I have stopped writing short stories since I was a child , I am not a good writer nor I have the skill and time but this video made me want to write a story rn .
@@dizzydaisies6706 I was going to say the same thing! Like drawing, writing is a skill that requires practice (and reading). And there are some great writers/artists who never feel their work is good enough. Boris (artist) always said he was never more then 50% satisfied with any work he did. (Said the paintings would always deviate away from what he wanted, but he always went with what the painting wanted to be.)
Your comment kept my interest, and I have the attention span of a goldfish, so maybe you're better than you think. The most moving short story I've read was decades ago while working nights as a security guard. Well, actually it was a dairy of someone that used to work there, I found hiden at the bottom of one of the filing cabinets. It started really cheerful and positive with daily entries. However over the space of a few months it mentioned a series of disheartening set backs and the entries got shorter and increasingly less regular. Until they stopped. I think I may have wept. I put it back where I found it and never mentioned it to anyone, until now.
One crucial piece of advice for anyone who suffers from writer's block, like I did: Separate the writing from the editing. If you try to edit as you write, you will very likely hit a writer's block. Instead, write as much as you can, then later edit what you've written, then later write some more, etc...until you are happy or at least done.
I don't entirely agree but I can see that at times it causes issues with creativity. Some editing on the fly is essentially so as to produce a flowing document. My advice is deal with the nitty gritty editing later and all should be well
@@cmaven4762I'm in the middle of a major rewrite--I've cut 30k words, built the story out with a new major character, and will cut probably another 25-30k before the editing begins. However, if there are elements I may forget, such as a character trait crucial to the plot or a necessary foreshadowing, and I know exactly where it should be added in, I'll incorporate it into an existing scene.
After playing a Zelda game, I realized that the game had an underlying story that's revealed slowly throughout the game. So I set myself a goal (experiment) to write the story behind a game. Something like 450,000 words later, I succeeded. And I have a new appreciation for the creative teams that come up with dungeons and bosses and weapons. That's hard!
I've always wanted to write a screenplay that actually focused on step 2. You had a overall plot, a very simple one that ends with police showing up. But you start seeing the same day replayed through the different perspectives of the people who live on the street. Seeing how vastly different their lives are, how some of them have secrets (ranging from harmless kid secrets to affair level) and how some of them are directly tied to what happened or completely cut off despite being right next door.
Pertaining to the 'choose a different pov' bit, one of yhe most eye opening pieces of advice i ever heard was seperating thr emotional core from the external layer. You can write a story about being bullied as a child, change it to be about aliens on mars fighting eith UFOs, and that core story is still there.
@@jimmyzhao2673 that perspective n not the same thing. With that, your idea is a good one, a really good perspective piece. Would be dope to read or watch
#Stories mentioned in this video# Sonny's Blues - James Baldwin Goodbye, Columbus - Philip Roth The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien Boys and Girls - Alice Munro The House of Aeron - Jorge Luis Borges A Good Man is Hard To Find - Flannery O'Connor Good Country People - Flannery O'Connor Where are you going Where Have you been - Joyce Carol Oates Cathedral - Raymond Carver Most Dangerous Game - Richard Connell A&P - John Updike Visit to the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan Girl - Jamaica Kincaid
i have a short story idea ive had in my head for the last 6 years and the "choose a different pov" idea sparked an drive to get back into the idea. the story revolves around a guy and his dog and that suggestion made me think about the stories i love that take place from an animal's pov (jack london stories, mainly). im sure thinking about the story from the dogs pov will help a lot, as will the other tips.
What a wonderful idea. This is unrelated, but for some reason one of my favorite childhood movies came to mind. It's called The Incredible Journey. It is a story of how a cat and two dogs set off to find their home. The owner had to go to England for several months, so he left them with a friend 300 miles from where he lived. One day the animals decide they miss their owner and take off through the Canadian wilderness to look for him. Animal adventure stories are the best. The book is by Shelia Burnford. I cannot watch the movie with out crying at the end.
I just finished a project which took me over 14 years to write, based on the Canterbury Tales but reimagined in a sci-fi setting. There were 12 tales, plus the final tale which was about the narrator and which sort of tied the thing together. I gave each tale a colour and a theme, but I also tried to do something different with each one and experiment with form. Most were told in first person, one was in third person. Most were in past tense, one was told in present tense, one was even about about a time traveller and was told in future tense. I even managed to get a tale to be told in second person (you walk into a room) by telling a multi-path choose your own adventure type story. It was a lot of fun, but a huge amount of work as each tale took about a year to write and edit.
Kevin Ranville's formula for a great short story: 1. Things are one way at the beginning. 2. Something happens that _forces_ a character to take action. 3. Something changes in the story world, and inside one or more characters.
@@satrim_naays All stories are essentially about how something changes. But especially short stories. Usually, it's a lesson somebody learns, like the moral of a story in a fairy tale. But it could be more subtle, like a guy realizing he really does love his wife on the way to divorce court. Sometimes, the world changes, like you see in disaster movies, and people have to adapt to a new reality, so they change too. If these changes are for the better, it's a happy ending. But if you need to make a point, you could go with a sad ending, or even an angry ending. But the story should always make you think about something, and feel something. If nothing changes, it's basically just an anecdote, like a funny story about a guy going all the way to the grocery story, buying 17 things but forgetting the item he originally needed. The problem with these stories is you might get a humorous chuckle, but it doesn't mean anything. There's no law against it. But you should leave your readers with something to ponder.
