Many of these are actually helpful to my novel, especially in regard to endings. Long story short (no pun intended), every chapter needs to function as a short story due to how my main character observes the minute details of her life.
Can't wait for part 2! I'm new to short fiction writing and your advice has been super helpful to me. Thanks for telling me to basically get out of my head and just write. I'm a huuuge overthinker, if it wasn't already clear.
Shaelin, I love writing short stories. I feel like novels follow a character’s journey, while short stories are the experiences within an event. I appreciate the symbolism of the garden in your short story, Cherry and Jane in the Garden of Eden and it reminds me of thoughts I have had when writing stories. Christmas in my short story, The Christmas Party is meaningful to my character. Ending a short story well is the most important part of a story I feel. I love you
My process: 1. Brief character idea + concept point. 2. Take a shower and figure out how this character would handle the situation. 3. Write the entire rough draft in one session without worrying about quality. 4. Cut the story up into point form; figuring out all the parts of the story. 5. Write my outline. 6. Write my Alpha draft. 7. Hand it over to the producer/editor, and do drafts/edits as required. I get the 100% off marriage discount :)
Some pretty solid advice, Shaelin. Having edited for some publications in the past, one of the things I think many writers struggle with is not whether something is a short story or flash fiction, but whether something is flash fiction or poetry. Very often I've seen pieces listed as fiction that were really poetic vignettes or scenes without story, arc, or development. Good writing, some of it, but I don't think the writer really knew what it was. My advice, if there's a story in there, bring it out beyond it's flash-esque form and tell us a story. If it's not a story, then contemplate the poetry in the piece and see if labeling or restructuring it into a a poem will satisfy you.
Okay this is so true and such a good point!! Flash fiction and prose poems can overlap so much that is really is hard to distinguish the two sometimes.
I have watched last week's confidence video and this one today, and I appreciate you taking the time to share your experience given I was going through much of the same thing and asking myself the same questions. Thank you!
Excellent video. You will make a wonderful teacher when you decide to start teaching. If your community has a skills exchange program you could do a wonderful course on Short Fiction and it might give you a second or third income. Steven King says the story determines the length. He's had novels that started as short stories, and short stories that started as a novel. Short stories were his first love and many of them have made great films.
I started writing a short (4 page) story. It has lead me to a 200+ page novel, and has become THE story, if no other, I hope people read and share. Thank you for your great advice and time. ✨
Could you do a video on screenwriting? I cant find any videos from writers, it's always about the idea and never about actually writing. I have an idea for a TV show I really want to write but I'm struggling with how and where to start and I have no people around me who can help! Or if you know anyone who does those videos that would be great too! Thanks
This would be cool! Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to because it could impact my ability to publish the story in the future, and I don't think I'd be comfortable or able to write a story while live-streaming! Writing is a pretty personal, intimate process and so I don't think it would be possible to write anything good while having thousands of people watching my first draft live haha.
Hi Shaelin, thank you for all you do on your channel. Please, please, please make a video on publishing contracts and the terms that an author must absolutely include in their contract and the ones they shouldn't agree to.
@@dariakey5318 Usually, but they're very straightforward, nothing like the contract for signing a novel which is a lot more complicated and I have no experience with.
Great video. I love to write on the flash fiction, short story borderline. 900 to 1.5k words is my usual, most natural length. I definitely agree with the advice about writing the story, and letting it find its own length. Whether it turns out to be this or that length may have an impact later, if you want to submit to a publication. Other than that, it doesn't much matter. I also wish people wouldn't call the microfiction they post on Twitter, sometimes called Twitterature, "flash fiction", as this causes confusion. Flash is usually at least a few hundred words in length. The Twitter shorts are their own achievement, of course. I wish I could write them, as I'm sure it would help me to be successful on the platform, but alas...!
