This week: Be Dramatic Already! Edited by: Annette  
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“I like the idea that a work of fiction is basically just some timeless human dilemma, dressed up in contemporary clothing.”
George Saunders |
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Be Dramatic Already!
Fiction writers are supposed to be imaginative. They are called to create worlds for readers to enjoy. Those worlds have to meet many demands. They have to entertain. They could scare. They can make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. They might bring on the tears.
One thing I haven't seen too often on Writing.Com is outright outrageous stories. Stories that are completely off the beaten path. Stories in which the casual violence of life is narrated as a fact of the situation. Stories that have hair-raising bits in the midst of some mundane event. Stories are usually completely off the wall, or completely tame.
I invite authors who want to figure out how to combine simple plot lines that end up completely derailed in the end to read some short stories by George Saunders. He revels in weird. He likes to be crass. He wants us to read his story and be rattled.
One of his stories is about an amusement park that is called "Civil War Land." If the name of the amusement park isn't already an indicator, you should know that roving gangs of violent teens are real. Ghosts are real. Security guards killing amusement park visitors is real. Everything is real. Except it's all just an amusement park. Or is it?
Try to make your short stories straddle that line between unrealistic, but put it in context with the real world. See how it shakes out. |
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We exist expressly to experience the perpetuated cycle, die, and experience it once again.
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Izzie peered through the needles into the black heart of the boughs
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Written for the last day of the WDC Birthday week Writer's Cramp event. :)
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Replies to my last Short Stories newsletter "Cultural Hangups"
JCosmos  wrote: You asked some interesting provocative questions. I live in Korea now and have a lot of people gotten into K Dramas. They are addictive but quite a bit different from US TV series or movies. But they do share a common theme, usually, it is a story about family dynamics (often rich families behaving badly), political dramas (The Last Man standing), crime dramas, etc. The story involves romance but that is much more subtle than in a lot of American dramas, often it builds slowly to the man getting the woman, or vice versa near the end usually. They are mostly 16 episodes aired over a few weeks, a bit like Mexican telenovelas. The K Dramas reflect a different culture and different narrative style than American fiction or stories.
I am currently watching Vincenzo with Jeon Yeo-bin Soon Joong-ki. The whole cast of Vincenzo is amazingly talented. I watch it in Korean with English subtitles. I would love to know what they are really saying as I know that some nuances get lost in translation, but I also wouldn't want to lose out on all of their voices by turning on the dubbed version. Next up are Arthdal Chronicles and Space Sweepers. Those are all on Netflix. I've also started looking around for shows with the other actors in Vincenzo, but some are a little over the top too campy for me.
Beholden  wrote: I know nothing of Poe. He never struck me as anything special. But I have to agree with you that the short story, in its modern form, is an American idea. It fits perfectly with our demand for instant gratification.
Everything I know about short stories came to me, quite fortuitously, through the work of two writers. The first, purely because my mother owned a compilation of his short stories and I devoured her entire library as soon as I could read, was O. Henry. He remains the master of the genre, in my opinion. The other I came across a few years later - that largely ignored genius of American literature, Zane Grey. He taught me the importance of atmosphere in the short story (as well as proving that the twist in the tail [tale] is not essential).
And so to your question. Challenging is what I do, probably because, most of the time, I'm unaware of the "rules." In fact, becoming aware of a rule is an instant invite to me to break it somehow. I have no problem admitting that many of my stories are of the "hero's journey type but some are not. Now, of course, you have highlighted the matter and I will take much more note of whether I'm using the idea or not. And be tempted to break the "rule" at every opportunity.
The breaking of rules is how rules are created.
I can't agree more that rules of fiction writing are meant to be broken. You make me want to read Zane Grey and O. Henry. I might try that sometime soon. Your mother had great wisdom to have those books available for you.
Elisa: Snowman Stik  wrote: Challenging the hero's journey is my primary purpose for writing. Sometimes I succeed; sometimes I don't. Whatever happens, I try to subvert as many tropes as I can along the way. That reminds me. I also make the surrounding community's reaction a sizable factor in character development to ensure that it's never just about the "hero". After all, a hero is a relative concept over everything else.
So true. The hero is nothing without a community that reacts. I find both subverting tropes, but also using them, fun when writing.
Max Griffin 🏳️🌈  wrote: Nice job with this newsletter. I note in passing that the "hero's journey" is just an annotated version of the three-act-play structure, which is pervasive in the Western canon. In fact, IMHO something like "Finding Nemo" is better understood as a three-act play than a hero's journey.
Yes. The hero's journey is more of an observation rather than a framework. At least when it was first "discovered." Unfortunately, too many writers understand it as a blueprint for writing, so we have ended up with Star Wars and its many issues that all hammer away at the hero's journey like there is nothing else in fiction space.
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Short Stories: September 22, 2021 Issue [#10987]
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