Writing talk
Today I gave a talk to a local writing circle;
it was requested that I talk about writing short stories.
The following text is more or less the gist of
it, though there were plenty of adlibs, snippets and (sorry!) puns generated by the talk’s
content.
About me
I started writing in the 1960s, completing my
first novel in 1964 (it’s still unpublished). I joined the RN in 1965 and got
involved in producing a number of ship’s magazines – a weekly output for the
crew.
Eventually, I took a correspondence course on
commercial writing and started to sell my work almost immediately, and landed
my first sale in 1971. I couldn’t live off the sales; I kept the day job!
I sold crime, adventure, science fiction,
horror and ghost stories in the 1970s. In those days, the market for this kind
of short stories was quite good but on the wane. Then I got side-tracked,
writing novels, which didn’t find a publisher.
But I kept writing. Life and work – and an OU
degree - naturally intruded, so there were fallow periods, but I always
returned to writing.
Over the years I’ve had 120 stories (111 of
them are collected in 6 volumes), plus hundreds of articles published… And since
2007 I’ve had 30 books published.
In other words, I never gave up on writing.
Writing – Short stories
A need to write
If you have a burning desire to write and to
be read, then a good place to begin is with short stories.
A short story requires less time commitment
and has the potential to be accepted much faster than a novel that’s been
slaved over for months if not years.
A short story can be written in a day; a novel
can take years (though I’ve written a few in a matter of two or three weeks)…
Short stories vary in length – from the flash
fiction of 500 words up to about 20,000 words.
Going beyond 20,000 and you’re in the territory
of the novella. Certainly, novellas have made a comeback recently, thanks to
e-readers, so if you find it difficult to contain your word-count or have too
complex a story to tell, then this length may be appropriate for you for that
particular tale.
But for now, let’s stick to short stories – on
average from 1,000 to 6,000 words, depending on the market.
In this talk I will offer some do’s and
don’ts. They’re not rules, but guidelines. There are always exceptions. But if
you follow the guidelines you’ll probably improve your chances of getting an
acceptance.
The market
Yes, you need to aim your story at a market –
a readership. There’s nothing wrong with writing stories that don’t fit into
the parameters set by magazines; but they’re going to be tales that are difficult
to place (to sell) and therefore they’re less likely to find readers.
And if you’re writing, you want to be read,
right? Then, logically, magazines offer you the potential readership.
Magazines are the logical outlet for short stories.
There are print magazines and webzines on the Internet. Some of the latter
don’t pay.
There’s nothing wrong in writing a story and
not getting paid for it. Put it down to a ‘learning curve’, perhaps. That’s a
decision only you can make. Some writers began by getting published without
payment to build up a backlog of work and to get ‘known’. If you have many
stories in you, that’s not a bad way to go. If you only have a few original
ideas, then don’t squander them for free.
Also, be chary of signing away all your
rights. My story ‘I deceived my husband’ was specifically written for a
confessional magazine and I knew that they wanted all the rights; but that was
in 1971, when I was happy to learn; I haven’t handed over all rights of my
short stories since.
To reiterate, once you’ve learned your craft, you should expect payment; a man
(or woman) is worthy of hire, if their words are printed. However, you could
consider the advice of Mark Twain: ‘Write without pay until somebody offers
pay; if nobody offers within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended
for.’
Writing can be therapy and help through
catharsis. You can write for any number of reasons. You don’t have to write for
commercial gain, for a market. But the only measure of quality and success is
either winning competitions or getting paid.
But if you’re going to take your writing
seriously and you want your words to be read and enjoyed, you need to persevere
and learn, writing virtually every day. Generally, the more you write, the
better you become.
And don’t think that you can say something
original. It has all been said before. But there are original ways of saying
it. Interestingly, Mark Twain had something to say on this subject too: ‘Adam
was the only man who, when he said a good thing, knew that nobody had said it
before him.’
Study the market. That may entail buying a
magazine or two; or subscribing to a webzine. You need to see what they’re
publishing. Try not to aim blindly.
Often the market will dictate the length of
the story. For magazines, see their submission rules, check their
story-lengths; for other markets, follow the stipulated rules.
If you’re going to send out your stories,
you’re going to have to face rejection. Rejections are not personal. Rejections
are subjective, and there are many reasons why your story might not fit.
If an editor offers any comment, savour it,
work on it (it’s rare, these days!) Don’t throw away rejected pieces – send
them out again, or let them gather dust and come back with fresh eyes and
rewrite.
The story
The market might suggest a theme or storyline:
what does the magazine advertise, what are their articles or letters inside about…?
Or you might be driven by an idea or a
newsworthy item; simply change the names, and extrapolate.
If the story’s topical (such as a Christmas
tale), bear in mind that usually there’s a lead time of several months from acceptance
to appearance in the print marketplace, though online magazines can respond
much faster.
Stories can arise from simple prompts. A
series of western anthologies are based on particular phrases: the most recent
published book had ‘It was a dark and stormy night’ and 52 authors then wrote
their 500-word story beginning with that famous line. My stories appear in the
first three anthologies.
Stories can arise from competitions. While
some competitions are open, without a subject, others offer a subject or theme.
I recommend that you do enter writing competitions – preferably those that
require no fee or a very small fee. Even if you don’t win, you will have
produced a story to a deadline that has the potential to be offered elsewhere.
Some of my stories began as competition entries and were subsequently sold.
Stories can result from personal experience.
The secret here is to make the story interesting!
