  Short Stories
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I've been combing through a lot of my books lately, reading and rereading things that mean a lot to me as I embark on a deeper edit of a longer piece.
I think right now I am mining for my influences and looking for the roots of some of the things in my imagination. I have some characters who have been along for the ride with me for nearly the entirety of my writing career, no matter how far on the back burner I've allowed them to ride. Digging into this has unearthed a second, separate trip down memory lane: finding some of the books that allowed me to fall in love with short fiction in the first place.
I approach everything I read with this approach: what can I learn from this?
Not in a patronizing or facetious way-- I simply set out to make everything I take in to be its own experience and accordingly, I take in something about the author, simply by taking in the work they have done.
Hemingway; I can only envy his brevity. Bradbury; his wit and innate understanding of human beings, no matter the situation they find themselves. Stephen King might write a decent novel, but his short stories pack a whole extra wallop. A wealth of others whose words and styles I admire, and every one of them unique.
Some of my earliest attempts were obviously cribbed from other author's work; I think everyone starts out on that path at some point, knowingly or otherwise. Having written for the majority of my life now, it's easier to pick out the nuances of where things might have come from, perhaps.
Tom Waits once said in an interview, on the topic of some of his more obvious influences, something I have always found poignant, and I think it sums up my thoughts and feelings this week.
Anything you absorb you will ultimately secrete. It's inevitable. Most of us are original paintings, and it's a mystery as to what is learned and what is borrowed, what is stolen and what is born, what you came in with and what you found while you were here.
Until Next Month,
Take care and Write on!
~j |
This Month's Picks!
And I thought I would highlight the two most recent "The Dialogue 500" [18+] winners here as well. After a summer hiatus, the 500 is back in action on August 1st.
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Comments from last month's edition: "Content Condensation"
Adriana Noir  writes:
Great advice, J! I'm filing this one away for future use!
StephBee  writes:
Great editing tips! Thanks for sharing!
JACE  writes:
Great article, ~j. It's funny how I know these things, yet often forget them when I edit. Thanks for the reminder.
you and me both, Jace! Glad it was helpful for you, Adriana and Steph! I wrote this article as a reminder for myself as much as anything else. Glad others find it useful too. 
LinnAnn -Book writer  writes:
I really liked this article, and even took, notes. I have a dreadful time with 'passive voice'. Maybe your article will help me deal with it.
love, LinnAnn
Thanks very much, LinnAnn! The best way to eliminate "passive voice" is to knock out all those "be" verbs-- they don't do much except add clutter to your writing. It's a subtle thing but it makes actions more, well, active.
atwhatcost writes:
I took the next step toward publishing one of my short stories - I asked an editor/writing coach to take a look. His response surprised me on a few levels. First, "Short Stories" for print magazines are usually 20-25 pages long and second, surprise twists aren't accepted in literary circles. (The rest was standard issue amateur tell-tales that stop us from getting accepted.) Now I have to rewrite the piece and make it longer, but he did tell me one thing I needed to know. He told me I could "flat out write." I thought I'd pass this on to others, to avoid the effort I've gone through to get one story published in print.
Thanks for the anecdote, Lynn! Remember too that story length is also affected by genre and format; 20 pages might be acceptable in a literary journal or genre mag, but young adult fiction runs the gamut in page sizes, and there are magazines that focus on "microfiction" and other oddities of our attention-deficit era.
Additionally-- My feeling is that using page counts is a holdover from the print era and that a more accurate idea of story length would be gleaned from having your word count handy.
And yes, surprise endings are frowned upon unless they are very well justified. The general reasoning is that if the ending does not make sense within the context of the story, it's generally not a fitting ending and readers generally don't react well to this. Now, an ending which involves something surprising can work, but it really relies on context.
salliemoffitt writes:
I am amazed at how many words can be cut from my pieces while still retaining the original storyline. When I think I am "done" with a piece, I challenge myself to go back and cut it down by 5-10%. During this revision I catch many weak verbs, noun phrases, redundant words, but not all. A second reader is a must! A fresh set of eyes will see my flowery phrases and delete them. This process helps tighten my work into a much better story. Thanks for writing about this topic.
yes-- I cherish my "betas" as many folks call them... people who can be relied on to scan through something and see that it works before unleashing it upon the general public. As a person on the borderline of neurosis with perfectionism, a second reader is indeed a must.
Freelanceink writes:
Interesting letter about editing. When writing to a specified length, I never just free-write until my story is complete and then try to pare it down to size. The results of such an approach are far too often frustration and tears. Instead I set a target word count window (generally plus or minus ten per cent of the limit), and if I am unable to land within that window, instead of editing, I examine the topic of my story and adjust its scope: if it is too short, I broaden the focus; if too long, I narrow it. only once I have married focus to length and hit my window, will I consider editing.
Finally, a couple more trimming techniques: depending upon the tone of your piece, contractions are often a nice method of eliminating those last few pesky words. For larger purgings look for redundancies--if you've said something twice, or used more than one metaphor for the same thing--choose the best one and remove the rest.
I agree completely-- though my personal work technique is a bit different, and so is everyone's, I presume. You've laid out a great option with regards to crafting short pieces here, and I like the idea of having the goal be set at a more specific place, though I would probably be a bit more flexible with it-- I am generally of the conviction that most things can be effectively shortened with tighter editing.
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Short Stories: July 27, 2011 Issue [#4523]
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