on writing - a few quotes on short stories

When you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in
love with the world around you.  - George Saunders

Great short stories and great jokes have a lot in common.  Both depend on what
communication-theorists sometimes called "exformation," which is a certain
quantity of vital information removed from but evoked by a communication in such
a way as to cause a kind of explosion of associative connections within the recipient. 
- David Foster Wallace

The great thing about a short story is that it doesn't have to trawl through someone's
whole life; it can come in glancingly from the side.  - Emma Donoghue

illustration - aris moore

I've been reading some horror and dark fantasy short fiction lately,
and then I came across the work of Aris Moore, which struck me as
perfectly dark and subtly horrifying, its cutting, absurd mood the
same as some of the stories I've been reading.  Check it out and have
a go at some darker kinds of writing...

And if you want something to read, check out Lisa Tuttle's "Objects
in Dreams May Be Closer Than They Appear," which is very creepy
..found in the House of Fear anthology and The Year's Best Dark 
Fantasy & Horror 2012.

on writing - lorrie moore

I just read an interview The Paris Review did with Lorrie Moore.
Here are some highlights referencing art, inspiration, writing short
stories versus novels, but the whole thing was great and should be
read in its entirety...  here.

"Certainly bitter emotions can fuel art—all kinds of emotions do. But
one is probably best left assembling a narrative in a state of dispassion;
the passion is, paradoxically, better communicated that way."

"One has to imagine, one has to create (exaggerate, lie, fabricate from
whole cloth and patch together from remnants), or the [story] will not
come alive as art. Of course, what one is interested in writing about
often comes from what one has remarked in one’s immediate world
or what one has experienced oneself or perhaps what one’s friends
have experienced. But one takes these observations, feelings, memories,
anecdotes—whatever—and goes on an imaginative journey with them.
What one hopes to do in that journey is to imagine deeply and well and
thereby somehow both gather and mine the best stuff of the world. A
story is a kind of biopsy of human life. A story is both local, specific,
small, and deep, in a kind of penetrating, layered, and revealing way."

By Adrian Bellesguard

on writing - short stories - william goyen

For what is worth to those who want to write stories or simply to know
something of one writer's insight in the writing of short fiction, I have
felt the short-story form as some vitality, some force that begins (and
not necessarily at the beginning), grows in force, reaches a point beyond
which it cannot go without losing force, loses force and declines; stops.

For me, story telling is a rhythm, a charged movement, a chain of pulses
or meters. To write out of life is to catch, in pace, this pulse that beats
in the material of life. If one misses this rhythm, his story does not seem
to "work"; is mysteriously dead; seems to imitate life but has not joined
life. The story is therefore uninteresting to the reader (and truly to the
writer himself), or not clear. I believe this is a good principle to consider.

- William Goyen, The Collected Stories of William Goyen

my work - a concerto and fugue

My short story, "A Concerto and Fugue", is now up on Mirror Dance
Fantasy.  Go on over and have a look!

And here's a teaser image..

by James Jean

illustration - aniela sobieski

Any one of these works by Aniela Sobieski would make a wonderful
short story.  A girl with a pet dinosaur, a peculiar waiting room, an
obsessive moth collector, and a mysterious aquatic humanoid with
bright red lips.  Any of these sounds good to me.

Write on.

on writing - connie willis

Stories of wonder often have their beginnings in noticing some magic
everyone else has missed, in making some connection no one else has
seen, or in illuminating some ordinary thing with skill and style so
that it seems extraordinary.   - Connie Willis

from unexpected places - willow holster

So there's this fascinating book edited by Jeff Vandermeer called
The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities.  It's full of short
stories posing as real anecdotes of Lambshead's life and collection.
What was extra fascinating to me were these little blurbs in the back
- more anecdotes, but little paragraphs of mystery and eccentricity
instead of full-on stories.  Let the imagination bleed; I was very
inspired by these and I think you would be too.  Here's one:

Silence, One Ounce—Origins unknown. Found amongst the
possessions of the recently deceased Frank Hayes, thirty-four, who
tragically lost his life when he stepped in front of a public bus that
failed to stop. Its provenance is thought to include M. Twain, W.
Wilson, and the Marquis de Sade. Handle with care, not to be
administered more than one drop at a time. Silence is golden, but
too much will kill you. (blurb by Willow Holster)

By Tess

happy fourth of july!

