Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Problem with writing short stories

This is topic Problem with writing short stories in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :

I always had it. I find it hard to develop characters and story if I have a page limit.

Of course, short stories are a good way to break in the trade of writing. That is why I have been trying to write short stories for some time.

The general rule of short stories: lose everything that is not vital to the story. What I did was lose the text between the individual scenes, the text that glues them together. Only now the story appears very fragmented, jumping from scene to the next.

I need advice. Is this fragmented form acceptable in the short stories market or do I need to glue the scenes together after all?

[This message has been edited by MartinV (edited February 23, 2010).]

Posted by axeminister (Member # 8991) on :

Do you read a lot of short stories?
If not, I'd say read the hell out of them and see if it clicks.

Think of a SS as a scene in a movie with a beginning, middle, and end. For example, the King of Rohan scene in LoTR.

Or consider it to be the one major event that happens in that character's life. His is not a grand adventure, but about that time he stopped the aliens from taking over a 7-11.

Here's a whacky idea. Read "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein.

My personal favorite SS are ones that cover a lot of time. Give me the highlights of a great eon-spanning adventure. =)

Axe

Posted by genevive42 (Member # 8714) on :

You might need to consider what kind of story it is and whether or not you need deep characters. For understanding that I would recommend reading, 'Characters and Viewpoint' by OSC. It helped me to understand things like if I'm writing something humorous I don't need to worry too much about depth of character. And that not all characters need to be fully rounded.

And no, you don't need the text between the scenes but the scenes must have something significant happen in them. You should be stringing together, like beads, the events that are significant to tell the story. It's nice if scenes can both further the plot and develop character but sometimes they mostly exist to do one or the other.

Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :

I'm hardly an expert on short stories, since I'm pretty much still figuring that out myself.

That said, my short answer is:

If it feels wrong to you, there's a good chance that it is wrong. Try reading it out loud and see how it flows.

Posted by Kitti (Member # 7277) on :

Martin, I would be very clear on what it is you expect to get out of writing short stories. If it's just pub credits, that's all very well and good but not actually necessary to sell a novel. If novel-writing is your heart's desire and you're GOOD at that length, I wouldn't waste time with short stories.

Me, I work at novel length but I also write short stories because I'm terrible at endings. Working at the novelette length (which is where all my "short" stories seem to end up) has given me practice coming up with an overall story arc and tying up all the loose ends. It's helped my writing immeasurably. But I was doing it for the story-crafting, not because I needed them to break into publishing.

Back to your original question, though: I find that some of my ideas are more suited to short-story length than novel length and vice versa (sp?). I write the story to the length it demands, not to the length the market demands (though I will fight a story down a few hundred words if I'm close to a market's word limit). If you're having trouble writing "short" stuff then the problem might be that your ideas are too big for the length you're aiming for.

You might want to try reading an anthology of short stories and summarizing each story in a sentence or two - capture the essence of the plot and situation. Then if you do the same thing with your own stories, you should have an easier time keeping a tight focus on your plot (and thus keeping your word count down).

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

I learned a lot about writing short stories when I read WRITING IN GENERAL AND THE SHORT STORY IN PARTICULAR by Rust Hills (on the recommendation of Will Shetterly). I hereby pass that recommendation on to you. It's a short, fairly inexpensive book, and very insightful.

Posted by BenM (Member # 8329) on :

quote:
What I did was lose the text between the individual scenes, the text that glues them together. Only now the story appears very fragmented, jumping from scene to the next.

I second what others have said - read plenty of short stories (and novels, for that matter), originally published in English. English writing convention will likely differ from other European languages; if your goal is English publication then familiarity - which you'll gain more from reading the work than reading about the work - probably should be a priority.

This in turn should give you examples of how and when writers use scene breaks, and how writers who don't use them still manage to achieve the same effect. A long time ago I stumbled upon this website which also had some good information about how to structure the story within the scenes, and I found it rather helpful on this subject.

Posted by Erik (Member # 8144) on :

Kathleen, I want to thank you for recommending that book at LTUE. I picked up a copy after that, and it's very good. No filler, just to-the-point segments on every aspect of a short story.

Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :

It isn't easy getting books people recommend on this forum. None of them are in my local libraries or buyable in a local book shop. The only solution I have is to buy them on Amazon yet I am currently struggling with very very limited budget and lately shipments from Amazon simply do not come to my doorstep.

BenM, I have already seen the webpage you provided. I have used the structure advised there when planning a rewrite of my WOTF novellette. The problem is now I see three different ways to begin the story and I must still provide the necessary info for it to work.

[This message has been edited by MartinV (edited February 24, 2010).]

Posted by BenM (Member # 8329) on :

Martin, I also live outside the US and shipping costs from Amazon on many books are prohibitive. I buy from http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ as they ship for free and often have very good prices (usually cheaper than buying from the bookstore locally). They ship to Slovenia for free too. Delivery time to Australia was between 1 and 2 weeks.

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

You're welcome, Erik. Happy to be of help.

BenM, thank you for the information about an alternative book source for people outside the US. What a great help that should be.

Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :

Wow. They really don't charge shipment? I have to look into that. Thanks, Ben.

Posted by EricJamesStone (Member # 1681) on :

Jumping from scene to scene in short stories is quite common. You need to make it clear that's what you're doing by including a scene break marker in your manuscript. (Different manuscript formatting guides may have different suggestions on how to mark a break. I generally use # on a line by itself.)