...and I plan on utilizing many of them! But I was also hoping some of you could steer me in the right direction. I am primarily a writer of scripts. Plays, pilots, features. And recently, at the recommendation of a friend, I read Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. It is an absolute game changer and I wish I had discovered it years ago. Anyway, I was wondering if folks had a favorite instructional text for novels and/or short stories. Not necessarily like On Writing by Stephen King, because as much as I love that book, I'm looking for something that tackles structural elements and other practical aspects of making stories work, especially as it pertains to marketability. Is there a forum here I should be looking at for this? If so, please steer me in that direction? Thanks!
I also love On Writing (Many of us do), and probably my top favorite is John Gardner's The Art of Fiction. But it definitely isn't aimed at genre writing and structure. For structure my favorite author (one of anyway, close to the top) is K. M. Weiland. That's a link to her blog, which is amazing. Check the links at the top of the page along the left side—Story Structure, Character Arcs, Scene Structure, Novel Outlining. Just the stuff! She also has books on the subjects. The blog expands on what's in the books, but both are excellent in their own right. I got a bundle of her books in Kindle form on Amazon for an excellent price.
There is a short story section here that I enjoy and contribute to. I have always liked the short story format, you have to hook the reader right away, set the mood, the location, time frame and characters all with a minimum of words and space. The story has to have a message, punch line or conclusion, to make someone think, and be engaged enough to keep reading. I write about everyday life, things that stick out, have made me the person that I am. I go with the concept, write what you know or do tons of research. If you like scripts than the short story format is right up your alley. Every dilemma for a movie or short story has to be completed in either 24 minutes to 43 minutes for a tv show, or and hour and 20 for a movie. I am sure that there is one instance in life where something happened that made you who you are today and are responsible for your base values. You talk about marketable outlets for your work, the place to start would be a real life experience that preserved your health or life, saved you money your relations ships or lost them. We all want to hear those stories.
Thank you! This is exactly the kind of wonderful rabbit hole I was hoping folks would show me. Thanks much! I'm finding myself VERY attracted to the short story medium as well. And I love your advice about generating content. I have lists of ideas, two of which I have already written, and I am ready to write more. However, I want to halt for a minute and read more and understand the medium better first, so that I don't have the "I wish I had read THIS SOONER" experience I had as a scriptwriter reading Save the Cat. To put a finer point on this, when reading short stories, as of yet I am unable to find some underlying structural axiom, the way that one might find in a screenplay. And in truth, I have no idea if such principles even exist. At the risk of sounding ridiculously green, sometimes I feel like the short stories I read have no discernible plot. That they are rather explorations of theme, point of view, and other elements but sometimes the ending doesn't exactly feel like a resolution, but rather a place to begin pondering deeper questions or impressions that the piece evoked. What, if anything, am I missing? Am I just not reading deeply enough? Are coded messages getting past me?
My gut reaction to your post is this. You're going to write a lot of crap before becoming even a decent writer. If you want to win a marathon, you start with a lot of short runs, boring training runs in the early part or end of the day. It means subjecting yourself to the grind to get in shape Being a runner means you're going to wear out a lot of good shoes before ever making it to even the middle of the pack in a race. I would encourage you to write, post it up here, get some help with all of the details that make for good story telling. There is a tremendous scope of talent on the forum. Some are experts on spelling and grammar, others in finding holes in your plot to helping you fine tune your words, so they have more impact or tell the story clearer. If you are willing to accept help, not let a bad review of your work shoot you down; you can become a very good writer with the tools that this site has to offer. In the past ten years I have been a member of a couple of different writing forums and even a moderator on one. This site by far has been the greatest help when it comes to having some write a crit and offer help on one of my stories. I am not sure how to find just my stories when you look at my posts on the forum. I am sure I have 20 or more stories posted here. You make like my style, it answers your question about endings or out to start. Most of my stories start with the ending and the story is how I got there. Most of the time my stories start out with, 'why would you think this is interesting' either in the title or the first sentence. For you to post things here you have to comment and offer some advice on some current work. This will be a great chance to see how others do it. Read some work here and just go with your first response while reading. Was the story interesting, did you like the flow, was the story clear, Did it engage you as a reader, did you care about the characters. You do not need to be a gifted writer to make observations as a reader. Find a story close to your heart, write out. There is no short cut to the process, no magic. I never started writing until I was in my late forties, and never got better than a D in any English class while in school. If I can figure it out, anyone can. Looking forward to seeing some of your work Bob
Thanks much, Bob! As a script writer for stage and screen I have been HAMMERED with notes of all kinds, from all angles, so critiques are second nature and I look forward to giving and receiving. Oh and yeah . . . as a script writer believe me I wrote PLENTY of crap at first. But even the crap had a promising voice--so I've been told, and at least by my own estimation. It stopped being crap when I learned more about the principles of narrative structure and other techniques. In other words, I believe there is an aspect that can't be taught(voice), and an aspect that can be taught(technique). And I am looking for technique. I already see from the resources provided by Xoic above that structuring a novel and structuring a screenplay can be remarkably similar. And of course, I know these principles are not gospel, but are rather a guide illustrating what has worked over time, space, and genre. I know these rules are meant to be bent and broken, when we have a good reason to do so, but I'd rather know them before I bend or break them, lest I meander my way to a plot, rather than build one with a plan. I am still in search of such grounding principles in short stories as opposed to novels and my working theory is that it doesn't exist, but that's a bit dramatic, innit? Thanks again! I look forward to reading your work and more interactions.
One thing you should definitely be aware of is that structure is going to be different for short stories than for novels, and most of the books about structure (almost all of them) are for writing novels. It's often said though that structure for short stories is basically a small part of the structure for a novel. Let me see if I can find that thread—I got obsessed for a good long time with looking into short story structure and kept adding links to a thread about it. Here it is: Need help to write my first short story Bookmark that thread, keep going back. You'll gradually come to understand what short story structure is. But to understand it you do need to understand novel structure, because to a large extent they're different aspects of the same thing.