So "The breakfast table had been laid crooked. Colin straightened his fork, and smiled." Is a short story by this. They say the shortest short story is "for sale: baby shoes, never worn" which doesn't follow that formula and IMO is a more powerful experience.
As a hobby writer, I enjoyed this video very much. I thought it was well done and enjoyed your style of presentation. You have given me a lot to think about and some inspiration to get back to it again. Thank you. I would appreciate a list of the authors and their short stories that you mention in this video please. 💜
Someone else in the comments made one: Sonny's Blues - James Baldwin Goodbye, Columbus - Philip Roth The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien Boys and Girls - Alice Munro The House of Aeron - Jorge Luis Borges A Good Man is Hard To Find - Flannery O'Connor Good Country People - Flannery O'Connor Where are you going Where Have you been - Joyce Carol Oates Cathedral - Raymond Carver Most Dangerous Game - Richard Connell A&P - John Updike Visit to the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan Girl - Jamaica Kincaid
Thank you so much for providing short story examples! This video has also functioned as a good reading recommendation list, and I've been enjoying the short stories I've read so far!
I recently wrote a short story using some of these, but not all of them. The ones I found I used were object: violin, ticking clock: waiting and sickness, World Event: Irish Potato Famine, Binary Forces: clinging to dreams through difficulty versus not, Experiment: I wrote this in a non-linear timeline. I entered this story into a short story contest, so we'll see how it went! I will have to try out all of them next time!
This is a brilliant video and it really helped me push a short film screenplay that I've been stuck on for 3 months. Thanks for sharing and please make more content like this
I think the brilliance of the framework is that it's not a strict step by step so much as tools for helping you amp up the drama: multiple POVs (meaning competing interests), significant objects and world events, binary forces, transitions, clocks, then making sure you arrange them so that the tension is increasing toward the end (plot structure).
My venture in short story writing has opened my writing blindness I suffered from for a while. I hardly knew how to write a sweet story besides writing insipirational books. As of now, I am open to giving out short stories ranging from 1000 words and above. I can't wait to making films/movies to blossom my writing passion like a sunflower in it's youthful stage. Love y'all.
This helped me out a lot . I am trying to write stories yet I leave them in the middle or have a great idea but could never get it on paper, this really helped me a lot because as I was writing down the process I just kept getting ideas and the possibilities became endless. I really appreciate it .
Have you considered teaming up with another writer? If you could find somebody else with half a story then they could finish yours and you could finish theirs.
Awesome podcast. Please keep doing podcasts on writers and writing. Thousands of would be writers need to know how to break into print. As an insightful edotor you can really help all of us
He mentioned Flannery O'Connor a couple times in this video. I learned about her from the arty biopic Wildcat. Then I read her prayer journal. And now I'm continuing my fascination with her through a complete short story collection. She inspires me to write, though I am trying to be a little less edgy and a little more accessible than her.
The show Silo has a delicious transitional situation where a character needs to cross a threshold that she hasn't dared pass in decades - it's a really emotionally-impactful scene (plus, it dovetails nicely with the overall theme of the show). I don't recall that scene being in the original novel (but it's been a while since I read it).
Thank you this video, it just brought these steps onto my radar, hadn't seen the article. But most importantly, your video helped me see some missing things in my screenplay that I wasn't aware were missing, but I couldn't unsee the lack once I saw it. Lol one day I'll use this for short stories, but for now, the screenwriter in me thanks you!
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie is THE prime example of book having an Unreliable Narrator. Where he actually turns out be the killer. This made me even be suspicious of Hercule Poirot's buddy Hastings involved in any ways to the books after it, because in mystery novels it could be anyone. And reading a lot and still on process on this genre has changed my perception on possibilities...
So what EXACTLY qualifies as a short story? Is there a minimum/maximum word count? Does it have to fit within a given space? Is there a "time it takes to read" qualifier?
My favourite example of using experiences is the Pathfinder series by T.A. White. She worked for the military and was deployed in Afghanistan. She said that there were places were they relied on locals to navigate the mountains and that inspired her to write the books where a woman is a pathfinder and guides people through a magical mist they would get lost in. Not a short story, but still, I loved the idea.
Hey, new-young writer here! After watching so many of your videos, I just now realized that I'm just now subscribing to your channel T_T Your videos have helped me so much with my journey has a new writer!
Hey, although I'm not a writer of fiction, this was still an interesting video. The take on "Make the narrator unreliable" reminds me of two crime novels I read where in both cases it turns out that the narrator is the murderer. The one I felt quite disappointing. The other however, was a really great ending.
I hate all the formulae for plot writing. I especially hate the "Aristotelean Arc". What is needed is character driven plots. It is about the chemistry of the constellation of characters you throw together. They should be able to write their own plots due to their interactions. What you need: 1) Characters that are interesting enough, for whatever different reasons, to spend time with. 2) Well-drawn characters, a lost art. The characters must be distinct from each other in more than superficial ways. 3) A rich constellation of characters - the selection of characters that you throw together into a situation must have a rich and productive chemistry in generating plots. If these are missing plot theories will not help much, if at all. The final magic ingredient you need is 4) "TRUTH", something much more important than the greatly over-valued 'realism'. Realism hardly matters in drama or comedy, but "TRUTH" is vital. What is "TRUTH"? It's when your reader says, "WOW! That's true!".
Great comment. Are you a "discovery" writer? I hear this sentiment from people who don't want to outline, plan, or follow any kind of structure, just want to throw some interesting people into an interesting situation, asking "What if?" I think you make great points about character and its importance, but I like looking at the story more holistically. What good is a story with Ernest Hemmingway, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Stephen Hawking if the setting is a room with white walls, and the plot is to have a 30-minute conversation? Maybe some good dialogue comes out of it, but sounds pretty boring to me. I think your #4, the TRUTH, hits on this the most. What is the truth? It's usually something about how we as people should lead better lives. To do this, we need to know the setting and situation we're in.