Ephiny Gale has a very useful video on finding a market to which to submit a story. It was helpful to see the process of actually finding a marker and submitting to it. Next time you're submitting a short story, would it be possible to do this for a video? I really struggle with finding appropriate markets and I'm ok with rejections now, but it still makes me wonder if I'm meant to be a writer every time it happens. I think submitting to appropriate markets would help with that. Thank you for this, and the confidence video! :-)
This was most illuminating to me as a reader of stories. Thanks. I did not think enough about stories being in conversation with each other, but read them in collections as discrete and stand alone. Frank O'Connor's collections *Crab Apple Jelly* and *The Collar: Stories of Irish Priests* have a clear pattern in the carpet. So do *A Good Man is Hard to Find* and *Everything That Rises Must Converse* by Flannery O'Connor. And of course Ray Carver's *Cathedral* (with the last one about Chekhov's death: a story about a great short story writer). I must reread Katherine Govier's *Fables of Brunswick Avenue* as well as early Alice Munro and Bharati Mukherjee, writers I love There is also a collection by Clark Blaise *Resident Alien* with an introductory essay: Where do stories come from, what is their source? And there is *The Lost Salt Gift of Blood* by Alistair MacLeod which even I could see were linked thematically by sense of place. *The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy* (2013 Livewright) were described as a ten-pound box of poison chocolates, and Purdy had such a bleak anti-American vision that he could not get published in his last years. There are online articles including Xmas With James Purdy. Just a thought, but I wonder if a volume of stories could have no theme, stories seen as freaks and misfits? An idea that definitely belongs in Purdyia country.
James Joyce's collection Dubliners has the theme of paralyzation as the connective tissue between the stories. As for a collection of freaks and misfits, isn't that normally called the author's "lesser work?" I actually just did an interview with an author who published a collection she called "Her Lesser Work," poking fun of the idea that anything that stems from an artist is lesser (less them). Elizabeth Ellen is the author if you're interested - just careful about looking up the book since the cover image is probably NSFW.
@@authorgreene I wanted to thank you for recommending Elizabeth Allen's collection, Lesser Work. Yes, once he had escaped Ireland in the company of Nora Barnacle, Joyce looked back on life there as paralysing. The Dubliners would have been published years earlier if the stupid printer had not objected to the book's content. In the last story, Gabriel feels immobilised by his wife's story of Michael Furey's love for her: the connective tissue. There is that haunting line, 'Yes, snow was general all over Ireland.' Joyce said that 50 miles outside Dublin he was lost: Nora introduced him to the West, where Michael Furey lay buried. Penguin has published a centennial edition of The Dubliners with a foreword by Colum McCann. Penguin also reprinted Portrait of an Artist with back page notes by Seamus Deane and an intro by Karl Ove Knausgaard. By stories designated as freaks and misfits I did not mean the author's lesser work, but rather her unclassifiable work. I am sure that Shaelin will do a vlog about this one day. A book of stories that are not in conversation with each other (to borrow Shaelin's memorable phrase) has its attractions too. I am thinking of Gordon Lish's collection *What I Know So Far* and Harold Brodkey's *Stories in an Almost Classical Mode*. I am also thinking of stories which are conversing with each other but in some esoteric language like Kabbala. I am thinking of Sarah Vincent's self-published *The Gingerbread Wife* a Welsh writer, see www.sarahkvincent.co.uk Also, Mike McCormack's collection *Getting it in the Head* - and his novels *Notes From A Coma* and *Solar Bones*. Also, Ann Quin's *Passages* and *Passages* - author of *Berg* who drowned herself in 1973, a terrible waste. See *Women Writers and Experimental Narratives* edited by Kate Aughterson and Deborah Philips.
You can read Shaelin’s short stories, I Will Never Tell You This, Barefoot, Wishbone, Solarium, Cherry and Jane in the Garden of Eden, Hold Me Under Until I See the Light, and Beautiful Animal.
