posted
I have noticed a problem I seem to have when it comes to writing short stories. I enjoy writing them, but mine tend to be idea driven. So I try to limit myself to one idea, but then I begin to see all the possible permutations of that idea and it gets ridiculously complex. To the point that my characters are speaking or thinking in info dumps. It is really frustrating.
My latest, which is an offshoot of another story I wrote, involves euthanasia via time travel, and has gotten way outta hand. (I've had the government go back and Preclude the conception of Mohommad, among other things). Does anyone else have these sort of problems? How do you stop the insanity? Or at least explain things in such a way that the story doesn't become ridiculoulsy convoluted?
posted
Just shows an active mind at work. Maybe when a digression pops up, open a new document and just note it. You can always bring it back in if it's really part of the story you're writing. We should all have such problems.
Posts: 153 | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
Well, there's a difference between and idea story and an idea. In an idea story, according to OSC, you start with a question or problem and then go until the answer is revealed. Mystery stories are idea stories. "Where did this dead body come from?" The same with Caper stories, "How will we get into this bank?"
So euthanasia via time travel might be an idea, but it's not a story yet. To create a short idea story, consider narrowing your focus to one question or problem.
posted
Try writing a synopsis of your entire story in a few short paragraphs. That is a good way to see what is crucial to the resolution of your story and what is window dressing.
I had to do this to some degree for my current WIP. Originally it was written in game format (it's an adaptation of an original fantasy game that a group of us have written through Play By Email.) When we got done with "Book One" we had well over 1,098,000 words. Obviously something needed to go. I began to really focus on the core of the story. Once you identify that, it becomes far easier to see where to prune.
Sometimes you have to cut fun characters or interesting tangents because they are not a part of the core. Save 'em in a different file and someday maybe they'll earn their own story.
posted
What Mary suggests sounds like a story based on a certain event or theme (if I understand what you are saying correctly) around which everything revolves. In a story like that, everything about the story has to revolve around that question or event.
However, if you just get an idea to start a story on, don't try to get so obsessed with the idea that you lose the story. The most obvious example of this would be Ender's Game which, as far as I know, started with the idea of the battle room. He could have done all sorts of implications with that but instead he just stuck with the basic (and perhaps most obvious) implications and built a story from it. This isn't an idea story, but it is a perfect example of a story started by an idea.
I think most stories start with an idea. It's what you do to go beyond the idea so that you weave it into an interesting story (which has a plot that goes beyond the initial sparking idea).
posted
I've heard from several well-known writers, Uncle Orson included, that their best work is often the result of TWO (usually unrelated) ideas that intersect.
I ran headlong into this when researching the Roman Empire for a work that's been on the back burner for some time. I ran across these guys called "lictors" (kind of a cross between and honor guard, bodyguard, and policeman) that accompanied Roman magistrates. They were totally unrelated to the story I had in mind (loosely based on the Biblical story of Saul, David and Jonathan), but they made everything come together.
You might try putting a couple of your ideas together and see what results.
posted
An event story, at least as defined by OSC, is different than an idea story. In an event story something happens which upsets the balance of the world. The story is about trying to correct that imbalance. The story ends when Our Hero either succeeds in righting the balance or utterly fails.
For those of you who have not read it, I highly recommend OSC's Character and Viewpoint
posted
My interpretation was more like the event story ends when the old order is restored or a new order is in place. in between is the chaos that makes the story. Success for the main character may be old or new order.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
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posted
How about writing up little articles, just for yourself, to explore the ideas and their implications as they pop up?
Then you can get them out of your system, work out the details, and have fun with them (and maybe even come up with something that you could submit to a publisher for money).
Once they are written, you can decide which to use in the story you have decided to write first. You may be able to use the other ideas in other stories, and you might even be able to turn the multiplication of ideas into a series of stories with a continuing character (that you can sell twice--first to a magazine, and then all together in a book).
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