Some of you who frequent Liberty Hall may know why I'm asking this, but for the rest...Does a fictional prose piece have to be a story? Well, obviously I can write whatever *I* want, but aside from just writing something that sits on my own computer and takes up disk space, is there a market for, a genre description for, etc...prose pieces that are not stories? What would you call them?
Posted by Susannaj4 (Member # 3189) on :
A Poem. (Sorry.)
I have read many poems written like yours. I like them. It doesn't have to be stanzas, it doesn't have to rhyme. It's a message and you delivered it beautifully. Try a mag that likes poetry. I know I've submitted to a few. I'm sure you could do something with it.
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
Humorous essay? Non-humorous essay? I always thought it was funny that Lilo and Stitch was based on an "idea". I think the "idea" was presented as an illustrated booklet, though.
Also, it's okay to do writing exercises that do not become part of any marketed work.
[This message has been edited by franc li (edited March 29, 2006).]
Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :
Not a bad question, and not a bad answer. I had two pieces for which I asked that question. One was eventually published as poetry, and the other became the first of the Stone Musings to be published. In the case of the first, I changed the format to look more like poetry (ie moved it into stanza form). For the second, I attached it as a sort of a preface to a personal essay.
So, yes, there are ways to get these things published.
Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :
I think Mike's "musings" to describe non-story prose about sums it up for me -- it's as good a name as any other we could throw out there... /end opinion.
Posted by Grimslade (Member # 3173) on :
Anything you can market as short-short non-fiction. Maybe it could develop into a new market, like a western version of a Zen Koan. A brief insight into the world or more like 'Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey, only not by Jack Handey, by you.
Grim
Posted by trousercuit (Member # 3235) on :
A Poem. (Sorry.)
It started as a story. It really did. It was about this guy and his space-elephant. They did tricks with the elephant's trunk. But they got caught up. In a really big way. In a really big galaxy-wide conspiracy to overthrow the galactic government by causing congresspeople to show up to work without any trousers on. Wouldn't you know it? The elephant has a magical trunk. Only he can stop the conspiracy. But that's as far as it went. The story had no traction. So I wrote this awful poem. Sorry.
Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :
You never know what a piece of writing will merit. Tom Simon, a bookseller, took former President Clinton's grand jury testimony word for word and arranged it like free verse (it's actually a form of poetry called "found poetry"). The result really is poetic. He got the idea from someone having done it with President Nixon's tapes. The book is called Poetry Under Oath. This is an excerpt entitled "Around Christmas Time": (I'm sure the centered verse format won't work well here, but you'll get the idea)
I did like it a lot I told you that My impression My belief Was that she gave me that book For Christmas Maybe that's not right I think she had that book Delivered to me for Christmas And then As I remember I went to Bosnia And for some reason She wasn't there Around Christmastime. --William Jefferson Clinton
So you never know. You could end up with anything from "Stone Musings" to "Poetry Under Oath."
