Drafting a Short Story | Short Fiction Deep Dive #2
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- Опубліковано 25 лип 2024
- Today is the second part in our series on short fiction, and we're talking about the process of drafting a short story. Though drafting is always a crucial part of writing any piece, the process of drafting a short story can be a bit mystical and hard to pin down! So instead of one method, we'll be discussing five different methods you can try, and a few tips to write the strongest draft possible.
Short Fiction Deep Dive #1- Elements of a Short Story: • Conceptualizing a Shor...
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
1:26 - Outlining
3:24 - The flashlight method
6:40 - Line by line
9:10 - Freewriting
11:15 - Endpoint
13:23 - TIP: Everything should contribute
13:41 - TIP: Keep the timeline short
14:13 - TIP: The inciting incident
14: 29 - TIP: End quickly
14:47 - TIP: Minimize your fast
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I’m homeschooled and I’m doing this for my writing class ❤
Nice to find this video seven hours after it got uploaded and the channel
in general! Thank You and Good Luck
The stranger
It was a cold funeral indeed. The entire congregation seemed uninterested except for one man, the stranger. Dressed in all black he sat alone at the very last row in the church, almost as if he was watching how the funeral would play out. He had the physique of a skillful biker and the scarcity of a ghost. He disappeared every ten minutes only to return to his exact seat as if he never left. He definitely stood out from the rest of us being that he was the only one who genuinely looked upset and spent the most time viewing the body. Nobody recognised him but at some stage we all noticed him. The man with the thick scar on his left eye. A very shady looking character. I can't say I was surprised. Tony had many suspicious friends. A part of me was patiently waiting for him to hold us at gunpoint and claim Tony owed him money. Wouldn't be the first time. Nonetheless we sat through the service and this mysterious man kept disappearing and reappearing. After the long-winded ceremony we made our way to the cemetry. Moments after our arrival came the hard rain. I signaled the preacher to make it quick because we hadnt anticipated the rain and didnt have a camp. Around this time the man in the leather jacket was nowhere to be found. We lowered the casket into the ground as the crowd slowly dispersed. Much to my surprise the mysterious guy showed up again and stood alongside Tony' s grave, totally unbothered with the heavy rain. I was almost in my car before I turned around and decided to approach this strange character.
"I'm sorry, how did you know my husband?"
He sighed before anxiously replying "He was my father."
Great video! I personally tend to use the freewrite method to write my short stories. I can attest to the fact there will be plenty of editing. I often inadvertently write a sort zero draft to figure out the story, then completely rewrite it on e I've figured out how I want it all to play out. I enjoy editing short stories, so the method works well for me.
I may try out some of the other methods anyways, just for the sake of trying them.
You know, writing advice videos are always encouraging having action, circling back, having character motivation. All that sounds like great advice to me. But when I read literary magazines and contest winners, there’s rarely much or any action in the stories, they don’t have an ending with a circle back, and they more resemble a drifting raft than a ship to get somewhere. I’m so puzzled by what gets published. I put my short stories on Medium sometimes and I notice that my stories that, say, had shortlisted in a contest, go nowhere on Medium. People are not interested in them. But the ones that lost completely with no recognition, they often do really great, with very high read-through (that is, the majority of people who start reading the story finish reading it). I don’t understand it. I struggle to get published and the stuff I see getting published/winning contests often feels pointless and not very engaging. I don’t know whether to start writing like that or to just stick with my insistence on writing short stories people who aren’t literary magazine editors would read. To be clear, I’m not writing genre fiction, I’m a literary fiction reader and writer, my biggest influences are Curtis Sittenfeld, Margaret Atwood, James McBride, Tobias Wolfe, etc.
I would say to write in the style that best suits your subject matter, and it might vary story to story. It's very hard to teach a wandering, drifting, plot-less style of fiction, which is why you often read that style in magazines but never see it talked about by instructors. I also enjoy and write that style of fiction, but didn't teach it in this series because it's almost impossible to teach since by nature, it's essentially 'plotless.' Many of the same principles apply, but in much subtler, less obvious ways in those types of stories, but it's hard to teach and explain, though you're very right that this style of short fiction is quite popular. I wouldn't make your decision based on what seems to do well and win contests, but rather which style of plot would work best for each individual concept. Making those intentional decisions is the most important part of short fiction, especially literary short fiction, so if your concept would best suit a more wandery, aimless style go for it, but if it would best fit a more structured, punchy structure, go for that. In general, if you don't feel engaged by the work published in a certain magazine, that magazine is probably not the best outlet for your work. If you can find magazines that publish work you enjoy, they are much more likely to enjoy your work as well and are probably the better target audience for your work.
Magazine editor pick what they like and fits the magazine. You might want to find magazines that print what you like to read.
@@loydjenkins2241 Counter complaint: there are none.
Thank you for this video 👏🏻
These are so informative, thanks!
These short fiction videos are awesome. 😀❤
Shaelin, this is your neighbor and I love my chickens no matter what you say... 🤣
Kidding aside, I always love your videos and this is great content!
I am intrigued by this goal to steal the chicken. I am completely on board that if the chickens are annoying, then something must be done. I would like to know though, what do you plan on doing with the chicken once stolen.
Also, I love your videos. Whenever I need a little inspiration to write, I watch them.
Basically a spectrum between plotting and pantsing, alright.
It happened to me more than once than my idea for a short story just kept expanding as I thought up more plotlines, more characters, more events and morals... So when I spot that happening I rework the story into a novel idea :P
minimize your fast is good advice as well
you are a genius :)
Hi great work 💪
I'm not that much of a pantser/freewriter. However, I often find that my short stories start to rebel against me when I try and force it to obey my structure. The idea that I should let the story breathe as I'm writing it is very solid advice, since I was having issues with pacing, since where I expected it to go was not where it ended.
I am struggling with the same thing.
Hiiii
1st 😃
I wrote a story a good while ago that kind of breaks in half right in the middle, but I think it is necessary for the story to do that. I don't know if this problem is correctable, but if I corrected the story it might be a different story.
I suggest providing written feedback on written short stories. Skill can not really be learned only by knowing the techniques or tips. please, make it like a class so that those who are interested in learning how to write can benefit!
My character is on his way to a funeral looking back on experiences with the deceased. Do you tell it in third person memories or can you flashback and tell action and converations in real time?
Regarding number of characters, does this include referenced characters who never appear? These occur in most of my fiction. I can easily have only one or two characters who are actually present in a story, but others would be talked or thought of, and often, named. That isn't even a minor character, in the usual sense (although minor characters aren't so much a thing in shorts...!)
I usually wouldn't count a referenced character among the main cast!
👍
Oh god I am still only halfway thru the video but you're talking about stealing chickens when my current plotting glitch is I found the phrase in my notes "Don't forget the chicken stealing scene!" but nowhere in my plot is there anything remotely resembling a chicken-stealing scene. So that's a thing...
Bookmark 2:44
Story idea inspired by the video-2 neighbors, one has chickens and loves to eat fresh eggs for breakfast. The other neighbor is dirt poor, too poor to afford food, and loves to eat fried chicken. The story pretty well writes itself...
Write it!