Don’t fall into the trap of slavishly sticking to real events, particularly if
you can liven them up; you’re writing fiction, not real-life. Real-life can be
anticlimactic. Fiction requires heightened drama.
Beginning
How do you start? How isn’t so important as
just sitting there and doing it; as they say, apply bum to seat and write.
Anthony Burgess said: ‘I start at the beginning, go on to the end, then stop.’
While Mickey Spillane commented: ‘I write the ending first. Nobody reads a book
to get to the middle.’
A writer has to read to understand story
structure – whether in a novel or a short story. Many stories begin half-way
through then you get the beginning as a flashback or through memories or
character disclosure.
Ideally, you should start at a dramatic
high-point, though not the most acute dramatic high-point – you leave that for
the end.
The beginning has to pull the reader into your
story – because if you don’t, then you’re likely to lose the reader. There are
plenty of distractions out there, all vying for attention. The writer has to
grab the reader so that once involved in the story’s world and characters, the
reader won’t let go until the end.
There are countless stories and articles in
magazines seeking the reader’s attention. People only have a limited time to
devote to reading. They will cherry-pick what interests them. If that beginning
doesn’t grab the reader’s interest, the story is dismissed. The words you’ve
sweated over for days or weeks or months may only merit sixty seconds of
consideration from an editor or reader. Make those first words count, make them
say, ‘You’re going to enjoy this and love the characters and marvel at the
plot.’ Easier said than done, true.
What kind of hook can you employ? That depends
on your story. The story’s theme, place and characters can all pull in the
reader.
Raise a question in the reader’s mind – a
question that demands an answer, which means having to read on to find out.
That question can be literal, from the mouth of a character, or hinted at by
the narrative, suggesting that everything is not what it seems.
Starting a story with characters speaking is a
good idea, as the reader learns a great deal through speech – the character
reveals herself by the way she talks, there’s interaction between people, and
there’s even a hint of eavesdropping in the character’s world.
A classic beginning springs to mind, from a
short story:
‘As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy
dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.’ – The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka.
Clearly, it must be a fantasy, but it demands
the reader’s attention as we learn about Gregor’s nightmarish feelings of
isolation and sacrifice.
Of course you’re not always going to manage to
seduce the reader in the first sentence; if not, aim for the first paragraph,
or the first page...
You should be trying to use every one of those
early words and paragraphs to intrigue the reader, to elicit interest.
Don’t sit in front of a blank sheet of paper
or screen, though, just because you can’t think of a good beginning.
Get the story written.
The beginning can always be changed and
improved when you’ve reached the end! This is just as applicable to novel
writing as well.
In my handout (see tomorrow’s blog) I’ve provided
some examples of beginnings I’ve employed in short stories - and novels.
Write about what you know
You probably hear this advice frequently. Don’t
take it too literally.
You probably know quite a lot about a broad
spectrum of things. But what’s relevant to the character, to the story?
Don’t be afraid to do some research, even for
a short story.
I shelved a couple of stories for many years
until I could manage the research and do the story idea justice.
Never just rely on your own knowledge –
double-check. You may be right, or memory may have played tricks.
There are very few of my stories that haven’t
relied on research, whether that’s the details of sewers, Elizabethan England,
survival techniques in the arctic or Soviet cosmonauts!
It’s the knowledge gleaned from your research
that you’re writing about; that’s what
you know at the time of writing.
But don’t info-dump swathes of ‘interesting
facts’ in the story; only use it through the point of view of your characters.
Write the story
How do you do that?
It depends.
The initial impetus may have been the actual
ending of the story; it may have been a character thrust into a situation, what
we call an inciting incident (an event that affects the main character and
snowballs); it may have been a phrase or a proverb…
Determine on the length of the story. As I’ve
said, this may be forced upon you by competition rules, the periodical’s
submission guidelines, or it may be left open to you, depending on the market
you’re aiming at.
Choose a theme, but keep it simple.
Titles for stories can present problems for
some writers. Don’t worry about yours until it’s finished; any title will do
while you’re writing the story. The theme, the characters, a phrase in the text
– anything might suggest a suitable title. Don’t use a title that will give
away any twist ending… A title can be a play on words; a good number of my Leon
Cazador stories adopt this word-play for their titles.
Limit the number of characters. Generally, six
should be the maximum.
Plot the story. You need to know the idea has
legs and will go the distance (the word-count you’ve decided upon or that is
required).
Settle on the character point of view. Remember,
first-person POV can be more intimate than third-person; but you can’t
necessarily create surprises so easily with first-person…!
Write the story. Don’t stop to tinker, just
get it down.
Don’t sermonise.
Respect the POV, so don’t hop between
characters’ heads, which can add to reader-confusion.
Don’t linger at the end. Straight after the resolution,
leave.
Don’t make it complicated, don’t spell it out;
if an explanation is necessary at the end, you probably need to rewrite.
Once you’ve finished the first draft, then you
can tinker, adding all the things you’ve left out in the first rush to complete
the tale – depth, suspense, imagery, characterisation…
This is one aspect of the craft of writing; the polish.
If the story must meet a word-count, ensure
you’re within the parameters.
Put the story aside for a day or so.
Then re-read it critically. You have to learn to step back, to read it as a fresh
reader, not the writer/creator.
Do a final self-edit. Correct spelling/typing
errors. Ensure you have not repeated certain words too often.
Keep a copy. Send it out. And keep a record of
your submissions.
If you haven’t already, start the next story…
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