I'm over at scribophile also, and they had there a good discussion about how to write short stories. I copied/pasted some of that because the pointers were good, but none of these writers gave me permission to use their words and this thread was in a closed forum—so please, please don't paste this specific words anywhere out in the open. Reformulated is okay ===================== The thing that stuck in my mind was when somebody said a short story should be about a character turning a corner of some kind. Get to the conflict as soon as possible. Preferably the first paragraph. Conflict is the carrier wave of short genre fiction. Genre fiction without conflict, for all the brilliance of the prose, is just travel writing. A novel is about change, a short is about a choice. If a short story not about change or choice, it can be about epiphany; a moment of self-realization when the character lacks the choice or doesn't possess the agency to change. An epiphany is a moment of realization, all great lit, past and present, contains moments of realization/epiphanies - they signal major character changes, a movement of light to dark the audience looks for because they are cathartic, they make an audience feel - art would be nothing without such moments, so use them - master the art of realization - it is what art is all about Yes, I think that could be a type of corner too -- turning the corner between the time when change was possible and the time when it no longer is. "Style is a very simple matter: it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can’t use the wrong words. But on the other hand here am I sitting after half the morning, crammed with ideas, and visions, and so on, and can’t dislodge them, for lack of the right rhythm. Now this is very profound, what rhythm is, and goes far deeper than words. A sight, an emotion, creates this wave in the mind, long before it makes words to fit it; and in writing (such is my present belief) one has to recapture this, and set this working (which has nothing apparently to do with words) and then, as it breaks and tumbles in the mind, it makes words to fit it. But no doubt I shall think differently next year." [Virginia Wolf.] I really like what James Scott Bell said: Every good short story is about one shattering moment. The shattering moment can take place before the story, in the beginning, in the middle, at the end, or even after the story (implied). It's the key moment in the characters life that changes everything. Knowing what the shattering moment is will help give focus to your story as well as help plotting it. I also really like what Damon Knight said in his book, Creating Short Fiction, something along the lines: "Most stories that end up in the reject pile just needed a little more love and understanding (toward the characters)." (Let's ignore the numbers of perfectly good stories in that pile and think about the stories that yes, failed.) Basically, if the emotional core of your story isn't right, if the character's motivations and emotions don't ring true, nothing else will matter because the story will feel false. ================================ BEGIN with an 'incision in time'. Then follow the protagonists feet, seeing what he sees, going through all the senses. No-one wants to go into the 'LOSS' but that's where the story is. Writers often skip or jump this, by ADDITIONS. They think they are giving MORE but they are just avoiding going deeper. ACCURACY is important in storytelling. The reader should always know who, where, when. A paragraph starts with the general and finishes with the particular. It is shaped like an arrow. It comes to a point. Dialogue and physicality greatly aid in effective scenes and paras. Obey the limitations of the art form. A short is a high level of intensity. It is not condensed. Take more out and go deeper through the senses. ================================ Agreed, but a short story is about one choice. In a novel, characters go through their character arcs, they overcome their personal lies. With no time for that In a short story, it's pared down to that one choice.