A little pic inspired by the day - how would you turn it into a moment
from a fantasy story, horror or science fiction?  Happy fourth!

photo stories - news - four leaf clovers

My short story "Four Leaf Clovers" is now up on The Colored Lens
to read for free.  Head on over for a spot of entertainment..

By aco

And below the fold...  some black and white photos I stumbled
across on Flickr today that seemed to me to beg for stories.
What is going on?  What will happen next?  Any ideas?

on writing - story structure

The other day I stumbled upon this article by Chuck Wendig.  I
found many of the points helpful, and some helpful reminders.
Here are some of my faves, but I highly encourage you to go over
to his site and read the original post.

2. THINK OF IT AS STORY ARCHITECTURE

Structure serves story; story does not serve structure. A cathedral
is built toward certain considerations: the beauty of God, the
presence of God’s story, the need for acoustics, the accommodation
of seating, the sacrificial altar, the DJ booth, and so on. You design
a structure to highlight the type of story you’re telling. Using a non-
linear structure in a mystery story is so that you maximize on the
uncertainty and use the rejiggered narrative to create suspense.
Structure has purpose. Structure is where art and craft collide.

9. OMNE TRIUM PERFECTUM

Loosely translated, “Every set of three is complete.” Even if you
ignore all other structural components, this is a good one to keep
an eye on — the Rule of Threes suggests that all aspects of your
story should have at least three beats. Anything that has any value
or importance should be touched on three times and, further, evolve
a little bit each time. Every character arc, ever act, every scene,
every setting, every motif or theme, needs you the storyteller to
call it back at least three times.

By Wonil Suh

on writing - io9's short story writing tips

io9's Secrets to being a Super-Prolific Short-Story Writer.
Personally, I like #5 and #12 best.

1) Know how your story ends before you begin it. This
doesn't always work, but it often does — my biggest problem
with short stories is that I get halfway through and then have no
idea what happens next. Maybe I have a really cool setup or a
really interesting dilemma for my characters to face, but I don't
have an ending in mind. And this can derail a story for weeks,
or permanently.

During that first flush of invention, when you're creating the
story's premise, is the perfect time to try and imagine the ending
as well. Once you get stuck in to writing the thing, you'll be more
absorbed in specifics about the characters and situation, plus the
beautiful images you'll no doubt be crafting.

By Shiho

 

the well written - caitlin r. kiernan

And across the space within her, as my arm bridges countless
light years, something brushes against my hand. Something wet,
and soft, something indescribably abhorrent. Charlotte pushed
me, and I was falling backwards, and now I’m not. It has seized
my hand in its own—or wrapped some celestial tendril about my
wrist—and for a single heartbeat it holds me before letting go.
…whatever it is, it’s been there since before there was time. It’s
been there alone since before the universe was born.

- Caitlin R. Kiernan, "Tidal Forces"
(Full - and amazing - short story available here.)

By Brett Marlin

on writing - short stories

Short fiction seems more targeted - hand grenades of ideas, if
you will. When they work, they hit, they explode, and you never
forget them. Long fiction feels more like atmosphere: it's a lot
smokier and less defined.   - Paolo Bacigalupi

When well told, a story captured the subtle movement of change.
If a novel was a map of a country, a story was the bright silver
pin that marked the crossroads.   - Ann Patchett

The short story form allows evocation, suggestion, implication.
Its potency often lies in what it does not say.   - Isobelle Carmody

By Janice Wu

the well written - catherynne m. valente

She stayed in the ground for no more than a quarter of an hour -
but in her memory it was all day, hours upon hours, and her father
didn't come until it was dark.  Memory is like that.  It alters itself
so that girls are always trapped under the earth, waiting in the dark.

