Writing A Slice Of Life

When I was in high school, I remember an English teacher sternly warning the class: “A short story has a clear-cut beginning, middle and end. I will look for this in your story, and if I cannot find it, I will fail you.” What she didn’t realize is that a good short story seldom works this way. She was stuck in the rigid conformity to the linear that the educational system encourages, unable to think outside of its structure, or to venture into the fields of her own thoughts.

In my first year of university, one of my lecturers was a best-selling Australian author. And in the first class of Effective Writing, when we got into the topic of the short story, he reminded us of every high school teacher’s words. And then…

“Bollocks! Bullshit!” he shouted.

The short story is a concise medium, a style of writing that serves many purposes, but none of them long-winded: a quick bit of entertainment to pass idle time; a thoughtful piece of prose that takes five minutes to read and hours to get off one’s mind; a serial adventure that has the reader encapsulated in an unreal world and unwilling to leave until the series is complete. Concise it may be, but powerful it is.

So why should it be linear? Why would it fit into the confines of the linear? It wouldn’t! It shouldn’t! No: the best short story is not immensely structured, fitting into a prepared timeline of events that set plot and drama into stone. It is a slice of life, a snapshot, a piece of time that is taken from the imagination of the author and stamped with the speed of machinery into the mind of the reader.

Stamped so fast that it may never be forgotten.

Short stories are not the vehicles for a history of time, not a life story, not a fantasy epic. The short story is a slice of life, a few centimetres from a whole ball of string.

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Writing Tip: Prevention is better than cure - Avoid these ten new writer mistakes

Storytellers need to understand these ten points before they start writing. It’s worth spending some time at Holt Uncensored. There is a great archive and the material offered is good practical solid information that explains things very well. I spent a lot of time searching the net for storytellers who knew what they were doing, partly market research, but also to pick up on anything I might be missing, and I tell you “There is a lot of garbage advice out there.” A lot of misconceptions, and a lot of know-about, but very little know.

As a writer and storyteller I want sure and certain knowledge that I can use and that adds to the toolkit I will employ as a writer. There is one particular article Holt wrote that totally settles the argument about plot, scene, or character. I searched high and low for viewpoints on that one for quite some time and I heard and read so many opinions and despaired of finding one that actually worked. In my opinion Holt got it right and settles that particular debate, except for a couple of things: Function and Point Zero.

There and back again - World Building for Storytellers - The Fargoth World Building Project

Through the miracle of modern technology today, it is now possible for a story to be realized and constructed as a virtual world and this has changed the nature of the marketplace and opened up tremendous opportunities for those writers who embrace the idea of not just telling a story, but realizing entire worlds, multiple cultures and races.

Tolkien captured it best when he wrote the immortal lines of “There and back again” for they capture beautifully and simply what is at the the heart of the reader experience when they fall in love with or become immersed in a story; the desire to go somewhere other than this world, and experience what it would be like to be someone else, live in any time, any place, and under conditions far removed from the real world in which we all live. Time travel? Read more

Writing Tip: Writing Action Scenes - Great advice from Poul Anderson

Many years ago, when I started writing my first fantasy epic and was using the internet to research the potential for internet marketing and utilization, and in particular how it could be used as a research & marketing and educational tool (among its many other uses), I came across Poul Anderson’s On Thud and Blunder.

This is a very valuable piece of writing craft that literally makes the difference between amateur and profesional writing in the field of fantasy. It has a focus on writing action scenes, and though this is a fantasy-focused article it has relevance to any storyteller who is faced with writing strong action scenes which need to engage the reader, and put them into the middle of the action.

Poul’s article contains great advice and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

‘Jailbreak’ - Kozanotra Episode 1

A sense of utopia was always maintained with great care in the Centauri system colonies; utterly pretentious and artificial, a thin veil hiding the harsh realities of post-colonisation, but instated on a people completely oblivious to its existence. Authorities in every government department and then some put great thought into every detail of this sham, to prevent citizens questioning the United Colonies, to prevent any chance of any uproar from occurring. The truth, of course, always has a way of coming out—but why bother thinking of the consequences left to another century? In the here and now, the ’safety’ of the colonies—or rather, the comfort of its leaders—was the most important thing to protect.

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Counterfeit Humanity

The veil is swept over the faces of the numb
A curtain of disruption and dismay blocked out
By the eyelids of darkness and novocaine
Little eyelids propped in front of a lump of grey
Matter pumping blood through vessels that
Could burst at any given moment
A lump that has been washed, scrubbed,
Scratched, scabbed, and hung out
To dry and decay upon the fence of ignorance Read more

Robert Henri’s “The Art Spirit”

22nd June 2004 held a very special moment for me.

I remember vividly, even writing now, three months later, how relieved I felt.

It was raining heavily in the garden. Rain meant no more suffering from my summer ailment: hay fever. As the rain began its rhythmic rapping against the windows and the roof, and as the blurry sting in my eyes began to allay, I found myself in a contemplative mood. Robert Henri’s book seemed apt for such a mood.

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