@@PhoenixCrown I do plan and I do love structure and plot, but I start with interesting characters. I think everything out a lot before putting anything down, I also make extensive notes in advance. To me 90% of writing takes place in my head before I put anything down. First I think of a character that I am interested in and want to spend time with. Then I ask: what do they do for a living? How do they live? Where do they live. Then I think of all the people they would have daily contact with and explore those characters in a similar way, looking for things about those characters that make them interesting. Next I ask what sort of situations do they get into with each other? To me the better part of writing is dialogue. I love dialogue driven media like plays and radio plays. To me it is dialogue that is the window to the soul, how does a character express themselves? I might plan out scenes in my head entirely in dialogue. Character, intention, motivation, all is revealed or deliberately hidden in dialogue. I sometimes like to point out that Charles Dickens' success originally depended on just one incidental character: Sam Weller. Before Weller no one had heard of or cared about Dickens' writing, but it was Weller who delighted and entertained the public and was a hit. Go and look at Weller's dialogue, because it was key to the character.
@@bhangrafan4480 First, I would like to let you know how much I appreciate your input on this video. Do you want to know how much I appreciate it? Enough to make me pause the video and read your input thoroughly AND take notes 😊 You mentioned dialogue and how it is the gate (window) to the soul. This statement is proven to be evident as you engaged in dialogue with @pheonixcrown. I absolutely enjoyed the read. It felt like I was overhearing a conversation between two people sitting close by.
Writing short stories How long or extensive do I want to make this character’s journey? Will there be side characters or subplots? Does the idea span an entire journey or just a single, significant event? Short Stories follow an event Short story, theme/truth Short stories are about delivery a specific emotional punch The MICE QUOTIENT explains all fiction and non-fiction stories, and has 4 elements Can help you determine where a story starts and where it ends and the kinds of conflicts your characters face. Milieu begins when enters a place and ends when a character leaves a place, conflicts stop your character from reaching their goal. Milieu conflicts are about the difficulty navigating that space. Trouble surviving that space. Anything about place is a milieu story. Inquiry stories are driven by questions. They begin when the character has a question and they end when they have an answer. Character stories are driven by angst. They begin when the character is unhappy and they end when they’re happy. They begin with an identity shift, a shift is how a character self-defines and they end when the character’s definition solidifies, when they have a new understanding of self. Coming of age, romances. Event stories are driven by action, when the sense of normal is disrupted and the end when there is a new status quo. An external threat. Do not allow your character restore the status quo. close each story type in turn Wizard of oz starts out in character, moves to events, then there is a milieu, followed by inquiry. After the inquiry is solved, then the milieu is solved, then the event is solved, and finally the character is solved. Character, Dorothy is dissatisfied as a farm girl Event tornado Milieu welcome to Oz Inquiry what do the ruby slippers do? From a lecture by the excellent author, Mary Robinette Kowal
I love your videos... very insightful. I'm writing a composite novel. Would you consider making a video on a 'short story cycle' novel or composite novel? Please and thanks. Keep up the good work.
My room is ghost-quiet; I could barely hear anything other than that voice in my head. I soon find myself talking out loud; _rather singing_ , ‘ *Good night, to you, good night, to me, eat all the mice, with spoiled rice* ’ I’d appreciate my wonderful voice, perfect pitch, wonderful warps, everything satisfies me; I sing all day, my voice is just in the air, but although I am wonderful at singing, I am terrible at showing confidence. I am a sophisticated person, with a dream; I wanna be a writer, cause I’m wonderful at writing; I have a passion for it. I see myself in the mirror, thinking that *I am me* and that “Cat angry because hungry, me get chucky when me hungry”
Wow! Not only does it sounds like solid advice, but it also sounds really fun to play around with different story elements this way. Thank you for fleshing this out and giving examples 🙏 And, pray, where can we read this chess short story?
At the moment I guess I lean into the experiment step most. I wait for an idea or hook to dance across my brain, and then I 'build backwards, kind of like when you know what you want the punchline or interest to be, so build a story or structure around it. Basically, I try to let the story tell me what I'm supposed to share with the reader
The algorithm sent me, and I am happy it did. These are some cool tips that I think would really help. My biggest weakness is I don't know how to correctly do the act of writing, like not ideas, themes, perspectives etc. but the actual super basics like where to use a comma and stuff, and I can't seem to find anyone teaching that. So I'm always self-concious my writing is awful even if I think the actual plot and ideas are good.
Try a free grammar checker like LanguageTool. There are others, so I suggest you try several out until you find the one that works best for you. Good luck on your writing journey!
Now I'mhyped to edit that manuscript I'm working on. It's not a short story, but this video gave me some perspective on how I could approach it's scenes and chapters. The whole project is a bit experimental and I wouldn't mind making it a sequence of short stories. Probably. Also I think I can edit my flash fiction with this approach to make the stories more compelling.
Before you attempt to write short stories or novels --- read Stephen King's book "On Writing". He has everything you need to know. Secondly, read a huge amount of other writers, as King does.
In the first step. Many writers are afraid to write about their own experiences, fearing that their lives are too mundane. But the key is to extract the essence of an experience and transform it into something compelling. For example, I created a comic book about a mercenary PMC agency with members ranked by playing card suits, inspired by my own experiences as a lifelong freelancer (the original term means exactly this: a mercenary). Even a seemingly mundane event like a dentist visit can be turned into something exciting or tragic.
