The Baldwin Project: Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin
King Canute on the Sea Shore
Tuesday 16 October 2007
Monday 8 October 2007
Plagiarism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Plagiarism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Plagiarism (disambiguation).
Plagiarism (from the Latin plagiare, "to kidnap") is the practice of claiming, or implying, original authorship of (or incorporating material from) someone else's written or creative work, in whole or in part, into one's own without adequate acknowledgement.
Unlike cases of forgery, in which the authenticity of the writing, document, or some other kind of object, itself is in question, plagiarism is concerned with the issue of false attribution.
Plagiarism can also occur unconsciously; in some cultures certain forms of plagiarism are accepted because the concept can be interpreted differently.
For other uses, see Plagiarism (disambiguation).
Plagiarism (from the Latin plagiare, "to kidnap") is the practice of claiming, or implying, original authorship of (or incorporating material from) someone else's written or creative work, in whole or in part, into one's own without adequate acknowledgement.
Unlike cases of forgery, in which the authenticity of the writing, document, or some other kind of object, itself is in question, plagiarism is concerned with the issue of false attribution.
Plagiarism can also occur unconsciously; in some cultures certain forms of plagiarism are accepted because the concept can be interpreted differently.
Saturday 21 April 2007
What is a Short Story?
Marion Zimmer Bradley
(c) copyright 1996 by Marion Zimmer Bradley
When I speak of a short story, I am referring to the commercial or category short story, not the New Yorker or "literary" short story. I am dealing with the techniques for writing and selling what is known as commercial fiction. I have long contended that anyone who can write a literate English sentence can learn to write and can make a modest living writing for and selling to these markets, but it is necessary to learn a few simple rules.
These rules can be broken, and they are broken all the time in commercial fiction, but only by writers who know them so thoroughly that they know exactly how and why to substitute equivalent elements for the mandatory -- yes, I said mandatory -- elements which the editor needs to have in every story she buys.
Virtually all category fiction -- whether science fiction, romance, suspense, fantasy, adventure, western or any other category -- follows a similar outline which for convenience is known as a formula. This word has acquired very negative connotations, but basically it is a simple summing up of what experience has told editors that the readers appear to want in fiction. Writers who master this formula by giving the editor what his readers want can make a modest living anywhere, and some of them make amazing amounts of money.
Writers who ignore this formula, either out of ignorance, or because they honestly believe that creative writing must not be bound by the demands of category or formula, usually end up as starving artists -- unless they are geniuses, in which case they would not need writing technique classes.
They call their work literature, and rage against the public which does not recognize literary forms.The average reader, however, does not read for literary reasons. The average reader does not know that literary reasons exist.
The average reader -- this cannot be overemphasized if you wish to make a living at writing fiction -- reads to be entertained. And the kind of thing the reader wants has been carefully studied and seems not to have varied much since the Odyssey, the first novel in existence, three thousand years ago or so, which told how a hero struggled through many dangers to get home to his wife and family and run off the bad guys who had moved in on his preserve.
So let us examine the elements of commercial fiction.
THE ELEMENTS OF THE SHORT STORY
Most short stories work on some variation of the following (so do most novels, but the novel works at a different speed):A LIKABLE CHARACTER overcomes ALMOST INSUPERABLE ODDS and BY HIS OR HER OWN EFFORTS achieves a WORTHWHILE GOAL.Amateur stories, in general, are unsalable because:
1. The main character is NOT LIKABLE ENOUGH. Your reader wants to be able to identity with the way in which your main character, your protagonist, solves his or her problem. (There is a variation of this plot, in which an Absolute Bastard Gets What is Coming to Him, and the reader enjoys watching him come to grief; but this isn't for beginners.)
2. The odds are NOT INSUPERABLE ENOUGH, or the reader does not believe they are sufficiently insuperable. If your hero/ine goes out to fight a bear, it must not turn out to be a teeny-tiny bear cub he could put in his pocket and take home for a pet. The reader must have a REAL PROBLEM. A FAKE PROBLEM is also known as a "paper tiger."
