Are you studying writing? This is from a series of posts studying short stories in order to learn what makes a great one tick. If you don’t want to miss updates in this series, feel free to subscribe below!
A few months ago I read a couple of short stories that I rather liked, even though I rarely read short stories. I was so impressed by them that it got into my head to try writing a few of them.
Why Short Stories?
I ordinarily write novels, so why would I write short stories instead?
First of all, novels take forever to write. Then, once a novel is done, you have to edit it, and it’s easy to introduce plot holes when making even simple changes. For example, if you change somebody’s clothing on page 22, will you remember to update it on page 279 as well? This simply means that editing a novel takes an extremely long time.
Then, say you finish your editing, and it’s time to share your work with people: it’s really hard to find someone who will read the darn thing! This deserves a post (or a series of posts) of its own, but a novel takes between 1 day and 3 months to read, depending on the book and the reader. A 300-400 page work by an unknown author is a big commitment for a stranger on the internet to make, especially when they have no idea if your novel is any good or not. Worse, any avid reader already has a dozen other famous books that they already intend to read, often sitting on a bookshelf as a sort of scholarly to-do list. You are still competing with Homer’s Iliad!
Short stories, by contrast, are small enough in scope that you can write, edit, and publish quite a few of them in the time it would take to finish a single novella or novel. Because of this, each of these shorter stories can more easily be used to experiment.
This approach is similar to how I learned to make video games: basically, I would pick a single small topic, and would then create a mini-project (often a game jam entry) that focused on learning or practicing that topic. For example, one jam was dynamic pathfinding; another was behaviour trees; yet another was modular level design.
I suspect this is the ideal way to approach learning most things… so that will be my approach with writing.
The Reading Goal
If I do want to write really good short stories, one additional part of that learning process is to immerse myself in “prior art.”
Therefore, 2 weeks ago I decided to read two short stories every day. I will post some notes from time to time about what I have learned from many of them.
(I did something similar when studying game design as well — a topic for another post)
Note: another substack author, Oleg, whose stories are mentioned below, is undertaking a similar goal right now. He calls it the “Ray Bradbury Challenge,” and he intends to read 1 essay, 1 short story, and 1 poem for... 1000 days. If you like this article, check his out as well!
What Have I Been Reading?
Telltale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe
The language is striking for two reasons: first, the sentence structure is interesting and dynamic; second, the piece stylistically attempts to mimic the protagonist’s state of mind, ie, by being a bit rambling and chaotic and intense, full of self-importance. Very nice.
Dracula’s Guest, by Bram Stoker
I will use the first 3 pages of this story as a case study in how to set up a horror story in the future by setting up really powerful dramatic irony.
What happens is that we have a protagonist who is blundering into a dangerous situation, who is getting warned by all sorts of people to stay inside, or to at least get home before dark, but who is dismissing all these warnings. He is, after all, an Englishman accustomed to dismissing superstitious nonsense. By the end of page 2 or 3, you just want to yell at him, no, get out of there, you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into — but he can’t hear you. Marvellous!
A Perfect Day for Banannafish, by J. D. Salinger
9 Stories
Salinger writes so nicely, it pulls you in, and you don’t even know what direction it’s headed. The Catcher in the Rye is the same way — the conversational tone, the flowing sentences pull you in and don’t let go until, next thing you know, the story is over.
In other words, I will be returning to his work regularly to study rhythm in the future. He is a master of it.
Night Surf, Stephen King
Night Shift
This opened very slowly, without a strong hook, and I almost gave up on the story. The hook, a certain shocking event that really drags you in, happens several pages in. Then, the story ends in a way that wasn’t really conclusive at all.
In other words, the story defies convention in many ways and manages to be excellent nonetheless. This is a reminder that you can write something that people will talk about without having to rely on the most popular tricks and conventions.
Jerusalem’s Lot, Stephen King
Night Shift
Like Night Surf above, the opening is pretty slow. There is nothing in the plot or setting to really hook you, and the inciting incident happens later in the story. The real hook is the style: it is decorative, and the story is written as a series of letters, like a lot of classical horror fiction was.
This is a very unusual style for King, and I haven’t seen him repeat it elsewhere!
I also became obsessed with it, and even wrote a dark mermaid story inspired by it.
Finally, by page 36 or so, the plot has somehow gotten so intense, and I got lost in it so deeply, that I don’t understand why it worked so well. That’s the sign of really amazing writing, and I intend to return to the story several times to study it closer.
(The ending was alright, but the real magic is pages 1-36)
Call of Cthulhu, H.P. Lovecraft, Ian Edington, D’Israeli
The Lovecraft anthology (a graphic novel)
This was a graphic novel telling the abridged story.
It was so concise that it was a struggle to read, and took quite a bit of backtracking to make sense of many passages. Despite this, the illustrations were incredible, and I found the story came to life in a way that the audiobook did not.
What is the cause? Is it the art? Or is the act of backtracking to check your understanding of a scene immersive in a way that is worth studying?
Roadside Diner, by Barbara Smith
Campfire Stories of Western Canada
The writing style is a bit chunky, but it’s clear and proceeds forward at a good pace. In other words, the chunkiness is forgivable.
The length makes it viable as something to actually tell around a campfire. This is the most interesting part: I bought this and read it ahead of Books of Blood. The concept behind this book is incredibly strong and appealing!
