 Short Stories: April 24, 2019 Issue [#9512] |
This week: Master Studies Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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This issue:
Master Studies
A technique in the art world that I'm working with in fiction--studying others' works and trying to figure them out. |
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A time-honored practice of many artists is the Master Study, whereby an artist takes a piece of artwork from a master of the craft and does a study, a copy, from it. By doing this work, the artist can learn new techniques for solving a color problem or learning how to apply a certain kind of detail. One can learn to vary their style and incorporate new elements.
Sounds like cheating, right? (Only if you try to sell it later. Honest.)
It turns out that you can learn a lot about technique by breaking down the techniques of others to see how they vary from yours and what you can do to improve in your own work. It's somewhat harder to do this in fiction, in part because the medium we use is both more exacting and more subjective.
That doesn't mean you can't figure out your own way to do master studies, though.
One of my personal favorite techniques for this is simply to dive into a story I particularly like, and make a lot of notes on it. Maybe I'll highlight pretty turns of phrase or sharp, crackling bits of dialogue. Maybe I'll make a margin note about a plot twist I didn't see coming--or reflect on a character development that made me scream out loud the first time I read it. The important thing is to pick a story that you love, ideally one that you know well enough to identify and isolate reasons why you love it. Make a list. Think about the items on that list.
Now, think about your usual choices when writing a short story--you might make another list for this, so that you can evaluate your own techniques, but that's not required--I just find it helpful to see some of my own strengths and how they differ from what I aspire to. Your mileage may vary.
Once you have all of this data, find ways to incorporate it into your own next short story. You really liked the plot twist that surprised you before? Think about how many ways you could put your own spin on it. I know--it sounds like cheating, but I promise, if you're not just copy-pasting the old story into the new--if you're doing something transformative with the idea and not simply sawing off the serial numbers, where you are shaping your own story, making it your own, seeing how other people have executed that plot twist will absolutely help you execute it as well.
It requires a little work and a lot of introspection, but I've found that this process really helps me not only to come up with newer and better ways to tell the stories I want to tell, it also gives me a richer understanding of the things I am reading and what it is about them that I like so much. Sometimes the answers really surprise me--it turns out I really am a creature of my influences!
Don't have a favorite story? Read more. I promise--reading is one of the best master studies of writing that you can possibly do. Review some, too, if those stories are here on Writing.Com--the things you can learn from that also feel a bit like cheating, but...  you get the drift.
Alternatively, if the reason you don't have a favorite is because you have tooooo many favorites, well. Welcome aboard, you've got lots of options and plenty of things to practice on.
I've found that this exercise becomes richer for me the more often I work on it, because it becomes a bigger aggregation of my influences and my interests, and I am becoming a better writer for the effort. I am positive that you will too.
Until Next Time!
Take care and Write on!
Jay |
Picks for this issue:
A great contest for short stories is coming back this month!!
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Comments from "Working with Prompts"
brom21 writes:
Thanks for the newsletter. It encourages me to write outside of my comfort zone which is fantasy. I'm reading a book now that starts off urban fantasy then then turns to epic fantasy. My mom tells me it would be advantageous to include some romance into my compositions. Ironically, that is the only genre I don't wrote or read. I think I'll work on some sci-fi as well. I do write with genre time to time. Thanks again!
Anytime! it's definitely a good idea to explore new genres and ways to entwine them together!
Quick-Quill  writes:
I love prompts. They can catalyst me into a whole novel if I'm not careful.
A known peril of the craft of writing!! 
That's all from me for this month! Got a question about the craft of short fiction? Send it in and I'll tackle it in a future newsletter! |
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