Writing The Short Story

 A few months ago, my friend Henry (who dabbled in short fiction) and I (a fan of writing longer work) had a debate about the merits of short stories vs. novels. "I feel like if a short story doesn't have a satisfying ending, I at least won't have to read two hundred pages and then get disappointed," said Henry. I argued that most novels, within the first few pages, set up the reader's expectations accurately, and that I put down novels I dislike within the first five pages, anyway. The problem with a short story, in fact, was that in many cases, I couldn't invest myself enough in the characters.
Then he brought up a point: "Y'know...what bothers me about novels is that the protagonist needs to change in order for it to be complete. [With the exception of Holden in The Catcher In The Rye.] It's different with short stories--as a character, you can stay the same and it'd still be a good story. Maybe our preferences have to deal more with how we view life, though. I don't like having to change."
It was an entirely accurate observation, albeit too deep for our surroundings at the time (newspaper class, and all around us anarchy reigned). But my point is, neither form of prose is better than the other; you just expend different types of effort. When novelling, word count was the last thing on my mind--in fact, the more words I had, the better, because my plots are simplistic. When I work on short stories, though, I always find myself trying to simplify the plot even more for the sake of economic word usage. There's also the issue I had during novelling, of whether the reader would care about my characters...except multiplied about fifty times in importance.
Anyway, here's how to become adept at writing short stories (though honestly, this technique applies to everything else, too).
First off, write a short story. Do not use any outside resources: do not read any writing books, do not peruse writing websites online, do not read short stories. Everything should come purely from you. Write a story you've been meaning to write, but never got around to because of silly reasons. Save it in a new flash drive folder entitled SHORT STORIES. Name it Before.
Now! You are free to use outside resources. In fact, exhaust them. Check out old issues of The New Yorker from the library and while you're at it, fill up your basket with collections like "The Best American Short Stories" and magazines like "Writer's Digest." Refrain, if possible, from perusing the Internet for research. The Internet is filled with dubious sources, and you'll find that most stellar writing exists in print form, anyway. Here's an exception, though: The Sun Magazine, which is free to access online. Read, read, read. Absorb.
Photocopy/scan truly remarkable pieces and amass them in a folder, whether it be physical or electronic. Find more stories from the writers you like and read those, too. This research should take 25-50 hours total. If you don't feel ready to move on after 50 hours, you're probably wrong. You'll be ready.
Start a 30-day project: formulate 30 premises of short stories you've wanted to write. Type it up in a Word doc and save it in your SHORT STORIES folder. Print multiple copies of this list out. If you can't think of 30, that's okay for now. Go back to the list in another week. If you really can't think of 30, here is a great Tumblr of writing prompts. Premises can be anything from one sentence to a detailed outline of each story (I find outlines constraining, though).
At this point, you should write a story a day from your 30 premises and save them by day number in the SHORT STORIES folder. Each day, write in the voice of a different writer you like. This is very important even if you've found your voice; I take risks with short stories that I normally wouldn't in novelling. What about time? you ask. Write when you're waiting in line. Write on bus rides. Write on scraps of paper or (thank you, technology) in whatever Notes app your phone came with. If you don't think you can handle a few thousand words per day, then don't! Limit your stories to flash fiction length if need be. The only rule is to get it done. Finish it by the end of the day. Do not use any other day in the 30 day project to go back and revise. Even if you have free time.
Once you've finished story #30, write from the same premise as you wrote Before, without looking at the actual piece. Name it After. Compare Before and After.
You can now revise your 30 stories (!).

Linda

Guest Post: The Best Advice To Being A Good Writer

Harry influenced a lot of us to write!

If I could give any advice for writing, it would be this:

Read, and then write.

That’s not advice, you think.  That’s barely a sentence.  But honestly, these are the two biggest things you can do to improve your wording and your stories in general.

