This is one way to look at it, for sure. I have another way: Do you feel anything when you read it? Clearly this is subjective, but the sight of the victim's face elicited a collective gasp. That is feeling. However, shock value is not a story and I think that sometimes something can happen, but if that something is inserted only because it is shocking, it is still not a story. The story is never on the outside; it is always the view from within.
I remember the reaction to the first piece I wrote and submitted to a pier-member writing group: “nice, but this is a character sketch.”Same with my second and third attempts. My fourth was deemed a vignette, which was published by literary magazine that only wanted vignettes. After that my stories became stories, but it takes a long time to get there so I very much appreciated reading this article!
I participated in a writing group a few years back and had the same reaction: where's the plot. I was the only group member who wrote "genre" (crime, horror) and even if the character is the starting point, plot is essential. My fellow writers penned literary short fiction and didn't feel the same. I found their stories repetitive and I eventually left the group. The narrative doesn't need to be nicely tied up at the end, in fact I believe open endings or ambiguous ones stick in the reader's head longer, but even in 700 words, you need an arc, a progression, a change of some sort.
One of the problems I have with a number of literary publications is that the stories that they publish are what I call about navel gazing. In other words, very little happens but the realization of some character about some nuance on their life. Often these are white academics in suburban campus like scenarios. Yet there are plenty of short stories that are excellent. As Christine indicates, they rarely are published and when they are, as is the case of Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer prize winning book, they never use the words, short story collection, or a novel in short stories. And if you contact any agents and you dare say the bad words short story, they will tell you that they love your altruistic approach and efforts but they are just too busy to represent such work. We live in a fragmented world where people do not have time to read, where they spend more time watching their influencer of choice, or binge-watching some reality TV. And the short story is a quick read. If you connect the dots, even so slightly, even better. So you will discover that other novels are not novels, but short stories connected by a thin membrane of a theme. Great article.
Amazing!..Graphic!..Thank you! We all have 'the story' or 'stories' to tell! My kindle is full of them. Your post reminds me. I want other writers to read your post as well. I want every high school kidlet to read your post as part of their English class. I want discussions in their classes to center around this very sentence, itself. Your post needs a greater distribution than is available via this site. I'll be sharing it with all the English teachers I know.
Great article. Completely agree. As the main editor for the publisher, Chicago Story Press, we only accept great stories. We can improve the writing, but we can't necessarily fix a story. Story is everything.
Does this hold true for poetry also? I often wonder if the opposite isn't actually true for poems--that readers/gatekeepers/editors see narrative almost as naive these days while lyric/verbal razzle dazzle, that may convey nothing plot-wise, is elevated.
When I was younger I would have liked to have thought I was forgiving like the girl. But now that I am older my response was that I would have preferred for the sentence to be carried out, but not as an act of revenge. To prevent him from being able to accurately throw acid in someone's face in the future, because her forgiveness doesn't necessarily correlate at all with potential changes in his behavior and someone could be hurt in the future.
I supposed for me a takeaway is how we interpret the twists in stories as our life changes.
I am also now very curious which of my stories would come across as having the change you describe as necessary or not. I don't know if I've read stories that have no change at all, or if I had if I did not enjoy them or did enjoy them. I'll be on the look out to see.
I love this post—thank you, Christine (and Becky)! My beef about short fiction has long been the same as yours: the lack of story--or at least story as I know it. Perhaps many of the writers of recent fiction think they ARE writing a story—or perhaps they’ve been encouraged to think that by instructors of writing programs—but if they want their words to last in the minds of readers, if they care about that, they might need to revise their definition of story, along with their texts. The great writers throughout history, the ones we read over and over, have been, first and last, great storytellers.
As I read the article I thought back to my short stories and did a mental checklist as to whether someone went from point A to B in each. They did -- for the most part. I'll go back and review with that handy framework in mind. Thanks!
Thank you for the reminder/prompt/kick in the ass, Christine. Great insight into some of the issues I've both encountered in my own work, and too often find in novels I struggle through.
This was profoundly helpful. I have written several short stories and they always originate with the idea of a plot. I have felt bad for this, as if they aren't "literary" enough because there is a strong emphasis on plot. I remember reading in a writing book one time that stories should develop with a character in mind first, before the plot. But I'm finding that my plot gives shape to my characters, and the character begins to shape shift in the process of writing the story.
