 Short Stories: October 19, 2011 Issue [#4676] |
  Short Stories
This week: Minimalism Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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Hello everyone! ~jay here again for another edition of the Short Stories Newsletter.
while there are many of us bunkering down to write much more than a short story this fall, I thought I would address something seemingly the opposite-- minimalist styling.
While there are not really many rules to minimalism as a literary style, I recently started to get a lot of comments that seemed to be conflicting on a few of the stories I have been working on this year. I would get remarks that my worldbuilding was very involved, but that my content style is very stripped down and straightforward-- very minimalist. I started to wonder if these two things were contradictory, as it seemed to me, or if there is perhaps more to minimalism than simply being minimal.
The Wikipedia article -- always territory fraught with peril -- seems to indicate that minimalism in fiction writing is borne out of using surface detail and avoiding excessive adverbs and deep description, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that these are some of the devices I use when I'm writing as ways to make my reader identify with the situation my characters are in. By not trying to influence perceptions, the reader is allowed to take their own perspectives and get to play an active part in the way the story is perceived.
How might a writer use minimalism? Well, it's hard to tell anyone how to write, but a good example of using minimalism would be to resist using dialogue tags that are overly descriptive, and to focus on simple and basic details that get the gist of the story across while using descriptors that are short and to the point: not bland, but blunt. Spending less time on what something looks like and more on what something does allows the reader to get their own handle on the story action. For example, instead of describing every single facet of a specific make and model of car, you might simply indicate that it's a specific color and styled a certain way. It means that the reader has a wider range of potential images, some of them maybe not intended by you, but the perception will often be that the vividness of the description comes from the reader's minds' eye.
I think this is an idea with fascinating potential -- and one that I think relates a lot to the way we read fiction, short stories in particular. Stories where the reader's interpretation dictates the meaning to some extent at least allows the reader greater involvement-- and possibly enjoyment, in the work.
Food for thought. If you read or write and enjoy minimalism, what are some techniques you like to implement? New to minimalism-- What do you think?
Until Next Month,
Take care and Write on!
~j |
This Month's picks came from user submissions based on my Question from last month!
Some other items found out and about on Writing.Com:
For a great short story contest on minimalism:
And don't forget this month's dialogue-only challenge in:
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Feedback from last month's newsletter: "Format and Function"
phillywriter71 writes:
Hey Jay I have to agree with you on this. Entering a contest something I haven't really done much but I think would be good practice for my writing just to get the reviews as well as see what kind of reception it gets. I find this newsletter very uplifting to me and will definitely enter some now. I just came back to Writing.com after a long hiatus.
Welcome back to the site-- and I agree, contests are a great place to jump back in!
Elise-Saiki-Vannessa-Scarlet  writes:
This was written during the WDC birthday celebrations. Typically, I would never write stuff about partying and drinking, but it just seemed so suitable. I also added extra content to make more use of the word limit. The prompts were difficult to follow, but I managed. Somehow. Thanks for the newsletter, j! Hope to read more from you one day!
Anytime! I think you did well reaching outside the box.
Acme writes:
Not been around much, so haven't read a Newsletter in a long time. Glad I read this one j  I ran a workshop recently that looked at contest entry writing and how it can introduce good habits to writing as well as fresh challenges. Contests are great at honing our craft and may just win you a prize, to boot!
Thanks, Acme, and I could not agree more! It is great to see you back! 
The Northern Optimist writes:
Hello,
Yes, I entered the daily flash fiction contest and got a character idea from the prompt:
"You have the right to remain silent".
I really didn't spend a lot of time writing it because there's not much time in this contest. I spent part of the morning thinking about it and my lunch hour (I was at work that day) slapping it together. I also realize that it needs some polishing, well, maybe a lot. I do think it's a good and funny little story and the character is someone I can use in other comical stories. I actually entered the same contest the next day using the same character.
Take care
Sounds great to me, Yusuf! It's always awesome when a good prompt inspires a great character.
Write_Mikey_Write!  writes:
Thanks for this week's Newsletter; I enjoyed it. I submitted an entry for the "What If? Historical Fiction" contest in April '09. I'd never written historical fiction, so I had to do quite a bit of research, in order to keep the story as real as possible, while still presenting a story that wasn't provably historically correct. I found it to be an interesting challenge.
Yeah, historical fiction is one of the most challenging genres and it forces you to think INSIDE the box (always a problem with me!) What a great way to rise up to the challenge.
st.ifa writes:
good work
Aw, thanks!
Turkey DrumStik  writes:
Hey, there! Some people probably already know of an occasion when a short story contest pushed me out of my element. While I'm known to drop 3K-5K words without breaking a sweat, keeping it under 2000 is nearly impossible. Still, a timed/word count contest got me to write a rough draft of a story in five hours (which is an improvement over the five years I've been spending on a story in the neighborhood of 10K words). I'm surprised I was as coherent as I was in less than 1500 words.
Knowing the story behind that story-- I have to admit this was one of the inspirations for last month's editorial! 
tanya writes:
Hey J,
your newsletter gave a nice overview of limitations set by contests designed to trigger our imagination.
I usually stay close to my comfort zone (romance/relationship-related topics) when writing, but I wrote this piece for Writer's Cramp once and it turned out to be rather different from what I normally write. I quite like how it's turned out, particularly so as I didn't know where it was going when I started to write.
So I agree with you: contests are a great way to get one writing and expand one's horizon. Thanks for this months newsletter!
Of course! Exactly the type of thing I set out to highlight here. Nice job!
Vivian  writes:
J, thanks for highlighting my "Another Storm" . It was an interesting story to write. ~~ Viv
Of course, Viv! Thank *you* for writing a great story!
This month's question:
Food for thought. If you read or write and enjoy minimalism, what are some techniques you like to implement? New to minimalism-- What do you think?
Remember I print all relevant feedback, and I'd love to read your opinions.
Until next time!
~j
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