3. The main character DOES NOT SOLVE HIS PROBLEM BY HIS OWN EFFORTS. The problem is solved FOR the character by his Fairy Godmother, the God in the Machine, or the US Cavalry coming over the hill at the last moment. This deprives the reader of a chance to sweat, struggle, cry over, empathize, suffer with, and otherwise feel the strength of the character as he fights to win out over heavy odds.
4. The RESOLUTION is too predictable, too pat; the reader knows all along that Our Hero will win the ball game, the girl, the war. A subset of this is what is called the "idiot plot" -- the plot can keep going only because everybody is acting like an idiot. This is the story where all the problems could be solved by asking a simple question. "Why were you kissing that man?" "Because he is my favorite uncle." End of romantic agonies. This is also the story where the girl does not tell the police what she knows because she jumps to the conclusion that her lover is the murderer.
5. The GOAL is not worthwhile enough, or this particular audience does not see it as worthwhile. Cosmopolitan readers, for instance, would probably not be willing to weep and suffer over a housewife who would steal, lie, and cheat to get new cushions for the sofa. It is getting harder and harder (in these days of feminism) for romance writers to convince their mostly-female audience that a woman would suffer all kinds of humiliations for a man because he happens to be rich, handsome, and "romantic". On the other hand, your goal can be just too cosmic: John Wayne winning World War II all by himself, or Captain Kirk saving the Galaxy single-handed.
STARTING YOUR STORY
In the first couple of paragraphs -- certainly on the first page, unless your story is approaching novel length -- the reader will want to know the following things:
WHO is your main character? Male? Female? A rabbit or a robot, a king or a slave, a macho hero or a wimp, a sensuous siren or a tough Amazon?
WHERE is this happening? We must know whether we are in the dungeons of the Inquisition, near the canals of Mars, cruising the jungles of the Upper Amazon or the deserts of the lower Nile, in the Frozen North or the Golden West or the locker room of the local high school, backstage at the Metropolitan Opera, or in a dugout with the Yankees.
WHEN does this take place? This is especially important in the science fiction or fantasy novel, but it is also relevant to historicals, Gothics, westerns... everything, perhaps, but ordinary boy-meets-girl romance. In order to create the scenery of the story in his or her head, the reader must know almost at once whether this is today, the day after tomorrow, pre-history, the days of King Arthur or the French Revolution, fifty years ago, or "long, long ago in a Galaxy far far away...."
WHAT kind of story is this? The first page, or paragraph, of a Gothic differs enormously from the beginning of a Western, and neither could be mistaken for the first page of a romance, a fantasy, or a sword-and-sorcery adventure, all of which differ greatly from a story of hard science and technology or from a children's book. You should also establish the feel, or mood, of your story, so that the reader knows at once whether this is a funny, flip satire or a serious romance, whether it is farcical, melancholy, or tragic.Most readers know exactly what they want to read, and they expect a certain kind of story when they buy a certain kind of magazine.
The readers of Analog would be very angry if they found a sword-and-sorcery tale in their magazine, and while Ellery Queen's Mystery prints science fiction maybe once a year, that sf story has to be an sf detective story. When a reader buys a magazine, he has a very clear expectation of the kind of story he wants to read, and if he doesn't get it, he stops buying the magazine; and if the editor doesn't deliver it, the editor is out of a job. If your reader is bored or disappointed by your first page -- or paragraph -- nothing on earth will induce him to turn the page and read the second. And if the editor is bored or disappointed with page one, no reader of that magazine will ever see the story.
SELF CRITICISM: HOW TO ANALYZE YOUR STORY
Most of the elements of the short story (as well as the novelette or novel) come down to these simple elements. They seem so obvious it is hard to understand why many amateur writers never bother to think about them, far less to check them. Yet I get several manuscripts every day in which the writer pays no attention to these simple things.