First, read, and read voraciously.  Start by reading the kinds of books that you want to write, but don’t stop there.  If you love science fiction, making up your own worlds, and defying the laws of this planet, then yes, read Jules Verne, Ray Bradbury, Michael Crichton, and Orson Scott Card.  But even if you don’t love science fiction, read those authors anyway.  And read Dostoevsky and Dickens, Shakespeare and Eliot, and Joyce and Austen and C.S. Lewis.  Read YA novels, and Romantic poetry, and non-fiction books about string theory or the Romanovs.   Read as much as possible.  I rediscovered my library a few years ago, and it’s a beautiful thing, for “Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future” (Ray Bradbury).

When you read as a writer, not only do you enjoy the stories, but you ask yourself why you enjoy them.  Which parts of dialogue do you like? How did the author use different literary elements in his plot? And what made you get so attached to the anti-hero and his internal struggle?

Most of all, don’t waste time on poorly-written books (unless you want an example of what not to do). Read the classics.  But classics are long and boring! You say.  They’re hard to get through!  And that can be true.  But sometimes, the most rewarding things in life are hard to reach, and you might have to do a little digging to get there.  I can promise you it’s worth the effort.  There’s a reason we still read classics today.  They touch on some sort of eternal truth in a way that spoke to their own society and still speaks to us.

So read for your own pleasure and to inform your writing.  But as you’re reading (and expanding your vocabulary!), remember this:  do not be discouraged.  Learn from what you read, but try not to compare your work to it.  No, you aren’t as good as these wonderful, famous authors.  Will you ever reach their level? Maybe not.  And that’s okay!  You’re learning! I get so discouraged sometimes when I see how beautiful some literature is, but I keep going.  And that brings me to our last point:

Write.  Write something every day.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a journal, a short story, a poem, or a few hundred words of a novel.  Writing is both inspiration and craft.  Craft is the way you put words together, the technical side of things.  Inspiration is the content, that extra breath inside of your work that brings it to life and says something important and true.  Although reading will help with that, inspiration is not something that you can really learn.  But you can learn craft.  In that aspect, writing is like playing piano or a sport – it requires practice.  So, practice! 

Save everything you write, no matter how bad you think it is.  Finally, find someone you trust to read your work – someone who will be both kind and honest.  Just as musicians need teachers and athletes need coaches, writers need mentors.  This is often forgotten because the actual act of writing is solitary.  The process, however, is not.

So, read well, write often, and don’t give up!  Good luck and God bless.

~Kristen

You can find Kristen online at The Paradigm Shifts, her blog.

What should we write about?

Guest post by Paulina Czarnecki. 
Bio: Hi! My name is Paulina Czarnecki. I’m fourteen and—obviously—I love to write. I’m very excited to be guest-posting on TWFT. I also have my own blog at www.paulinaczarnecki.wordpress.com.

When I got the email saying I could write a post, my first question was, “What should I write about?” If you’re going to write, you’re going to ask that question. Because, let’s face it—most story plots don’t just come to you. Most plots, you have to catch.

A lot of my early manuscripts were left unfinished because I lost interest or had a new idea. I jumped from story to story. Now, I realize that’s because I never had a solid story idea. All I had was the premise. A premise is that ‘Hey! What if…’ moment writers have when they first have an idea for a book. Usually, that premise isn’t enough to carry a writer through the whole story. Premise does not equal plot.

Everyone has different styles of writing, though. So if you like to sit down and write whatever comes out of your fingers, and it works for you, perfect. Even so, you have to think about what you’re writing.

Take advantage of a quiet moment to develop your ideas. There will be holes in the plot. So you should ask yourself: Why does the heroine do this? How does the hero save her? What happens afterwards?

Don’t just wait for the answers to come to you. Actively ask questions and search for the answers. The internet is useful for this—you can Google just about anything, click on the hundredth result, and be inspired. You can also ask others what they would do in the situation your hero is facing. You can play out several different versions of a scene in your head and choose the one that works best.

So, my advice to you is: Chase after those stories! Be active rather than passive. Find answers to your questions.

I hope this helps you find your next plot.

