28 Feb 07 |
THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT ALL
There’s a huge difference between writing a novel and creating a short story. I have a tendency to be verbose, so the structure of a novel fits me well. In it I feel I get more opportunities to bring my characters to life. I can add in a bit of their background and more of their mannerisms to give the reader a true flavor of what the character’s about. Doing the same thing, bringing a character to life I mean, in a short story takes pure damn genius in my opinion. And a genius I’m not…. At the moment, I’m working on rewrites for two shorts that will appear in an anthology this year. The anthology is titled FIVES STROKES TO MIDNIGHT, and ALL of the contributors are excellent storytellers and can make a short story sing like nobody’s business. Mine sounds like somebody’s Uncle Charles singing in the shower with a bad case of laryngitis.
Fortunately, one of the tools that has aided me along this new road of short story writing, has been a plot outline that a dear friend shared with me. It’s been invaluable in helping me get to the point of the story and stop fluffing things up so to speak. Because it’s been so useful, I thought I’d share it with all of you. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the outline comes from the infamous, master storytellers of all times….Dr. Jack Williamson.
Here’s the crux of the concept….In a 3,000 word story, for example, the beginning is about 750 words, the body about 1500 and the ending about 750 with resolution/validation taking no more than a few sentences. Thus you have said outline:
BEGINNING (3)
1. Main character
2. Disturbing situation (conflict)
3. Character’s story purpose
4. Hazards or difficulties
5. Assets essential to the ending
BODY (6)
1. Attempts to achieve purpose (usually 2-3, increasing in difficulty)
2. Results (usually 2-3, commonly failures)
3. Black (or bright) moments
ENDING (3)
1. New stimulus
2. Final conflict (one last attempt as above, usually succeeds.)
RESOLUTION/VALIDATION
So, there ya go. The perfect formula for the perfect short…..happy singin’ everyone!















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