I started writing short stories a month ago and haven't really found a process. Though I'm not new to writing. I wrote screenplays for several years. So this is really good.
Something I noticed is: the impact, events and climax of a story is directly tied to the length of it. That's why long stories can't give a satisfatory ending, like Lost.
Not quite. It’s much harder to do, but with proper planning a highly satisfactory ending can be made from a longer story, oftentimes leaving the reader with greater satisfaction than a short story could. This is why people love a good book, movie, or tv series that’s great all the way through
Can you do one for creative essays? I am kind of struggling with writing nonfiction articles. Like, I have a lot to say but can't organise it properly.
1. Write a story about something that happened to you 2. Change the Point of View 3. Create a Ticking Clock 4. Create Props/Objects 5. Create a Transitional Situation 6. Add a World Event 7. Add opposing Forces 8. Freytag's Pyramid 9. Expeirment
I was considering the example Bookfox gave of writing about chess and then considered the possibility of writing it from the POV of the King. Could be interesting.
Basic advice for any story of any length. I have heard pretty much these criteria used individually for each scene in a book (every scene must have a conflict that results in some change by the end of the scene). While I was able to tick the boxes for the novel I am writing (It did help me to better define the transition point in the story.), I am not sure how helpful this would be for a new story. For example, at random, I listened to the transition section a second time. The explanation made little sense as it was too broad. The examples actually defined the meaning. The question to ask was a practical approach, but it presumes that you have established what the status quo is in your mind. If the writer/listener has not defined that, then no transition point is possible. And no section in this video explained how to do that. I also listened a second time to the object/prop section. I would say this was decidedly weak. First, the status quo is that she is from a champion family, the cliché of the chosen one. Better an ordinary object like his favourite tie clip and then she becomes the hero of the family. The One Ring sounds like a McGuffin to me. Second, a short story may be too short to require one or allow one. Yes, modern culture is very thing oriented, but the championship ring and the One Ring are simply ways to add another character (the father and Sauron) to the mix without dialogue. This is what my prop, a gifted pendant, does in my story as well. A more important element it adds is action. Two characters just talking is boring; a prop gives them something to do and a way to say things visually instead of orally. So, I think you should do a second video and discuss all the things this approach misses.
Might I suggest you use more graphics in a video like this? For instance as you tell the steps, show them in text, maybe with numbers. I found it hard to distinguish between the 9 Points.
Did you know that someone wrote an entire novel which only uses one-syllable words, and also is only one very long sentence? It's called 'The Sentence', authored by Alistair Fruish.
I have stopped writing short stories since I was a child , I am not a good writer nor I have the skill and time but this video made me want to write a story rn .
Do it!! ❤ good writing is the product of practice and revision! I believe in you ❤❤❤
@@dizzydaisies6706 I was going to say the same thing!
Like drawing, writing is a skill that requires practice (and reading). And there are some great writers/artists who never feel their work is good enough. Boris (artist) always said he was never more then 50% satisfied with any work he did. (Said the paintings would always deviate away from what he wanted, but he always went with what the painting wanted to be.)
Your comment kept my interest, and I have the attention span of a goldfish, so maybe you're better than you think.
The most moving short story I've read was decades ago while working nights as a security guard. Well, actually it was a dairy of someone that used to work there, I found hiden at the bottom of one of the filing cabinets. It started really cheerful and positive with daily entries. However over the space of a few months it mentioned a series of disheartening set backs and the entries got shorter and increasingly less regular. Until they stopped. I think I may have wept. I put it back where I found it and never mentioned it to anyone, until now.
I suggest starting over again by writing a fanfiction. Something you're passionate about can hold your interest longer.
@@metsrus Thanks for the suggestion.
One crucial piece of advice for anyone who suffers from writer's block, like I did:
Separate the writing from the editing.
If you try to edit as you write, you will very likely hit a writer's block.
Instead, write as much as you can, then later edit what you've written, then later write some more, etc...until you are happy or at least done.
Very likely, but not most definently.
I can’t, I don’t know why. I just cant seem to get my inner critic to shut up.
I don't entirely agree but I can see that at times it causes issues with creativity. Some editing on the fly is essentially so as to produce a flowing document. My advice is deal with the nitty gritty editing later and all should be well
Revising vs editing.... Focus on adjusting the ideas and flow as opposed to the constructive, nitpicky aspects like grammar and spelling.
@@cmaven4762I'm in the middle of a major rewrite--I've cut 30k words, built the story out with a new major character, and will cut probably another 25-30k before the editing begins. However, if there are elements I may forget, such as a character trait crucial to the plot or a necessary foreshadowing, and I know exactly where it should be added in, I'll incorporate it into an existing scene.
After playing a Zelda game, I realized that the game had an underlying story that's revealed slowly throughout the game. So I set myself a goal (experiment) to write the story behind a game.
Something like 450,000 words later, I succeeded. And I have a new appreciation for the creative teams that come up with dungeons and bosses and weapons. That's hard!
I've always wanted to write a screenplay that actually focused on step 2. You had a overall plot, a very simple one that ends with police showing up. But you start seeing the same day replayed through the different perspectives of the people who live on the street. Seeing how vastly different their lives are, how some of them have secrets (ranging from harmless kid secrets to affair level) and how some of them are directly tied to what happened or completely cut off despite being right next door.
write it! sounds so interesting!
Sounds similar to sartres book „game over“ or whatever the english title is
That reminds me of the movie Shimmer Lake.