So as you analyze your story, remember your likable character up against almost insuperable odds, solving his/her problem by personal effort, winning a worthwhile goal and being changed, preferably for the better, by the experience.
Remember that the editor needs good stories. If she can't find them and print them and deliver them to her public, she is back pounding pavements looking for another job. Ask yourself:
WHAT KIND OF PERSON is your main character? Can the reader identify, will the reader WANT to identify, with that particular character and his/her problems?
HOW can you best tell this person's story? First person? Third person? Omnipotent observer? Is the story funny, tragic, thoughtful, slapstick?
Where do you START your story? It is seldom right to start when the main character is born. At what point in his or her life is the protagonist facing this critical experience about which you have chosen to write, and why is it important? In general, you should get right into the action. Stories which begin with three pages of description of the weather usually lose the editor after about a page. SHOW, don't TELL, is a good motto.
WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY? Nobody, these days, wants a story which concludes "Now, the moral of this story is..."; but in general, what was your story ABOUT? What was the POINT of the story? Analyze to yourself three or four stories that you liked, and ask yourself why you liked them; what made you finish them instead of putting them down half finished and wandering away? What was the author saying? Was the story worth reading? Why or why not?
IN CONCLUSION
Most sales are lost either on the first page, where the editor simply cannot get interested enough in your story to continue reading, or on the last page, where the editor is not satisfied with the solution; the resolution is not tight enough, believable enough, or interesting enough.
Remember one thing: It is not the editor's job to try to get interested in your manuscript. She wants to find good stories, and she wants to deliver them to her public, but it's still your job to get her (or him) interested in the story you are telling, to keep the editor turning those pages until she comes to the end; you have to keep her wanting to turn those pages, wanting to find out what happens next. If she makes it that far, even if she can't buy this particular story, she'll remember your name, and next time you have something that meets her needs, you'll probably make a sale.
If the editor gets bored, nothing is easier than to stop reading, reach for a printed form, and put it on the pile for her secretary to reject. There are always more stories waiting. If she is bored with your story, she knows her readers will probably be bored too. It's her job to know what her readers want, and to deliver it to them, so they will keep coming back to her magazine for the kind of entertainment they paid their beer or movie money for.And this, guys, is where we came in.
-- Marion Zimmer Bradley
Back to Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust home page
(c) copyright 1996 by Marion Zimmer Bradley
When I speak of a short story, I am referring to the commercial or category short story, not the New Yorker or "literary" short story. I am dealing with the techniques for writing and selling what is known as commercial fiction. I have long contended that anyone who can write a literate English sentence can learn to write and can make a modest living writing for and selling to these markets, but it is necessary to learn a few simple rules.
These rules can be broken, and they are broken all the time in commercial fiction, but only by writers who know them so thoroughly that they know exactly how and why to substitute equivalent elements for the mandatory -- yes, I said mandatory -- elements which the editor needs to have in every story she buys.
Virtually all category fiction -- whether science fiction, romance, suspense, fantasy, adventure, western or any other category -- follows a similar outline which for convenience is known as a formula. This word has acquired very negative connotations, but basically it is a simple summing up of what experience has told editors that the readers appear to want in fiction. Writers who master this formula by giving the editor what his readers want can make a modest living anywhere, and some of them make amazing amounts of money.
Writers who ignore this formula, either out of ignorance, or because they honestly believe that creative writing must not be bound by the demands of category or formula, usually end up as starving artists -- unless they are geniuses, in which case they would not need writing technique classes.
They call their work literature, and rage against the public which does not recognize literary forms.The average reader, however, does not read for literary reasons. The average reader does not know that literary reasons exist.
The average reader -- this cannot be overemphasized if you wish to make a living at writing fiction -- reads to be entertained. And the kind of thing the reader wants has been carefully studied and seems not to have varied much since the Odyssey, the first novel in existence, three thousand years ago or so, which told how a hero struggled through many dangers to get home to his wife and family and run off the bad guys who had moved in on his preserve.
So let us examine the elements of commercial fiction.
