for a hundred years now.
Learning this amazing and immense skill and art? It's something that may take a lifetime, and then the aspiring writer may still never make it.
I've tried to write short stories for years and I still chip away at the granite.
The art of writing short stories is NOT easier than writing a novel, just because they're shorter. Short stories may actually be more difficult. I certainly find this true.
I might recommend that first, read the masters. Read James Joyce's "Dubliners" to start. Then read, perhaps, Katherine Anne Porter. There are plenty of superb short story writers to learn from.
But if you don't succeed, you may decide that your talents need to be better applied to the novel.
- DawnEL
- Posts: 7
- Joined: 08 Jan 2015, 17:43
- Bookshelf Size: 0
I don't know if that helps or not but I hope it did!
- Down_the_Rabbit_Hole
- Posts: 6
- Joined: 10 Jan 2015, 13:03
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- Gustavsson
- Posts: 88
- Joined: 22 Jan 2015, 22:23
- Currently Reading: A Darker Shade of Magic
- Bookshelf Size: 25
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-gustavsson.html
- moderntimes
- Posts: 2249
- Joined: 15 Mar 2014, 13:03
- Favorite Book: Ulysses by James Joyce
- Currently Reading: Grendel by John Gardner
- Bookshelf Size: 0
I saw that a novel was the correct venue for the idea, but I was somehow "scared" of trying to write a novel, as I'd written short stories before and I thought that I didn't have the skill to do a novel. Of course it turns out they are equal in difficulty, and after I said "okay" I managed to write the novel, which became a sequel, and now I've got 3 novels about the private eye, 4th in progress, and zero short stories about him.
I nevertheless have continued to write short stories, and my recommendation is that aspiring short story authors realize that a SS contains ONE plot arc and ONE main character arc. If your thoughts and processes tell you that what you want to say is longer than that, you might consider a series of stories that are interconnected via a theme. James Joyce's "Dubliners" is a perfect example --- each story stands alone, but the overall theme of spiritual paralysis and moral bankruptcy is seen in all of them (Dubliners isn't a happy bunch of stories).
The last story in the collection, "The Dead", is much longer and a novelette or novella. btw the film "The Dead", the last directed by John Huston, is a brilliant version of the story and quite accurate. It's superb.
Anyway, a "real" short story has ONE character arc and ONE thematic arc. If you have trouble limiting the scope to this, either consider a novel or a series of thematically related short stories. All of these are valid endeavors. It's not less important or less difficult to write a short story, just because it's shorter. Novels and short stories are equally difficult but have different scopes.
Understand, if your short story has a couple of minor character arcs or minor thematic arcs, that's okay, but these need to be very limited or else the stretch of your story will encompass too much and run away with itself. I say again, read "Dubliners" (start with "Araby" please) and see how one character is portrayed and how the internal agony of that character is shown so perfectly. Araby is a masterpiece of personal despair at being locked in a situation, hopeless. But anyway, read the story and you'll see how it involves just ONE character arc and ONE theme arc, even though it touches on other characters and their woes in progress.
Of course your story can be sad like Araby or happy. But use the brilliance of Araby as a model for your own story, in how the arc is developed and enlarged. Focus on that single arc of both character and theme, and you'll be able to create that short story.
And if your story keeps growing and you really cannot contain it within a single character or thematic (plot) arc, then don't despair -- you're writing a novel or a series of shorts!
- Snickerdoodle9
- Posts: 64
- Joined: 02 Feb 2015, 18:14
- Bookshelf Size: 40
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-snickerdoodle9.html
-
- Posts: 62
- Joined: 28 Jan 2015, 19:36
- Currently Reading: The Virtues of Captain America
- Bookshelf Size: 91
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-braktooth.html
- Latest Review: Skills of the Warramunga by Greg Kater