Reminds me of a game I recently played - Eternal Threads. Highly recommend giving it a look
Pertaining to the 'choose a different pov' bit, one of yhe most eye opening pieces of advice i ever heard was seperating thr emotional core from the external layer. You can write a story about being bullied as a child, change it to be about aliens on mars fighting eith UFOs, and that core story is still there.
Allegory.
Or imagine the movie from the Alien's perspective, ie. it, would be like the movie 'Die Hard' trying to fend off all the pesky humans coming for it.
@@jimmyzhao2673 that perspective n not the same thing. With that, your idea is a good one, a really good perspective piece. Would be dope to read or watch
Brilliant.
#Stories mentioned in this video#
Sonny's Blues - James Baldwin
Goodbye, Columbus - Philip Roth
The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
Boys and Girls - Alice Munro
The House of Aeron - Jorge Luis Borges
A Good Man is Hard To Find - Flannery O'Connor
Good Country People - Flannery O'Connor
Where are you going Where Have you been - Joyce Carol Oates
Cathedral - Raymond Carver
Most Dangerous Game - Richard Connell
A&P - John Updike
Visit to the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan
Girl - Jamaica Kincaid
You Rock! Thanks.
i have a short story idea ive had in my head for the last 6 years and the "choose a different pov" idea sparked an drive to get back into the idea. the story revolves around a guy and his dog and that suggestion made me think about the stories i love that take place from an animal's pov (jack london stories, mainly). im sure thinking about the story from the dogs pov will help a lot, as will the other tips.
I would love to read a story like this!!!
What a wonderful idea. This is unrelated, but for some reason one of my favorite childhood movies came to mind. It's called The Incredible Journey. It is a story of how a cat and two dogs set off to find their home. The owner had to go to England for several months, so he left them with a friend 300 miles from where he lived. One day the animals decide they miss their owner and take off through the Canadian wilderness to look for him. Animal adventure stories are the best. The book is by Shelia Burnford. I cannot watch the movie with out crying at the end.
I just finished a project which took me over 14 years to write, based on the Canterbury Tales but reimagined in a sci-fi setting. There were 12 tales, plus the final tale which was about the narrator and which sort of tied the thing together. I gave each tale a colour and a theme, but I also tried to do something different with each one and experiment with form. Most were told in first person, one was in third person. Most were in past tense, one was told in present tense, one was even about about a time traveller and was told in future tense. I even managed to get a tale to be told in second person (you walk into a room) by telling a multi-path choose your own adventure type story. It was a lot of fun, but a huge amount of work as each tale took about a year to write and edit.
Sounds like Cloud Atlas structure! Fun.
That's insane dude! Can I read it?
Please say we can read it somewhere?!!! Plss!!!
@@English_bean coming in 2025! Currently looking for a publisher. Or if you really can’t wait I can send you the manuscript.
@MLB9000 I would love if you could send the manuscripts, as long as you don't mind ofc. I can give you my email or one of my socials if you want
Kevin Ranville's formula for a great short story:
1. Things are one way at the beginning.
2. Something happens that _forces_ a character to take action.
3. Something changes in the story world, and inside one or more characters.
That's essentially what I do, but I sometimes venture outside of it.
@@IndianOutlaw1870 Well, this formula basically means the difference between a story and an anecdote.
Can you give an example of number 3? I don't quite understand...
@@satrim_naays All stories are essentially about how something changes. But especially short stories. Usually, it's a lesson somebody learns, like the moral of a story in a fairy tale. But it could be more subtle, like a guy realizing he really does love his wife on the way to divorce court. Sometimes, the world changes, like you see in disaster movies, and people have to adapt to a new reality, so they change too.
If these changes are for the better, it's a happy ending. But if you need to make a point, you could go with a sad ending, or even an angry ending. But the story should always make you think about something, and feel something.
If nothing changes, it's basically just an anecdote, like a funny story about a guy going all the way to the grocery story, buying 17 things but forgetting the item he originally needed. The problem with these stories is you might get a humorous chuckle, but it doesn't mean anything. There's no law against it. But you should leave your readers with something to ponder.
So "The breakfast table had been laid crooked. Colin straightened his fork, and smiled." Is a short story by this.
They say the shortest short story is "for sale: baby shoes, never worn" which doesn't follow that formula and IMO is a more powerful experience.
As a hobby writer, I enjoyed this video very much. I thought it was well done and enjoyed your style of presentation. You have given me a lot to think about and some inspiration to get back to it again. Thank you. I would appreciate a list of the authors and their short stories that you mention in this video please. 💜
Someone else in the comments made one:
Sonny's Blues - James Baldwin
Goodbye, Columbus - Philip Roth
The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
Boys and Girls - Alice Munro
The House of Aeron - Jorge Luis Borges
A Good Man is Hard To Find - Flannery O'Connor
Good Country People - Flannery O'Connor
Where are you going Where Have you been - Joyce Carol Oates
Cathedral - Raymond Carver
Most Dangerous Game - Richard Connell
A&P - John Updike
Visit to the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan
Girl - Jamaica Kincaid
This is terrific. I really like videos that can make me look at writing in a new way. Very energizing. Thanks.
Excellent!! Thank you for articulating this in very understandable terms.
Thank you so much for providing short story examples! This video has also functioned as a good reading recommendation list, and I've been enjoying the short stories I've read so far!
Oh, glad you've been reading the ones I mentioned! There's a wealth of wonderful short stories out there.
Thank you so much for providing short story examples!
