Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Short Stories

This is topic Short Stories in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by rich (Member # 8140) on :

No, I'm not trying to start another argument. Just thought this would be a good place to ask anyone out there if they could share the name of the short story that inspired them to write. If it's online, post the link.

This one I first read maybe eight years ago, but it's one of my favorites. It does everything I think a short story should do, but it doesn't have a character arc, consisting of nothing more than a moment. And it's short.

Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

No particular story, but the collected stories in The Early Asimov, particuarly the earliest stories, and more particularly the commentary. I thought...hey, somebody writes this stuff...maybe I could do it...I can do it.

More than thirty years later, I can do it---I do do it---but publication still hasn't happened.

Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :

The earliest short stories that impressed me were stories by Poe, O'Henry, and Saki. Among these, the Ransom of Red Chief and The Open Window are two of my favorites.

Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :

For me, it was a growing interest based on no particular story, but based on reading about the authors I read. In particular, Theodore Sturgeon's Law came to me about the time I'd acknowledged creative writing was an interest of mine. I thought, if 90% of everything is crud, as Sturgeon's Law states, I can write crud. I've had a very long and successful run of writing crud, very little success getting published, though. Yet.

Sturgeon's Law orignated as "Nothing is ever absolutely so." By 1951 it had become "Ninety percent of science fiction is crud, but then, ninety percent of everything is crud." [Wikipedia: Theodore Sturgeon.]

Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

Asimov's "Nightfall" as well as his robot stories; "The Roads must Roll" and "By his Bootstraps" by Heinlein; "Bears Discover Fire" by Terry Bisson; "Who Can Replace a Man" by Aldiss; Spider Robinson's stories set in Callahan's Place; and countless little pleasures over the years, often in Analog or anthologies edited by Gardner Dozois.

Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :

James Joyce's "The Dead" made a powerful impression on me at an early age. Also Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart".

rich, I'm curious, when you say, "It does everything I think a short story should do," what do you mean? What is it you think a short story should do (not being confrontational here, I'm genuinely curious about your opinion)?

[This message has been edited by annepin (edited January 10, 2009).]

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

O'Henry's The Gift of the Magi

And ... blanking on her name, but the Lottery (about the process of picking a person from the village each year who is then stoned to death.) We read that young in grade school and it made a big impression.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Shirley Jackson

Posted by Troy (Member # 2640) on :

Shirley Jackson....

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Wow, Troy. Great minds and all.

Posted by Troy (Member # 2640) on :

First it was Zelazny and Ellison; "A Rose For Ecclesiastes," "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs." Now it's J.D. Salinger and a new-ish writer named Nadine Darling, who is a genius of terrible magnitude, in my opinion. "Teddy," "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" by Salinger; "Memorial Day" and "For Kenneth" by Darling.

Those are amongst a long list of favorite and inspirational stories, for me. I love the short story, as an art form.

Posted by JamieFord (Member # 3112) on :

The Whore's Child by Richard Russo. And pretty much anything by Harlan Ellison.

Posted by rich (Member # 8140) on :

What do I think a short story should do? To be honest, I don't know. 'Cause I can say this or that, but I'll then be given an example of something that doesn't adhere to any criteria I've set, and I'd probably end up agreeing with it.

But maybe I can take Bullet in the Brain as a way of explaining why THIS particular short story struck me in such a way.

Short stories should be read in one sitting (thank you, Mr. Poe), and this one does it admirably. Four pages and it's complete.

The best short stories linger. "They is" has stuck with me, and it's stuck with me precisely because it is a memory forgotten. The setup to this is what the character does not remember, but we're told what he doesn't remember. Told with economy and sharpness because these are the memories that we have as readers.

This short story cannot be told as a novel or novella. A novel about this guy's life would be boring, and it's something we've seen from an Updike or an Oates before so this is the only way this guy's story could've been told without it relying too heavily on cliche or banality.

This short story is something I wish I would've been able to write.

And finally...

"Damned unfair,” he said. “Tragic, really. If they’re not
chopping off the wrong leg, or bombing your ancestral village, they’re closing their positions."

"She looked at him with drowning eyes."

"He did not remember the pleasure of giving respect."

"They is, they is, they is."

This one is what I think all short stories should do. Kinda lame, I know, as far as explanations go, but that's all I got.