THE ELEMENTS OF THE SHORT STORY
Most short stories work on some variation of the following (so do most novels, but the novel works at a different speed):A LIKABLE CHARACTER overcomes ALMOST INSUPERABLE ODDS and BY HIS OR HER OWN EFFORTS achieves a WORTHWHILE GOAL.Amateur stories, in general, are unsalable because:
1. The main character is NOT LIKABLE ENOUGH. Your reader wants to be able to identity with the way in which your main character, your protagonist, solves his or her problem. (There is a variation of this plot, in which an Absolute Bastard Gets What is Coming to Him, and the reader enjoys watching him come to grief; but this isn't for beginners.)
2. The odds are NOT INSUPERABLE ENOUGH, or the reader does not believe they are sufficiently insuperable. If your hero/ine goes out to fight a bear, it must not turn out to be a teeny-tiny bear cub he could put in his pocket and take home for a pet. The reader must have a REAL PROBLEM. A FAKE PROBLEM is also known as a "paper tiger."
3. The main character DOES NOT SOLVE HIS PROBLEM BY HIS OWN EFFORTS. The problem is solved FOR the character by his Fairy Godmother, the God in the Machine, or the US Cavalry coming over the hill at the last moment. This deprives the reader of a chance to sweat, struggle, cry over, empathize, suffer with, and otherwise feel the strength of the character as he fights to win out over heavy odds.
4. The RESOLUTION is too predictable, too pat; the reader knows all along that Our Hero will win the ball game, the girl, the war. A subset of this is what is called the "idiot plot" -- the plot can keep going only because everybody is acting like an idiot. This is the story where all the problems could be solved by asking a simple question. "Why were you kissing that man?" "Because he is my favorite uncle." End of romantic agonies. This is also the story where the girl does not tell the police what she knows because she jumps to the conclusion that her lover is the murderer.
5. The GOAL is not worthwhile enough, or this particular audience does not see it as worthwhile. Cosmopolitan readers, for instance, would probably not be willing to weep and suffer over a housewife who would steal, lie, and cheat to get new cushions for the sofa. It is getting harder and harder (in these days of feminism) for romance writers to convince their mostly-female audience that a woman would suffer all kinds of humiliations for a man because he happens to be rich, handsome, and "romantic". On the other hand, your goal can be just too cosmic: John Wayne winning World War II all by himself, or Captain Kirk saving the Galaxy single-handed.
STARTING YOUR STORY
In the first couple of paragraphs -- certainly on the first page, unless your story is approaching novel length -- the reader will want to know the following things:
WHO is your main character? Male? Female? A rabbit or a robot, a king or a slave, a macho hero or a wimp, a sensuous siren or a tough Amazon?
WHERE is this happening? We must know whether we are in the dungeons of the Inquisition, near the canals of Mars, cruising the jungles of the Upper Amazon or the deserts of the lower Nile, in the Frozen North or the Golden West or the locker room of the local high school, backstage at the Metropolitan Opera, or in a dugout with the Yankees.
WHEN does this take place? This is especially important in the science fiction or fantasy novel, but it is also relevant to historicals, Gothics, westerns... everything, perhaps, but ordinary boy-meets-girl romance. In order to create the scenery of the story in his or her head, the reader must know almost at once whether this is today, the day after tomorrow, pre-history, the days of King Arthur or the French Revolution, fifty years ago, or "long, long ago in a Galaxy far far away...."
WHAT kind of story is this? The first page, or paragraph, of a Gothic differs enormously from the beginning of a Western, and neither could be mistaken for the first page of a romance, a fantasy, or a sword-and-sorcery adventure, all of which differ greatly from a story of hard science and technology or from a children's book. You should also establish the feel, or mood, of your story, so that the reader knows at once whether this is a funny, flip satire or a serious romance, whether it is farcical, melancholy, or tragic.Most readers know exactly what they want to read, and they expect a certain kind of story when they buy a certain kind of magazine.