I recently wrote a short story using some of these, but not all of them. The ones I found I used were object: violin, ticking clock: waiting and sickness, World Event: Irish Potato Famine, Binary Forces: clinging to dreams through difficulty versus not, Experiment: I wrote this in a non-linear timeline. I entered this story into a short story contest, so we'll see how it went!
I will have to try out all of them next time!
Hope you win the short story contest!
Thank you dear sir for explaining such precious and practical information so clearly. I am truly grateful
This is a brilliant video and it really helped me push a short film screenplay that I've been stuck on for 3 months. Thanks for sharing and please make more content like this
I think the brilliance of the framework is that it's not a strict step by step so much as tools for helping you amp up the drama: multiple POVs (meaning competing interests), significant objects and world events, binary forces, transitions, clocks, then making sure you arrange them so that the tension is increasing toward the end (plot structure).
Very well said.
My venture in short story writing has opened my writing blindness I suffered from for a while. I hardly knew how to write a sweet story besides writing insipirational books. As of now, I am open to giving out short stories ranging from 1000 words and above. I can't wait to making films/movies to blossom my writing passion like a sunflower in it's youthful stage.
Love y'all.
Either you have a way of hyping things up to infinity, or am just easily impressed. Or both... both is good.
Tin House, R.I.P..
This helped me out a lot . I am trying to write stories yet I leave them in the middle or have a great idea but could never get it on paper, this really helped me a lot because as I was writing down the process I just kept getting ideas and the possibilities became endless. I really appreciate it .
Have you considered teaming up with another writer? If you could find somebody else with half a story then they could finish yours and you could finish theirs.
Awesome podcast. Please keep doing podcasts on writers and writing. Thousands of would be writers need to know how to break into print. As an insightful edotor you can really help all of us
This is an excellent video. Thank you for sharing this advice!
You are so welcome!
Great info! Thank you for sharing. Request for future videos, could you add segments to your video for easy viewing/reviewing? Thanks!
Hi, I went ahead and added chapters! Hope that helps.
@@Bookfox thank you so much, this makes revision easier, especially for us non-native speakers ❤
okay. I like this. Hmm ticking time clock, nice. Some of these go through my mind every day. Nice video.
I am so inspired by this! I've been writing for years w no complete book.
He mentioned Flannery O'Connor a couple times in this video. I learned about her from the arty biopic Wildcat. Then I read her prayer journal. And now I'm continuing my fascination with her through a complete short story collection.
She inspires me to write, though I am trying to be a little less edgy and a little more accessible than her.
Great stuff. First time I've seen such great advice about writing a short story.
This was really well made and enjoyable, thank you! Will go and rewrite my short story now.
Wow this was extremely useful! Very easy to understand as well
I love that you wrote about a chess tournament. I am currently writing a novel based on a game of chess I won.
Han Kang is s master of changing the point of view. What a wonderful Nobel Prize winner!
The show Silo has a delicious transitional situation where a character needs to cross a threshold that she hasn't dared pass in decades - it's a really emotionally-impactful scene (plus, it dovetails nicely with the overall theme of the show). I don't recall that scene being in the original novel (but it's been a while since I read it).
Thank you this video, it just brought these steps onto my radar, hadn't seen the article. But most importantly, your video helped me see some missing things in my screenplay that I wasn't aware were missing, but I couldn't unsee the lack once I saw it. Lol one day I'll use this for short stories, but for now, the screenwriter in me thanks you!
Very welcome! I have a lot of screenwriters watch my videos, because the general principles apply to many storytelling techniques.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie is THE prime example of book having an Unreliable Narrator. Where he actually turns out be the killer. This made me even be suspicious of Hercule Poirot's buddy Hastings involved in any ways to the books after it, because in mystery novels it could be anyone. And reading a lot and still on process on this genre has changed my perception on possibilities...
So what EXACTLY qualifies as a short story? Is there a minimum/maximum word count? Does it have to fit within a given space? Is there a "time it takes to read" qualifier?
I've written about this! thejohnfox.com/2016/09/how-long-is-a-short-story/
It’s like a regular story but shorter.
@@A4000this guy’s bringing the receipts
My favourite example of using experiences is the Pathfinder series by T.A. White. She worked for the military and was deployed in Afghanistan. She said that there were places were they relied on locals to navigate the mountains and that inspired her to write the books where a woman is a pathfinder and guides people through a magical mist they would get lost in. Not a short story, but still, I loved the idea.
Will share your video with my students.
Hey, new-young writer here! After watching so many of your videos, I just now realized that I'm just now subscribing to your channel T_T Your videos have helped me so much with my journey has a new writer!
Welcome aboard! Hope all the advice helps your writing.
Many thanks for all your work.
I appreciate your insights about the pyramid/7step/whatever-structure very much
Thank you. Listening, learning.
Hey, although I'm not a writer of fiction, this was still an interesting video. The take on "Make the narrator unreliable" reminds me of two crime novels I read where in both cases it turns out that the narrator is the murderer. The one I felt quite disappointing. The other however, was a really great ending.
Thank you!
This is really helpful!!
Thanks Mister Bookfox
I hate all the formulae for plot writing. I especially hate the "Aristotelean Arc". What is needed is character driven plots. It is about the chemistry of the constellation of characters you throw together. They should be able to write their own plots due to their interactions. What you need: 1) Characters that are interesting enough, for whatever different reasons, to spend time with. 2) Well-drawn characters, a lost art. The characters must be distinct from each other in more than superficial ways. 3) A rich constellation of characters - the selection of characters that you throw together into a situation must have a rich and productive chemistry in generating plots. If these are missing plot theories will not help much, if at all. The final magic ingredient you need is 4) "TRUTH", something much more important than the greatly over-valued 'realism'. Realism hardly matters in drama or comedy, but "TRUTH" is vital. What is "TRUTH"? It's when your reader says, "WOW! That's true!".