Posted by rich (Member # 8140) on :

Oh, and one other thing. I think the best short stories say something to the individual. So I'm ga-ga over "The Small Assassin", or "Bullet in the Brain", or "Vanni Fucci is Alive and Well and Living in Hell", but you may read those same stories and say, "Eh. Didn't blow my hair back."

So if it speaks to you, then, yeah, it does what a short story is supposed to do.

And that's probably even lamer than what I said in the previous post. I'll shut up now 'cause the next thing you know I'll be saying crap like, "Life is like a box of chocolates."

Posted by kathyton (Member # 7780) on :

I have vivid memories of being inspired to write, when I was in the 4th grade, by the Sherlock Holmes stories. In my current go at writing,Angela Carters The Company of Wolves is both inspiring and intimidating -- like, could I ever write this well? . . . I don't think so.

[This message has been edited by kathyton (edited January 10, 2009).]

Posted by Patrick James (Member # 7847) on :

I think someone should create a thread, What should a short story do?.
And each of us throw in what we expect out of a short story. It would give us a good Idea of what an audience expects.

I'd do it myself but I tend to wander...

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

We can use this thread for that, since the title is so general.

One of the things I've been told about short stories is that unity is very important. And not unity as in being united, but unity as in units or ones. One time period, one character, one problem, one epiphany, one crucial thing that changes the character (and thereby the reader).

I've been told that a short story should be about the single (there's that "one" again) most tramatic thing that happens to the character in his or her entire life, THE turning point, the defining incident.

So that's one (heh) thing to consider.

Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :

First and foremost, short or long fiction, I want to be emotionally moved, but in only one emotional cluster, pity and fear being the most pronounced emotional cluster.

One direction of reversal, from bad to good fortune or vice versa. I prefer from bad to good, but I enjoy tragically beautiful stories.

One chain of causation, one train of thought, one recognition causing decision and change, a single-minded purpose for the protagonist.

One relevant fanatastical imaginative premise, one dramatic premise, one emotional premise, all the premises relevant to each other.

One culminating moment.

One meaning. One message. One outcome. One plot.

[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited January 11, 2009).]

Posted by TaleSpinner (Member # 5638) on :

"Unity" and "The best short stories linger" ring true for me.

"Nightfall" showed me, with one simple concept, that astro-physics could be used in SF to cause the evolution of a radically different culture.

Asimov's robot stories were always about one logical conundrum.

"The Roads must Roll" was perhaps the first story I read which indicated that life in the future might be messier than my idealistic young mind hoped for.

"By his Bootstraps" was the first time paradox story I ever read, which showed me that one could speculate about improbable physics in SF--and entertain.

I liked "Who can replace a Man?" because it suggested that AI would never take over the world, something I think I still believe.

"Bears Discover Fire" was a recent discovery for me, entertaining because the basic premise makes no sense, yet we buy it for no more reason than that it's amusing, perhaps reminiscent of a kid's story, and the character observation is wonderful.

The "Callahan's Place" stories are generally about one character who drops in to the bar and tells his or her story to the regulars. For me the bar's anarchic, punning atmosphere lingers more than the stories they tell.

Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :

I think an important characteristic of a short story should be that after reading it, you should have a desire to read it again.

Posted by dee_boncci (Member # 2733) on :

Short stories didn't inspire me to write, JRRT and Stephen King did that with longer works.

But there were two that stood out to me over the years. One was already mentioned, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.

The other I don't remember the name of, but it was a Christmas Story where a man who was a woodworker or something sold all his tools to buy his wife some fancy combs for her hair, and she cut her hair and sold it to buy something for his woodworking, maybe some fancy wood or the like. Wish I knew the name of it so I could find it to read it again.

Posted by arriki (Member # 3079) on :

O Henry's famous THE GIFT OF THE MAGI. I think that was in every English lit book in schools when I was a kid. I preferred his RANSOM OF RED CHIEF.

As to other shorts that I liked -- Clarke's THE STAR and his TALES FROM THE WHITE HART. I don't know. I really am a novelist at heart for both reading and writing.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

But in O'Henry's THE GIFT OF THE MAGI, the husband had a gold watch he'd inherited from his father. He sold it to buy a set of combs for his wife's hair, and she had her hair cut and sold it to by a chain for his watch.