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This week: Meta-Problems in Storytelling Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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This Short Stories Newsletter is dedicated to readers and writers of short fiction and to those who want to know more about the art of telling big stories in small spaces.
This month:
Meta-Problems in Storytelling
Is the story you're telling worth the time it takes to tell it? One of the harder parts of self editing... |
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So, last month we talked about the land of No-Story, a mired and boggy place where sometimes a perfectly well-meaning narrative can drift. A similar problem, and one I think we ought to examine a little more often, is the idea that not all stories are really worth the time it takes to tell them. Maybe it's the wrong setup or wrong approach to the material, or maybe it's an unforgiving deadline for a contest, for example, but sometimes, something just doesn't turn out right.
To break down every single type of narrative problem would be impossible, but there are a number of meta-problems of which I think most of these story issues usually apply. For some reason, I feel like it's harder to get readers to review a story with the actual story in mind-- comments about grammar and spelling are way more common, even when there are often more obvious problems which aren't mended by correcting the occasional erstwhile Oxford comma.
Underdone Plots:
Maybe you pulled it out of the oven too early, or didn't set the temperature high enough, but something just isn't cooked through, and now your readers have word-salmonella poisoning. Something went wrong here, but I think you get the gist. A story where the plot isn't thoroughly thought out so that it makes sense to the reader runs the risk of losing them entirely. While I don't believe that every story needs to have Eiffel Tower levels of scaffolding, it should be clear that there are series of escalating events that make some sense when assembled together and collated through the process of reading. When the story events don't seem to come together into something meaningful, it's time to reassess. It's possible the reader isn't seeing a connection that you are trying to make, and finding a way to clarify that within the story can unify the details.
Poor Decision-making:
Have you ever read a story where you couldn't, for the life of you, figure out why the characters were doing what they were doing? As if the author was just holding two dolls and mashing them together, face first, making noises where you aren't sure if they're kissing or fighting? I feel like I run into this problem a lot as a reader, and I think this runs on a track opposite of the Underdone Plot-- these are stories where the author is bound and determined to have something happen, even if that event feels totally forced and nonsensical. It's important that characters have believable arcs of action, and that even when they're idealized or conforming to a standard or archetypal plot, that their actions are still believable in context. Once we get out of believable situations, it's hard for the reader to get back into the story. (Yes, even in genres where "unbelievable" things are supposed to happen, they should still happen in a way that is believable in the context of the story world.) Random events which happen out of nowhere and do nothing to advance the plot-- or worse, act as deus ex machina to complete the story because it's completely run off the tracks-- would fall into this approximate category as well-- bad decision-making on the part of the author.
Overly Linear Narrative:
Character has a goal. Character achieves that goal. Nothing else happens on the way there.
Yawn. Narratives where the main characters aren't challenged by some kind of adversity are boring -- and it doesn't have to be life or death stakes here, though certainly the more exciting or the greater the drawback, the more the audience will be engaged. For the best results here, the characters need to have goals which conflict with each other or with other needs of their own, or have some other lasting impact which could be unexpected. Even when your character's goal is "sleep soundly in one's own bed," they should be obstructed in attaining that goal. (Think Bilbo Baggins here-- the one thing he wants is to be left alone, and JRR Tolkien was resolute in not allowing that to happen.  )
This isn't by any means an exhaustive list, but these are some very common problems I've found in my own study.
What are some common problems you've found in your travels on here that you'd like to share with your fellow writers? Are there any mistakes you see crop up over and over?
Until next month,
Take care and Write on!
~jay
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This Month's Picks:
First, a helpful, must-read article for anyone seeking publication for their short fiction:
a community project I think is incredibly cool:
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Feedback from "Room for Improvement" :
glynisj writes:
~jay,
I should know to look at old work I've done once in a while, yet I let myself get too busy with things that really don't mean a lot to me. Thanks for the wakeup call. Your idea about finding what's good in the old is something I haven't done before. This may be a good way to check myself on my skills as a writer.
Definitely! I wonder what you'll find.
Feedback from "The Land of No Story" :
Doug Rainbow  writes:
The Land of No Story sounds a lot like several other places I frequently visit: The Land of Aborted Beginnings, The Land of Interrupted Dreams, The Land of Plotless Concepts, and the Land of I Guess This Isn't Worth the Effort.
Oh my, Doug-- is that the map to my house? It certainly sounds like it. I've been to those places as well.
Natechia dos Reis writes:
I enjoyed reading your article and will certainly take a look at my stories to see if any of the No-Story symptoms apply. Thanks again.
Of course! Good luck and have fun-- the journey is the destination, etc.
JustTurtle writes:
Thank you for this great article about the land of No-Story. I find myself there more often than I'd like to admit, and I struggle to make unconnected scenes fit within a bigger story often with as much finesse as I would by taking a rubber mallet to a mis-fit puzzle piece. Yeah, it ain't pretty. Anyway, I'm going to check out that recommended book. If your comments and the reviews I've found of it online are any real indication of how helpful it is, I need to read it.
Seriously, I can't recommend Wonderbook enough, it's great!
brom21 writes:
Quite often when I find myself in the no-story zone it is sort of hard to mend it. Mostly I just want to get rid of the whole thing and start over. I also deal with the problem characters being a vacuum; they just do not have depth. Fleshing out my characters through showing is kind of hard of me; it’s easier to narrate their qualities; comforting that I am not alone. I found this very helpful, thank You.
I'm glad this was helpful-- I find that I'm very rarely the only writer having whatever problem I'm having at any given time-- sometimes it helps just as much to reach out!
Patrece ~ writes:
 Thank you so much for the mention in the newsletter. I am so excited to have won 1st place in this contest! Thank you again!
I'm always glad to highlight the D500 crew on here when I can.
dragonwoman writes:
I sometimes end up in the land of No-Story. I usually get stuck before its done and can't find a way out. So, I leave it, and leave it in my Home for Abandoned Stories until I decide what to do with them.
Yep, sometimes you just have to put aside an idea for later!
Quick-Quill  writes:
I usually have the story first and then I struggle to get the rest in line. My novel started with a situation (the end of the book) and I had to build an entire plot, characters to end with it. Short stories for me are prompt driven. I rarely have characters with no story.
Well, if you start with a story that has no characters, it's a similar predicament! It's good that you have a system you like to use.
aegreenfield writes:
My best way of escaping No-Story is to create an emotion-charged conflict for the main character to resolve. Conflicts create stories.
You are so right! I think a lot of us have an aversion to really putting our characters into the tough situations they'd probably do just fine in, if only we'd just let them do what they need to do.
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Short Stories: March 05, 2014 Issue [#6199]
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