The North Door, by Barbara Smith
Campfire Stories of Western Canada
Not intriguing until the final page, where a twist at the end made it memorable, as did the imagery - the shimmering column of cold air. Nice.
Eliza Anderson, by Barbara Smith
Campfire Stories of Western Canada
The setup was intriguing: a ship, barely seaworthy, sailing to Alaska and back in storms. The crew became desperate. It felt hopeless. Great setup for a story.
Then some guy shows up to save the day, and disappears, ghost like. The only part that makes this interesting is how mundane it is, and how it could be a real story because of that.
The Tower of the Elephant, by Robert E Howard
Conan: The Barbarian (an anthology)
Felt generic, but they say it was genre defining, which means that a million other stories have been inspired by it, and so somebody today cannot possibly experience it the way that readers from the time could.
‘Genre defining’ is a way of saying ‘widely copied in the years that followed.’
Rogues in the House, by Robert E Howard
Conan: The Barbarian (an anthology)
This was striking, and I hope to write an entire article on Howard.
The Frost-Giant’s Daughter, by Robert E Howard
Conan: The Barbarian (an anthology)
Again, Howard’s work will need its own article.
The Dream of Duncan Parrennes, by Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling’s Tales of Horror and Fantasy
A confusing story about losing yourself. The rhythm is compelling and is the main point of interest to me - ie, an interesting flow in the words can make up for a story that I don’t care much for.
An Indian Ghost in England, by Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling’s Tales of Horror and Fantasy
The wordplay and rhythm made the story interesting, as did the contrast between those who stayed behind in England vs those who went abroad to see the world. Taken together, he paints a magical view of a world that you must be brave and hard-working to appreciate. I recommend this one, I liked it a lot.
The Crowing, by Caleb Stephens
Howls from the Dark Ages
This story is unusual because it did a lot more world building than other short stories I have read recently, and I find it quite memorable for that reason. This makes it stand out.
Angelus, by Philippa Evans
Howls from the Dark Ages
I appreciate the clear writing, and found the characters compelling. I would love to read more by this author.
Palette, by J.L. Kiefer
Howls from the Dark Ages
The lesson here is that boils on the face gross me out, and if I ever want to make somebody squirm, body horror is probably the most intense way to do it.
Brother Cornelius, by Peter Ong Cook
Howls from the Dark Ages
There are characters in this who are simply fun people to observe. The story is a little playful, and I really enjoyed spending time with these people. The plot could have been about almost anything and I would have probably enjoyed it just as much.
In Thrall to This Good Earth, by Hailey Piper
Howls from the Dark Ages
Well written and vivid — one of the most ‘visually memorable’ stories so far in this collection. Ie, clear imagery pays off a lot.
In Every Drop, by Lindsey Ragsdale
Howls from the Dark Ages
It conveys a setting very potently, a great sense of place and time. You feel like you know what it’s like to be those people.
Deus Vult, by Ethan Yoder
Howls from the Dark Ages
This one focuses on tone, I think, and pretty consistently conveys the idea of a knight using a good cause to do harm to people. It felt very congruent.
The Final Book of St Foy’s Miracles, by M. E. Bronstein
Howls from the Dark Ages
The character of St Foy is so compelling and playful, it carries the story. The writing is unusually clear as well. Great work on this one!
A Dowry for Hour Hand, by Michelle Tang
Howls from the Dark Ages
This one deserves its own article… I have several thoughts on this, and I don’t have time to dive into it in this already-massive post. I highly recommend reading it.
Yaddith Intro, by Sandy Petersen
Unpublished
Cool flash fiction about a race from Hyperspace. It just shows a flash into the confusing, overwhelming world of somebody who might encounter one of their species, and then ends, preferring to be highly evocative rather than overly descriptive.
[Note: Substack autocorrected Yaddith to Yiddish, and it is extremely difficult to prevent it from doing so without my knowledge. I am extremely annoyed by how often it takes liberties like this. This offensive autocorrection that it does, all the time, sometimes turns a paragraph about an alien species into something fairly offensive. This is disgusting, and Substack should be ashamed for secretly swapping out any words, ever, when users copy paste text blocks into here. This is so annoying it makes me want to change platforms some days, and today is one of those. End of rant!]
Pulling No Punch Cards, by Oleg Volkov
Fictitious
The story describes a setting, a character, then ends. I feel that his stories are like peeks into other worlds, and that the goal is to make you speculate about those worlds. In that sense, they are very successful, and I rather enjoyed it. It reminds me of “The Way it Went Down” by Dennis Detwiller below.
Gathering Amber, by Oleg Volkov
Fictitious
Same comments as Pulling No Punch Cards.
Various, by Dennis Detwiller
The Way it Went Down
These stories are only 1-3 pages each, so I’ll give them a single entry: they are striking, and I love them! Each feels like a seed to build a novel or an RPG campaign upon. They are very compelling in this way.
Secret
Unpublished
I read 4 unpublished stories to give the authors feedback, and I rather enjoyed them all. I wish I could say more. If any are published in the future, I will link to them.
Other, by ?
Somewhere?
I read several other stories too, but I forget what they were by the time I wrote this post. Apologies to any authors whose work I missed!
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