TECH: Short Stories

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 23 August 2010

Writers Digest, December 2007, pages 77 and 78, has some notes on short stories. There's several different pieces, by Simon Wood.

It starts with a two paragraph description under the title, "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff." This points out that short stories are hard. They're concentrated, streamlined, storytelling. You have to focus on key elements, without wasting words.

So how do you write a better short story? Simon Wood offers six points:

1. Get to the point. Begin with a crisis or conflict, weave backstory in and keep going. In novels, by the end of Chapter 1, you've established the story's conflict. In short stories, you need to do that by the end of the first page. Action, dialogue, provocative statements by characters... get to the point.

2. Scope. Short stories are limited in size. Think of a play -- limit the set changes, and the characters. Short stories are intimate snapshots of a handful of key characters.

3. Think small. Not in terms of theme or complexity, but in execution. You can have big conflicts, but the resolution needs to be fast.

4. Short stories need beginnings, middles, and ends. They may be snapshots, but they need to start with a conflict and end with a resolution. You need a series of actions that the characters take to get to the resolution. Take readers on a journey with a destination. Conflict, obstacles, and resolution -- make sure they're all there.

5. Too much information. Short stories don't need long character histories. Keep the story moving. Snappy descriptions, simple yet elegant sentences. Hint, don't go into details.

6. Show, don't tell. Actions -- characters doing things -- show the readers everything they want to know.

And Simon Wood provides a questionnaire that can help guide your short story.

1. When is the story's conflict introduced? (On the first page?)
2. What action starts the story's conflict? (Dialogue or physical action)
3. How many major characters are in the story?
4. What are the pivotal plot developments for the beginning, middle, and end?
5. Does each sentence push the story forward or show readers something about the characters? (If not, delete it)
6. Does each word move the story forward? (If not, get rid ot it)
7. Is the story focused or are there irrelevancies and redundancies in characters or plot?
8. Are descriptions simple, but effective? (Do they make people and places seem vivid without a lot of words?)
9. Is the dialogue tight, and sound genuine? (Read it aloud)
10. Do we see how the characters act?
11. Is the story's conflict resolved?

There's even an exercise. Pretty straightforward -- first try using the questionnaire on a short story of your own. Are there things you can improve? Next, take a favorite story written by someone else and try out the questionnaire again.

Write?