- Catherynne M. Valente, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time"

By Mao Hamaguchi

on writing - short fiction

Tips/wisdom from Apex Magazine slush readers on submitting and
writing short fiction:

Hooks are the primary reason many stories fail.  You've got to
hook a reader at the beginning, not forget to keep the momentum
building throughout the middle, and offer a sense of closure by the
end.  The end should conclude the journey, but leave a reader
wanting more.  And be wary of surprise endings.

Utilize point of view and narrative style to convey a great deal of
background  information without actually having to talk about it
openly.

As you build your world, don't get caught in providing detail.  Add
just enough salt for readers to get the flavor - a springboard for
their imaginations to take over.

By Liis Klammer

on writing - why editors reject stories

David Farland's four reasons why an editor will reject a story:

1)  The idea for the story isn’t particularly fresh or interesting. You
may not realize it, but the basic concept of your story has probably
been done before. For example, let’s say that you decide to write a
story about “Zombie Sharecroppers.” Great. You might write it
beautifully, and I might get through the entire tale and enjoy it. But
ultimately I have to look at it and ask, “Is the basic tenet of the story
fresh and original? Did the author give it a surprise twist that lifted it
above similar stories?” If the answer to both of those questions is no,
then it will probably not get higher than an honorable mention.
You’ll need to come at me next time with a fresh idea.

2)  If the idea is good, then it may be that your execution is off. Very
often I’ll get stories where the idea intrigues me and the story is
written pretty well, but the author still has a few problems. Maybe
the author uses too many weak verbs, or has word repetitions. I had
one a couple of days ago that was set in Haiti, and while interesting,
nothing about the character’s voices suggested that the author had
ever listened closely to a Haitian. The accents just weren’t right.

By Giorgio Baroni

on writing - advice on short stories of all genres

Skill alone cannot teach or produce a great short story, which
condenses the obsession of the creature; it is a hallucinatory presence
manifest from the first sentence to fascinate the reader, to make him
lose contact with the dull reality that surrounds him, submerging him
in another that is more intense and compelling.

I think it is vanity to want to put into a story anything but the story
itself.

For me the thing that signals a great story is what we might call its
autonomy, the fact that it detaches itself from its author like a soap
bubble blown from a clay pipe.
- Julio Cortázar, Around the Day in Eighty Worlds

The one test of the really weird (story) is simply this--whether or
not there be excited in the reader a profound sense of dread, and of
contact with unknown spheres and powers; a subtle attitude of awed
listening, as if for the beating of black wings or the scratching of
outside shapes and entities on the known universe's utmost rim.
- H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature

By Hengki Koentjoro

photo stories - ralph eugene meatyard

Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925-1972) made his living as an
optometrist, though you wouldn't know it considering the
stunning and professional hauntedness that is his photography.
His work touches on themes of decay, the world's shadows,
childhood, and young creatures' fates as adults.  His treatment
of the themes was so striking, the poet Guy Davenport said of
Meatyard's work, "They are like short stories that have never
been written."

See if any stir up a story in you.

Why do grown-ups think it's easier for children to bear secrets
than the truth? Don't they know about the horror stories we
imagine to explain the secrets?
- Cornelia Funke, Inkheart

on writing - short story rejections

Here are ten reasons why David Farland rejects short stories quickly
—usually within the first page:

1.  The story is unintelligible. Very often I’ll get submissions that just
don’t make sense. Often, these seem to be non-English speakers who are
way off in both the meaning of words, their context, or in their syntax,
but more often it’s just clumsiness.

2.  The story is unbelievable. “Johnny Verve was the smartest kid on
earth, and he was only six. He was strongest one, and the most handsome,
too. But the coolest part was when he found out he had magical powers!”
At that point, I’m gone, and not just because there were four uses of
“was” in three sentences.

3.  The author leaves no noun or verb unmodified. Sometimes when an
author is struggling to start a story, he try to infuse too much information
into a sentence: “John rubbed his chapped, dry, sand-covered hands
together grimly, and gazed thirstily over the harsh, red, crusty deserts of
a deserted Mars.” I may put up with one sentence like that in an otherwise
well-written story. You put two of those sentences together on the first
page, and it really bogs a story down.

By Oscar Villan