The readers of Analog would be very angry if they found a sword-and-sorcery tale in their magazine, and while Ellery Queen's Mystery prints science fiction maybe once a year, that sf story has to be an sf detective story. When a reader buys a magazine, he has a very clear expectation of the kind of story he wants to read, and if he doesn't get it, he stops buying the magazine; and if the editor doesn't deliver it, the editor is out of a job. If your reader is bored or disappointed by your first page -- or paragraph -- nothing on earth will induce him to turn the page and read the second. And if the editor is bored or disappointed with page one, no reader of that magazine will ever see the story.
SELF CRITICISM: HOW TO ANALYZE YOUR STORY
Most of the elements of the short story (as well as the novelette or novel) come down to these simple elements. They seem so obvious it is hard to understand why many amateur writers never bother to think about them, far less to check them. Yet I get several manuscripts every day in which the writer pays no attention to these simple things.
So as you analyze your story, remember your likable character up against almost insuperable odds, solving his/her problem by personal effort, winning a worthwhile goal and being changed, preferably for the better, by the experience.
Remember that the editor needs good stories. If she can't find them and print them and deliver them to her public, she is back pounding pavements looking for another job. Ask yourself:
WHAT KIND OF PERSON is your main character? Can the reader identify, will the reader WANT to identify, with that particular character and his/her problems?
HOW can you best tell this person's story? First person? Third person? Omnipotent observer? Is the story funny, tragic, thoughtful, slapstick?
Where do you START your story? It is seldom right to start when the main character is born. At what point in his or her life is the protagonist facing this critical experience about which you have chosen to write, and why is it important? In general, you should get right into the action. Stories which begin with three pages of description of the weather usually lose the editor after about a page. SHOW, don't TELL, is a good motto.
WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY? Nobody, these days, wants a story which concludes "Now, the moral of this story is..."; but in general, what was your story ABOUT? What was the POINT of the story? Analyze to yourself three or four stories that you liked, and ask yourself why you liked them; what made you finish them instead of putting them down half finished and wandering away? What was the author saying? Was the story worth reading? Why or why not?
IN CONCLUSION
Most sales are lost either on the first page, where the editor simply cannot get interested enough in your story to continue reading, or on the last page, where the editor is not satisfied with the solution; the resolution is not tight enough, believable enough, or interesting enough.
Remember one thing: It is not the editor's job to try to get interested in your manuscript. She wants to find good stories, and she wants to deliver them to her public, but it's still your job to get her (or him) interested in the story you are telling, to keep the editor turning those pages until she comes to the end; you have to keep her wanting to turn those pages, wanting to find out what happens next. If she makes it that far, even if she can't buy this particular story, she'll remember your name, and next time you have something that meets her needs, you'll probably make a sale.
If the editor gets bored, nothing is easier than to stop reading, reach for a printed form, and put it on the pile for her secretary to reject. There are always more stories waiting. If she is bored with your story, she knows her readers will probably be bored too. It's her job to know what her readers want, and to deliver it to them, so they will keep coming back to her magazine for the kind of entertainment they paid their beer or movie money for.And this, guys, is where we came in.
-- Marion Zimmer Bradley
Back to Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust home page
Monday 19 March 2007
Outlets and opportunities for Writers
The Soho Theatre & Writers Centre, the Bush, The Royal Court and The National Theatre, all have proactive Literary Departments and accept unsolicited work.
Ray Bradbury: exclusive video interview
an exclusive video interview with Ray Bradbury, taken at his home in Los Angeles in 2001.
There are a dozen or so clips, each a couple of minutes long, and the range is fantastic!
He holds the record for the most rejections from the New Yorker magazine!
Any one who likes stories, on the page, the big or little screen, reading, watching, creating ... should find this a fascinating experience; like reading his books or watching his films.
There are a dozen or so clips, each a couple of minutes long, and the range is fantastic!
He holds the record for the most rejections from the New Yorker magazine!
Any one who likes stories, on the page, the big or little screen, reading, watching, creating ... should find this a fascinating experience; like reading his books or watching his films.
