With no punctuation.
Ha! Yes, exactly.
In fact, as I was agonizing over chopping 500 words to get something under a 10,000 limit, my friend hit on the exact answer: Remove All The Spaces.
Brilliant!
Advice for my first short story attempts
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Ha! Yes, exactly.
In fact, as I was agonizing over chopping 500 words to get something under a 10,000 limit, my friend hit on the exact answer: Remove All The Spaces.
Brilliant!
What happened to the "Welcome...READ THIS" post?? I don't see it.... I'd like to try it...
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Or listen:
From the iTunes Podcast Directory you can download for free:
New Yorker: Fiction--Listen to authors talk about and read from their favourite short stories
Classic Short Stories from LibriVox--hundreds of them: Joyce, Tolstoy, Poe, Chekhov, Wodehouse etc etc
I've also purchased Stephen Fry's reading of Chekhov short stories and other audio collections: Russian short stories, Fitzgerald etc. Very relaxing on a long drive.
My tip would be to write in first person, seems like most (not all) of the short stories I find are in first person. It makes some sense to me - though I prefer third limited - since the reader is likely to identify more with the protagonist if it is written with that POV. Or maybe short story writers are just more generally taken with first person...or maybe the editors are? I don't know. Any thoughts from anybody else?
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I recently read a piece in Ray Gun Revival's third anniversary issue, "Sky Voices" by Alice Roelke, which was an excellent story, all done in third.
Most of my own stories are written in first person.
If a story is well-written in either first or third, it will sell. The author just has to write what they feel most comfortable writing, and in the POV the story needs to be told from.
Most of my own stories are written in first person.
If a story is well-written in either first or third, it will sell. The author just has to write what they feel most comfortable writing, and in the POV the story needs to be told from.
Ruv Draba
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- Keep the number of major characters small. The more major characters you have, the more you'll need to write. One to three major characters (including mains, antagonists, major stakeholders) are usually enough. Use no more than you need.
- Try to catch the main character at a moment of definition or change. Write just enough to show what provoked this, what the tensions were, what the decision-point is, and what the outcome is -- no more.
- Make characters memorable by making them surprising and contradictory. Focus on bringing out internal tensions quickly.
- When it comes to setting, less is more. Make the detail sparse but particular. Focus on the emotion of the setting, its meaning to the characters. Avoid piling on mood for its own sake -- work with the psychology of the characters instead.
- Readers often gobble novels but savour short stories. Make your prose tight and shiny.
That all makes far too much sense Ruv Draba. Can't possibly work *said while he copies the list for his own use*
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