True, but this is only one aspect. The bones he’s talking about the bones how you flush it out makes a whole different character plot story.
Great comment. Are you a "discovery" writer? I hear this sentiment from people who don't want to outline, plan, or follow any kind of structure, just want to throw some interesting people into an interesting situation, asking "What if?"
I think you make great points about character and its importance, but I like looking at the story more holistically. What good is a story with Ernest Hemmingway, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Stephen Hawking if the setting is a room with white walls, and the plot is to have a 30-minute conversation? Maybe some good dialogue comes out of it, but sounds pretty boring to me. I think your #4, the TRUTH, hits on this the most. What is the truth? It's usually something about how we as people should lead better lives. To do this, we need to know the setting and situation we're in.
@@PhoenixCrown I do plan and I do love structure and plot, but I start with interesting characters. I think everything out a lot before putting anything down, I also make extensive notes in advance. To me 90% of writing takes place in my head before I put anything down. First I think of a character that I am interested in and want to spend time with. Then I ask: what do they do for a living? How do they live? Where do they live. Then I think of all the people they would have daily contact with and explore those characters in a similar way, looking for things about those characters that make them interesting. Next I ask what sort of situations do they get into with each other? To me the better part of writing is dialogue. I love dialogue driven media like plays and radio plays. To me it is dialogue that is the window to the soul, how does a character express themselves? I might plan out scenes in my head entirely in dialogue. Character, intention, motivation, all is revealed or deliberately hidden in dialogue. I sometimes like to point out that Charles Dickens' success originally depended on just one incidental character: Sam Weller. Before Weller no one had heard of or cared about Dickens' writing, but it was Weller who delighted and entertained the public and was a hit. Go and look at Weller's dialogue, because it was key to the character.
@@bhangrafan4480
First, I would like to let you know how much I appreciate your input on this video. Do you want to know how much I appreciate it? Enough to make me pause the video and read your input thoroughly AND take notes 😊
You mentioned dialogue and how it is the gate (window) to the soul. This statement is proven to be evident as you engaged in dialogue with @pheonixcrown.
I absolutely enjoyed the read. It felt like I was overhearing a conversation between two people sitting close by.
@@totally_fitz Thanks.
Writing short stories
How long or extensive do I want to make this character’s journey?
Will there be side characters or subplots?
Does the idea span an entire journey or just a single, significant event?
Short Stories follow an event
Short story, theme/truth
Short stories are about delivery a specific emotional punch
The MICE QUOTIENT explains all fiction and non-fiction stories, and has 4 elements
Can help you determine where a story starts and where it ends and the kinds of conflicts your characters face.
Milieu begins when enters a place and ends when a character leaves a place, conflicts stop your character from reaching their goal.
Milieu conflicts are about the difficulty navigating that space. Trouble surviving that space.
Anything about place is a milieu story.
Inquiry stories are driven by questions. They begin when the character has a question and they end when they have an answer.
Character stories are driven by angst. They begin when the character is unhappy and they end when they’re happy. They begin with an identity shift, a shift is how a character self-defines and they end when the character’s definition solidifies, when they have a new understanding of self. Coming of age, romances.
Event stories are driven by action, when the sense of normal is disrupted and the end when there is a new status quo. An external threat. Do not allow your character restore the status quo.
close each story type in turn
Wizard of oz starts out in character, moves to events, then there is a milieu, followed by inquiry. After the inquiry is solved, then the milieu is solved, then the event is solved, and finally the character is solved.
Character, Dorothy is dissatisfied as a farm girl
Event tornado
Milieu welcome to Oz
Inquiry what do the ruby slippers do?
From a lecture by the excellent author, Mary Robinette Kowal
Wow! This is great!
Thank you, well presented advice on writing, The old ways work well also, read a lot, write alot and edit later. Liked and subsribed
I love your videos... very insightful. I'm writing a composite novel. Would you consider making a video on a 'short story cycle' novel or composite novel? Please and thanks. Keep up the good work.
This video is so good it got me to subscribe right away!
Thanks for joining!
My room is ghost-quiet; I could barely hear anything other than that voice in my head. I soon find myself talking out loud; _rather singing_ , ‘ *Good night, to you, good night, to me, eat all the mice, with spoiled rice* ’ I’d appreciate my wonderful voice, perfect pitch, wonderful warps, everything satisfies me; I sing all day, my voice is just in the air, but although I am wonderful at singing, I am terrible at showing confidence.
I am a sophisticated person, with a dream; I wanna be a writer, cause I’m wonderful at writing; I have a passion for it.
I see myself in the mirror, thinking that *I am me* and that “Cat angry because hungry, me get chucky when me hungry”
I like this ..start and keep going. 😊
You provided helpful information.
Thanku ❤
Wow! Not only does it sounds like solid advice, but it also sounds really fun to play around with different story elements this way. Thank you for fleshing this out and giving examples 🙏
And, pray, where can we read this chess short story?
Love the t-shirt :-)
Super helpful - thank you !
Thinking about writing makes me sweat 😂 I started journaling so next step is short story to about myself 😅
At the moment I guess I lean into the experiment step most. I wait for an idea or hook to dance across my brain, and then I 'build backwards, kind of like when you know what you want the punchline or interest to be, so build a story or structure around it.