Saturday 17 March 2007
Dandelion Wine Reviews
Having just read a bunch of reviews, I feel the strongest urge to reread the book, but have to search for my copy, which I probably lent to some one! I guess I'll buy another, maybe to make it an annual reading filtered through my own maturity and distance from the first reading.
Ray Bradbury's moving recollection of a vanished golden era remains one of his most enchanting novels. DANDELION WINE stands out in the Bradbury literary canon as the author's most deeply personal work, a semi-autobiographical recollection of a magical small town summer in 1928.
Twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding knows Green Town, Illinois, is as vast and deep as the whole wide world that lies beyond the city limits. It is a pair of brand-new tennis shoes, the first harvest of dandelions for Grandfather's renowned intoxicant, the distant clang of the trolley's bell on a hazy afternoon.
It is yesteryear and tomorrow blended into an unforgettable always. But as young Douglas is about to discover, summer can be more than the repetition of established rituals whose mystical power holds time at bay. It can be a best friend moving away, a human time machine who can transport you back to the Civil War, or a sideshow automaton able to glimpse the bittersweet future.
Come and savor Ray Bradbury's priceless distillation of all that is eternal about boyhood and summer.
Here are a few reviews to give you a flavour....
Reviewer:
Ellie Reasoner This book is Bradbury in top form. Although not my absolute favorite title by this author, I have found a lot of joy over the years in re-reading this little book that I first picked up off a school library shelf when I was eight. It's obvious Bradbury was writing a story set in the time and place of his own childhood "as it should have been" and it makes me wonder if given time I'll think back on my own youth in similar terms. When I was little, after I read this book, all anyone had to do was say, "Watch out for Lonely One" referring to the killer who stalked Green Town's ravine at night and I was good and scared. Heck, that probably works today, too. From its unique May-December romance to its protagonist who becomes that one soul in a million to truly understand that precious gift of what it means to be alive, Dandelion Wine is simply wonderful. Read this book and travel back with the national treasure who is Ray Bradbury to the delightful world of the fantasy-powered Midwest of the 1920's (as it should have been).
Reviewer:
Jeanette Thomas "book geek" I first read Ray Bradbury's miracle of a book, Dandelion Wine, when I was 16, and I have read it every year since. Over time I continue to gain a deeper appreciation for these lovely, strange, often magical vignettes (more properly parables, each one with a little implied moral) that explore the nature of happiness, the magic of love and, above all, what it means to be alive. To me, the overarching intent of the book is to remind all us adults that:
- Being alive means maintaining a balance between Discoveries & Revelations and Ceremonies & Rites. Though the latter are important, binding us to our family & our community, our future & our past, it is Discoveries & Revelations that make us think, experience, change, and grow.
- Being alive means living in the present. Even if this means giving away the tokens of a beloved past, as happens in one particularly poignant tale.
- Being alive means being connected with the world - with family, neighbors, your community, the earth. It's no coincidence that the mysterious murderer haunting Douglas Spaulding's Childhood is called The Lonely One.
- Being alive means being able to experience happiness ... not only understanding the nature of happiness, but possessing the wisdom not to let yourself be tricked into pursuing something that can't/won't make you happy.
- Being alive means recognizing the presence of magic in our everyday lives. Because magic is out there ... in the spring of a new pair of tennis shoes, in the mysteries of love, in the essence of Dandelion Wine.
Contrary to popular opinion, I do not believe Bradbury intended this to be a book about childhood. In fact, his 12yr old narrator, Douglas Spaulding, does not appear in many of the parables. I do think that Bradbury intentionally chose a child as his narrator, however, because children are inherently alive -- always discovering, always filled with wonder, connected to their family and the world and the present in ways that we begin gradually to forget as adults.
Dandelion Wine is both nostalgia and a cautionary tale, challenging us to remember what it felt like to be alive and reminding us adults that - unless we take care - we may become so consumed by life that we forget to be alive. As far as I am concerned, this book is a little bit of magic in and of itself: part essence of childhood, part elixir of wisdom. Believe and partake!
