posted
so what's the idea witth short stories. do you take part of a longer story or do you just write a story that doesn't have enough in it to write more than a short stories worth about, or both?
extra detail in your answers would be greatly appreciated but not neccessary
posted
I don't know if this answers your question or not, but a story is whatever length it takes to tell it. It doesn't matter how long it is, all that matters is that it has a real begining, middle, and end. The term "short" is a description given to it's length, (7500 words or less) not its completeness. Any story, no matter whether its 50 words or 500,000 words needs to be complete. Of course, longer stories will have more detail and have interesting subplots, but basiclly, all stories have to meet the same requirements.
posted
The idea of short stories is that you've told an entire story---everything that needed to be told---in five thousand words or less. Or maybe seven thousand words or less.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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1. rustafarianblackpolarbear, your name takes up so much space that any thread you post in will have all the text shifted across the screen. Do you really need such a longer user name?
2. Though it is commonplace on many forums and chat areas to let grammar, spelling, and punctuation go, we tend to like to see full sentences and proper capitalization here. It's because we're a bit snobby and proud to be writers.
Well, a story has a beginning, middle, and end--at least they should IMHO. Now if the story can be told in few words, it is a short story--or even flash fiction. If it's a complex story and can only be fully told with many words, it can become a novella, a novel, or a series. Some short stories could be part of a novel, and some might not work so well as part of a larger work. Some novels could be shortened to novellas, short story, or flash--and many would improve by this change.
posted
Aha! This looks like a job for WRITING IN GENERAL AND THE SHORT STORY IN PARTICULAR by Rust Hills!
rustafarianblackpolarbear, one of the main things about short stories is the idea of "unity," meaning one--one character, one problem, one location, one time period, one conflict, one resolution, and so on.
There is a literary school of thought that asserts that a short story should be about the SINGLE (there's that "one" again) most crucial thing that ever happened to someone in their entire life--the thing that changed everything for them, that made them the way that they are.
I strongly recommend (as I do every so often) that you get the abovementioned book (it isn't very big or long or expensive) and read it. And then read it again every so often.
posted
Further to my answer above, some people do indeed take pieces of a larger work and turn them into stand alone shorts, while others do the opposite and expand their shorts into longer works. In the end you end up with a short that fits into a bigger picture.
Then there are times where the story you have to tell only takes X number of words where X<10,000 (or whatever limit you want to put on it).
For myself, I have a hard time building the higher concept pieces. It seems like everything I have to say can be said in 5000 words or less (even 5000 is a lot, 2000 is probably closer to average for me).
Why? If I knew that I'd have figured out how to write novels.
posted
Thank you everyone. That was very helpful. I especially liked Kathleen's (that's my mums name so I'll call you mum from now on lol) advice about unity. That fits well into the story I've got in mind. Like most of my stories it's a bit out there and never-ending war style, but reducing it to "unity" should make it a viable short story.
The reason I asked is because I want to try and submit a short story into OSC's Magic Show. I don't, however, get how it works. The gist I got was that it's going to be published quarter-annually, at first only with stories based in the Ender universe and all submissions only allowed for his professional students, but later the rest of us can submit too, so if that's right theres no rush so it's all good.
Christine, I do want to change my name, but unfortunately I cant figure out how. if I do though, what do you think of the name thewriterformerlyknownasrustafarianblackpolarbear? or rusty might be a bit better.
okay, thanks everyone for your help and I will be getting that WIGATSSIP book, by the way. Hokay, bye!
posted
Actually, OSCIMS will only have one Enderverse story per issue. The other stories are a mix of sci-fi and fantasy. He hasn't opened submissions yet but plans to after the first couple issues, at which time I am sure he'll be posting more in-depth submission guidelines.
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