This is one way to look at it, for sure. I have another way: Do you feel anything when you read it? Clearly this is subjective, but the sight of the victim's face elicited a collective gasp. That is feeling. However, shock value is not a story and I think that sometimes something can happen, but if that something is inserted only because it is shocking, it is still not a story. The story is never on the outside; it is always the view from within.
I remember the reaction to the first piece I wrote and submitted to a pier-member writing group: “nice, but this is a character sketch.”Same with my second and third attempts. My fourth was deemed a vignette, which was published by literary magazine that only wanted vignettes. After that my stories became stories, but it takes a long time to get there so I very much appreciated reading this article!
I participated in a writing group a few years back and had the same reaction: where's the plot. I was the only group member who wrote "genre" (crime, horror) and even if the character is the starting point, plot is essential. My fellow writers penned literary short fiction and didn't feel the same. I found their stories repetitive and I eventually left the group. The narrative doesn't need to be nicely tied up at the end, in fact I believe open endings or ambiguous ones stick in the reader's head longer, but even in 700 words, you need an arc, a progression, a change of some sort.
One of the problems I have with a number of literary publications is that the stories that they publish are what I call about navel gazing. In other words, very little happens but the realization of some character about some nuance on their life. Often these are white academics in suburban campus like scenarios. Yet there are plenty of short stories that are excellent. As Christine indicates, they rarely are published and when they are, as is the case of Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer prize winning book, they never use the words, short story collection, or a novel in short stories. And if you contact any agents and you dare say the bad words short story, they will tell you that they love your altruistic approach and efforts but they are just too busy to represent such work. We live in a fragmented world where people do not have time to read, where they spend more time watching their influencer of choice, or binge-watching some reality TV. And the short story is a quick read. If you connect the dots, even so slightly, even better. So you will discover that other novels are not novels, but short stories connected by a thin membrane of a theme. Great article.
Amazing!..Graphic!..Thank you! We all have 'the story' or 'stories' to tell! My kindle is full of them. Your post reminds me. I want other writers to read your post as well. I want every high school kidlet to read your post as part of their English class. I want discussions in their classes to center around this very sentence, itself. Your post needs a greater distribution than is available via this site. I'll be sharing it with all the English teachers I know.
Great article. Completely agree. As the main editor for the publisher, Chicago Story Press, we only accept great stories. We can improve the writing, but we can't necessarily fix a story. Story is everything.
This is true of much good poetry, too. Even short poems. But MFAs running lit mags have been brainwashed to believe only the navel is wondrous.
Does this hold true for poetry also? I often wonder if the opposite isn't actually true for poems--that readers/gatekeepers/editors see narrative almost as naive these days while lyric/verbal razzle dazzle, that may convey nothing plot-wise, is elevated.
When I was younger I would have liked to have thought I was forgiving like the girl. But now that I am older my response was that I would have preferred for the sentence to be carried out, but not as an act of revenge. To prevent him from being able to accurately throw acid in someone's face in the future, because her forgiveness doesn't necessarily correlate at all with potential changes in his behavior and someone could be hurt in the future.
I supposed for me a takeaway is how we interpret the twists in stories as our life changes.
I am also now very curious which of my stories would come across as having the change you describe as necessary or not. I don't know if I've read stories that have no change at all, or if I had if I did not enjoy them or did enjoy them. I'll be on the look out to see.
I love this post—thank you, Christine (and Becky)! My beef about short fiction has long been the same as yours: the lack of story--or at least story as I know it. Perhaps many of the writers of recent fiction think they ARE writing a story—or perhaps they’ve been encouraged to think that by instructors of writing programs—but if they want their words to last in the minds of readers, if they care about that, they might need to revise their definition of story, along with their texts. The great writers throughout history, the ones we read over and over, have been, first and last, great storytellers.
As I read the article I thought back to my short stories and did a mental checklist as to whether someone went from point A to B in each. They did -- for the most part. I'll go back and review with that handy framework in mind. Thanks!
Great essay, and what an homage to your professor! Thank you for sharing.
I loved reading this essay. You show wise connections between great teaching and writing. Thank you, Christine.
Thank you for the reminder/prompt/kick in the ass, Christine. Great insight into some of the issues I've both encountered in my own work, and too often find in novels I struggle through.
This was profoundly helpful. I have written several short stories and they always originate with the idea of a plot. I have felt bad for this, as if they aren't "literary" enough because there is a strong emphasis on plot. I remember reading in a writing book one time that stories should develop with a character in mind first, before the plot. But I'm finding that my plot gives shape to my characters, and the character begins to shape shift in the process of writing the story.
A terrific essay with a terrific point.