Reviewer:
Modest Witness Its protagonist may be a child, but this novel is not really suitable for a thrill-seeking, modern juvenile audience. Dandelion Wine is an exquisitely realised contemplation of life and mortality, but its themes are both too subtle and too layered for a young reader. That's fine, really. This is a novel to be anticipated and appreciated as the reader matures. As I grow older, and with each subsequent reading, I discover a deeper melancholy and richer ironies inthe text - so that rereading this book has become a special summer ritual for me.
and here's someone who less than enchanted!
Reviewer:
J. W. Bennett "waxy_one" I'm a new fan of Bradbury. I love the incomparable Something Wicked This Way Comes and a whole heap of his short stories, The Illustrated Man and Golden Apples of the Sun to name my favourites so far. I came to Dandelion Wine expecting to be mesmerised, but sadly, I just found the book was too easy to put down and rather hard to pick up again. There are some great ideas and interesting imagery, but the whole lacks a narrative thread to entice more thrill-seeking readers, and in the end, after four of five chapters, I just found the whole thing a little...well, dated. In no way should this put people off Ray Bradbury. Those seeking a semi-romance about the state of childhood could do worse than to read Dandelion Wine. For me though, I much prefer his fantastical and dark works, and in the end, Dandelion Wine became too sweet and cloying for my tastes.
Wednesday 14 March 2007
What is a Short Story
Short Story?
From Marion Zimmer Bradley
The following extracts(c) copyright 1996 by Marion Zimmer Bradley, are from an excellent article that goes into much greater detail.
I want these snippets to give you a taste, an overview that will sharpen your appetite to read the whole item, which offers advice related to almost any genre of creative writing!
Marion Zimmer Bradley says:
When I speak of a short story, I am referring to the commercial or category short story, not the New Yorker or "literary" short story. I am dealing with the techniques for writing and selling what is known as commercial fiction. I have long contended that anyone who can write a literate English sentence can learn to write and can make a modest living ...
Virtually all category fiction -- whether science fiction, romance, suspense, fantasy, adventure, western or any other category -- follows a similar outline which for convenience is known as a formula. This word has acquired very negative connotations, but basically it is a simple summing up of what experience has told editors that the readers appear to want in fiction. Writers who master this formula by giving the editor what his readers want can make a modest living anywhere, and some of them make amazing amounts of money. Writers who ignore this formula, either out of ignorance, or because they honestly believe that creative writing must not be bound by the demands of category or formula, usually end up as starving artists -- unless they are geniuses, in which case they would not need writing technique classes. They call their work literature, and rage against the public which does not recognize literary forms.
So let us examine the elements of commercial fiction.
THE ELEMENTS OF THE SHORT STORY
Most short stories work on some variation of the following (so do most novels, but the novel works at a different speed):
A LIKABLE CHARACTER overcomes ALMOST INSUPERABLE ODDS and BY HIS OR HER OWN EFFORTS achieves a WORTHWHILE GOAL.
Amateur stories, in general, are unsalable because:
1. The main character is NOT LIKABLE ENOUGH. Your reader wants to
2. The odds are NOT INSUPERABLE ENOUGH, or the reader does not believe
3. The main character DOES NOT SOLVE HIS PROBLEM BY HIS OWN EFFORTS. The problem is solved FOR the character by
4. The RESOLUTION is too predictable, too pat; the reader knows all along that
5. The GOAL is not worthwhile enough, or this particular audience does not see it as
STARTING YOUR STORY
In the first couple of paragraphs -- certainly on the first page, unless your story is approaching novel length -- the reader will want to know the following things:
WHO is your main character?
WHERE is this happening?
WHEN does this take place?
WHAT kind of story is this?
SELF CRITICISM: HOW TO ANALYZE YOUR STORY
Most of the elements of the short story (as well as the novelette or novel) come down to these simple elements.