~Paulina

Nuances in the Plot

I used to be the type of writer who would sit at her desk, agonizing for hours over the syntax and the proper words to use, while her plot burned down in flames around her. During this novel-writing sabbatical I’ve taken, though, I’ve had time to do plenty of research on structuring a story properly—and my notes are below.

• The Beginning: An inciting incident occurs, and we meet the protagonist as well as other main characters. Recently, it’s been quite the trend to set up chapter one as a normal day at school, etcetera, but that’s the easy way out. Start in media res with a scene that makes your manuscript impossible to put down. Create your conflict and your stakes. Make sure to share some setting details that create your story world. However, flashbacks and backstory should be given on a strictly need-to-know basis. Establish subplots only after the main storyline is given. And don’t forget to end with a challenge (which the protagonist should usually accept). 

• The Middle: Remember, this is not a transition from beginning to end, though sometimes it may feel that way. It is the HEART of the story where the most complications take place. The middle creates anticipation for a climax. Conflicts deepen, more backstory is given to round out characters, and the characters emote more. They become committed to their goals as the stakes rise. More trials present themselves. The protagonist’s actions must demonstrate he/she is capable of changing (readers want a dynamic character who is affected by and affects his/her situation).There must be a contrast shown between the protagonist and the other characters—which may be why the middle is so darn hard to write. It’s often the place where beta readers start disliking the protagonist, or when you find yourself wanting to merge a few similar personalities into one character.Demonstrate that the current conflict can’t continue any longer. If your characters were on a rollercoaster, this is the agonizing part where the gears stop groaning and the car pauses at the very, very top, before everything starts rushing down. End with the protagonist in the situation with no return (on the rollercoaster, your characters would be screaming as they rush to the bottom).

• The End: A physical or psychological death of the protagonist before the whole ordeal provides for the conclusion. “Death” sounds like a harsh word, but psychological death just means that the protagonist feels reborn. He/she sees the world anew. Information the protagonist learned through the course of the manuscript is put to use. The pace quickens as chapter become shorter and shorter. A good ending delivers emotion without dragging on (yes, we know it’s hard to say goodbye to your baby), and ties up all loose ends.

Without doubt, the middle should take the longest to revise. Why? Because I’ve found that when I put down a good book, it’s always when I’ve at least a hundred pages in and the writer goes off in a completely different direction than I had been expecting. It may be tempting to brush it off and go on to focus on a stellar ending, until you remember that an uninterested reader won’t stick around long enough for a kick-ass ending.
Got any more advice? Leave it in the comments!

Tangible Markers in the Road

The surest way to failure is adopting an “all-or-nothing” approach (this doesn’t just pertain to writing–it pertains to life as well).
“Oh, I didn’t get an agent this year because nobody appreciates my work–well, I’ll stop writing! That’ll show them!” the stubborn rookie writer says. And with that, he or she descends into a sullen drought of creativity which is, for the most part, self-imposed. And yes, we think, with an air of amusement, you sure told us! You sure taught us a lesson!
Another metaphor that high-school seniors might appreciate: “I didn’t get into MIT, Harvard, or Stanford so I might as well go to community college and man the deep-fryer at KFC.”
Listen, writers. If you turn around from that locked door you’re trying to bang down, you might be able to see other ways to get where you want to go. I know you have wonderful dreams, but so do a lot, a lot, a lot of other people, who might not deserve it as much as you do, but who have waited in line longer than you have. Sure, there are some who spend hardly any time paying their dues, but you hear about them all the time because these cases are rare.
I’ve heard peers discount famous people who write books: “It’s a bunch of drivel. You don’t need talent. You just have to be famous.” But these celebrities spent time and energy cultivating their reputations, if you think about it.
If this manuscript doesn’t get picked up, do other things–poetry, short stories, essays, et cetera. Enter competitions. Submit to literary magazines. Obtain some tangible fruits of your labor that will prepare you to be as good, if not better, than the others.
Yes, it’s going to be frustrating. Yes, you’re going to feel unappreciated and unloved. But persevere. If you really have what it takes, if you really want to have your story told, then you’ll do everything in your power to make it happen.
Just don’t quit. Even a snail will get there eventually.