Writing talk - short stories

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I started writing in the 1960s, completing my first novel in 1964 (it’s still unpublished).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…