So as you analyze your story, remember your likable character up against
WHAT KIND OF PERSON is your main character?
HOW can you best tell this person's story?
Where do you START your story?
WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY? Nobody, these days, wants
IN CONCLUSION
Most sales are lost either on the first page, where the editor simply cannot get interested enough in your story to continue reading, or on the last page, where the editor is not satisfied with the solution; the resolution is not tight enough, believable enough, or interesting enough.
Remember one thing: It is not the editor's job to try to get interested in your manuscript. ...it's still your job to get her (or him) interested in the story you are telling, to keep the editor turning those pages until she comes to the end; you have to
.
If the editor gets bored, nothing is easier than to stop reading, ... There are always more stories waiting.
And this, guys, is where we came in.
From Marion Zimmer Bradley
The following extracts(c) copyright 1996 by Marion Zimmer Bradley, are from an excellent article that goes into much greater detail.
I want these snippets to give you a taste, an overview that will sharpen your appetite to read the whole item, which offers advice related to almost any genre of creative writing!
Marion Zimmer Bradley says:
When I speak of a short story, I am referring to the commercial or category short story, not the New Yorker or "literary" short story. I am dealing with the techniques for writing and selling what is known as commercial fiction. I have long contended that anyone who can write a literate English sentence can learn to write and can make a modest living ...
Virtually all category fiction -- whether science fiction, romance, suspense, fantasy, adventure, western or any other category -- follows a similar outline which for convenience is known as a formula. This word has acquired very negative connotations, but basically it is a simple summing up of what experience has told editors that the readers appear to want in fiction. Writers who master this formula by giving the editor what his readers want can make a modest living anywhere, and some of them make amazing amounts of money. Writers who ignore this formula, either out of ignorance, or because they honestly believe that creative writing must not be bound by the demands of category or formula, usually end up as starving artists -- unless they are geniuses, in which case they would not need writing technique classes. They call their work literature, and rage against the public which does not recognize literary forms.
So let us examine the elements of commercial fiction.
THE ELEMENTS OF THE SHORT STORY
Most short stories work on some variation of the following (so do most novels, but the novel works at a different speed):
A LIKABLE CHARACTER overcomes ALMOST INSUPERABLE ODDS and BY HIS OR HER OWN EFFORTS achieves a WORTHWHILE GOAL.
Amateur stories, in general, are unsalable because:
1. The main character is NOT LIKABLE ENOUGH. Your reader wants to
2. The odds are NOT INSUPERABLE ENOUGH, or the reader does not believe
3. The main character DOES NOT SOLVE HIS PROBLEM BY HIS OWN EFFORTS. The problem is solved FOR the character by
4. The RESOLUTION is too predictable, too pat; the reader knows all along that
5. The GOAL is not worthwhile enough, or this particular audience does not see it as
STARTING YOUR STORY
In the first couple of paragraphs -- certainly on the first page, unless your story is approaching novel length -- the reader will want to know the following things:
WHO is your main character?
WHERE is this happening?
WHEN does this take place?
WHAT kind of story is this?
SELF CRITICISM: HOW TO ANALYZE YOUR STORY
Most of the elements of the short story (as well as the novelette or novel) come down to these simple elements.
So as you analyze your story, remember your likable character up against
WHAT KIND OF PERSON is your main character?
HOW can you best tell this person's story?
Where do you START your story?
WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY? Nobody, these days, wants
IN CONCLUSION
Most sales are lost either on the first page, where the editor simply cannot get interested enough in your story to continue reading, or on the last page, where the editor is not satisfied with the solution; the resolution is not tight enough, believable enough, or interesting enough.
Remember one thing: It is not the editor's job to try to get interested in your manuscript. ...it's still your job to get her (or him) interested in the story you are telling, to keep the editor turning those pages until she comes to the end; you have to
.
If the editor gets bored, nothing is easier than to stop reading, ... There are always more stories waiting.
And this, guys, is where we came in.
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