Basically, I try to let the story tell me what I'm supposed to share with the reader
The algorithm sent me, and I am happy it did. These are some cool tips that I think would really help. My biggest weakness is I don't know how to correctly do the act of writing, like not ideas, themes, perspectives etc. but the actual super basics like where to use a comma and stuff, and I can't seem to find anyone teaching that. So I'm always self-concious my writing is awful even if I think the actual plot and ideas are good.
Try a free grammar checker like LanguageTool. There are others, so I suggest you try several out until you find the one that works best for you. Good luck on your writing journey!
Thank you for this video. Enjoyed your presentation. Will apply these steps to my new Vlog series. I think they'll work very well
Now I'mhyped to edit that manuscript I'm working on. It's not a short story, but this video gave me some perspective on how I could approach it's scenes and chapters. The whole project is a bit experimental and I wouldn't mind making it a sequence of short stories. Probably. Also I think I can edit my flash fiction with this approach to make the stories more compelling.
You can add many or all of these to long fiction, too.
You can use longer words too
I would love to write 😂😂😂😂
This is brilliant content!!
Wow, very insightful video👏👏👏
Awesome video, subscribed 😎
Thanks for the sub!
Great tips, writing a short story based off this right now!
You got this!
Before you attempt to write short stories or novels --- read Stephen King's book "On Writing". He has everything you need to know. Secondly, read a huge amount of other writers, as King does.
In the first step. Many writers are afraid to write about their own experiences, fearing that their lives are too mundane. But the key is to extract the essence of an experience and transform it into something compelling. For example, I created a comic book about a mercenary PMC agency with members ranked by playing card suits, inspired by my own experiences as a lifelong freelancer (the original term means exactly this: a mercenary).
Even a seemingly mundane event like a dentist visit can be turned into something exciting or tragic.
This video is gold!
I started writing short stories a month ago and haven't really found a process. Though I'm not new to writing. I wrote screenplays for several years. So this is really good.
Loved this.
#2 This makes great photography advice, too. How many photos have you seen from ground level (pet's pov) or straight down (the drone shot)?
Something I noticed is: the impact, events and climax of a story is directly tied to the length of it. That's why long stories can't give a satisfatory ending, like Lost.
Not quite. It’s much harder to do, but with proper planning a highly satisfactory ending can be made from a longer story, oftentimes leaving the reader with greater satisfaction than a short story could. This is why people love a good book, movie, or tv series that’s great all the way through
Never let the truth stand in the way of a great story. ❤
14:43 My favorite example of an unreliable narrator comes from What The Hell Did I Just Read when it switches to John’s perspective
Consider the Fichtean Curve framework.
"Or the gun's point of view." See Jethro Tull's "I'm Your Gun."
John Gardner rewrote Beowulf from Grendel's POV.
Its a way useful for that person per se .... We can listen and learn , and then we should put in practice our own methods ...
Hey, bookfox. I'm writing my first novel right now and i know it's not the best idea but it's a multi narrative book. PLEASE give tips!!
i like your t shirt and your energetic speech that holds my interest
Thank you so much
Can you do one for creative essays? I am kind of struggling with writing nonfiction articles. Like, I have a lot to say but can't organise it properly.
Interesting. I'll try this :D
1. Write a story about something that happened to you
2. Change the Point of View
3. Create a Ticking Clock
4. Create Props/Objects
5. Create a Transitional Situation
6. Add a World Event
7. Add opposing Forces
8. Freytag's Pyramid
9. Expeirment
I was considering the example Bookfox gave of writing about chess and then considered the possibility of writing it from the POV of the King. Could be interesting.
This has been Incredibly helpful, Thank you. KCP
Very good! So, how can I use it for writing narrative stories for games?
Thank you!❤
Basic advice for any story of any length. I have heard pretty much these criteria used individually for each scene in a book (every scene must have a conflict that results in some change by the end of the scene). While I was able to tick the boxes for the novel I am writing (It did help me to better define the transition point in the story.), I am not sure how helpful this would be for a new story. For example, at random, I listened to the transition section a second time. The explanation made little sense as it was too broad. The examples actually defined the meaning. The question to ask was a practical approach, but it presumes that you have established what the status quo is in your mind. If the writer/listener has not defined that, then no transition point is possible. And no section in this video explained how to do that.
I also listened a second time to the object/prop section. I would say this was decidedly weak. First, the status quo is that she is from a champion family, the cliché of the chosen one. Better an ordinary object like his favourite tie clip and then she becomes the hero of the family. The One Ring sounds like a McGuffin to me. Second, a short story may be too short to require one or allow one. Yes, modern culture is very thing oriented, but the championship ring and the One Ring are simply ways to add another character (the father and Sauron) to the mix without dialogue. This is what my prop, a gifted pendant, does in my story as well. A more important element it adds is action. Two characters just talking is boring; a prop gives them something to do and a way to say things visually instead of orally.
So, I think you should do a second video and discuss all the things this approach misses.
A link to the article would be useful
It's okay to take a breath between all these concepts....
3:08 shout out Nasir “Nas” Jones… the greatest to ever do it🙌🏾
I wonder how much it would work with a longer story
Good ideaqs. Thanks.
Thanks
Might I suggest you use more graphics in a video like this? For instance as you tell the steps, show them in text, maybe with numbers. I found it hard to distinguish between the 9 Points.
But at the beginning of each of the 9 sections, I did use text and use numbers. Am I misunderstanding what you're asking for?
Did you know that someone wrote an entire novel which only uses one-syllable words, and also is only one very long sentence? It's called 'The Sentence', authored by Alistair Fruish.
I WALK A LONELY ROAD!