It's not published anywhere yet, I'm currently submitting it! I link all my published short stories in the description, so if/when it's published you'll spot a link to it there.
My revision process for short stories so far has just been "set it aside till I'm a better writer than I was when I wrote it" 😂
I think that's a pretty good idea, actually. Sets a realistic bar that won't take too long to get over. :)
@@pixelsbykris5494 I mean, it works, it's just incredibly inefficient haha
I heard that!!!! lol
Many of these are actually helpful to my novel, especially in regard to endings. Long story short (no pun intended), every chapter needs to function as a short story due to how my main character observes the minute details of her life.
I find treating every chapter as a short story super helpful!!
You could talk about short stories all day. I could listen to you talk about stories all day.
Can't wait for part 2! I'm new to short fiction writing and your advice has been super helpful to me.
Thanks for telling me to basically get out of my head and just write. I'm a huuuge overthinker, if it wasn't already clear.
Part two should be up in a couple weeks!
Shaelin, I love writing short stories. I feel like novels follow a character’s journey, while short stories are the experiences within an event. I appreciate the symbolism of the garden in your short story, Cherry and Jane in the Garden of Eden and it reminds me of thoughts I have had when writing stories. Christmas in my short story, The Christmas Party is meaningful to my character. Ending a short story well is the most important part of a story I feel. I love you
My process:
1. Brief character idea + concept point.
2. Take a shower and figure out how this character would handle the situation.
3. Write the entire rough draft in one session without worrying about quality.
4. Cut the story up into point form; figuring out all the parts of the story.
5. Write my outline.
6. Write my Alpha draft.
7. Hand it over to the producer/editor, and do drafts/edits as required. I get the 100% off marriage discount :)
Not new to writing, but brand new to short stories. I found this video helpful. Thanks!
This is GOLDEN advice. It's really helping me truly.
Some pretty solid advice, Shaelin. Having edited for some publications in the past, one of the things I think many writers struggle with is not whether something is a short story or flash fiction, but whether something is flash fiction or poetry. Very often I've seen pieces listed as fiction that were really poetic vignettes or scenes without story, arc, or development. Good writing, some of it, but I don't think the writer really knew what it was.
My advice, if there's a story in there, bring it out beyond it's flash-esque form and tell us a story. If it's not a story, then contemplate the poetry in the piece and see if labeling or restructuring it into a a poem will satisfy you.
Okay this is so true and such a good point!! Flash fiction and prose poems can overlap so much that is really is hard to distinguish the two sometimes.
omg I clicked so fast, I love these short fiction vids!!! always super helpful
yay! im hyped, i love your tips
I'm just getting back into writing short stories after a few pretty bad months writing-wise. This video is so helpful! Thank you.
I have watched last week's confidence video and this one today, and I appreciate you taking the time to share your experience given I was going through much of the same thing and asking myself the same questions. Thank you!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS !!! 😍😍
Excellent video. You will make a wonderful teacher when you decide to start teaching. If your community has a skills exchange program you could do a wonderful course on Short Fiction and it might give you a second or third income. Steven King says the story determines the length. He's had novels that started as short stories, and short stories that started as a novel. Short stories were his first love and many of them have made great films.
I started writing a short (4 page) story. It has lead me to a 200+ page novel, and has become THE story, if no other, I hope people read and share. Thank you for your great advice and time. ✨
Could you do a video on screenwriting? I cant find any videos from writers, it's always about the idea and never about actually writing. I have an idea for a TV show I really want to write but I'm struggling with how and where to start and I have no people around me who can help! Or if you know anyone who does those videos that would be great too! Thanks
have you checked out tyler mowery.
I never thought of writing a collection
1st... and btw looove your writing advice !
Such great tips, Shaelin!
Have you ever thought of livestreaming a short story from start to finish? I'm curious to see your process 🤗
This would be cool! Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to because it could impact my ability to publish the story in the future, and I don't think I'd be comfortable or able to write a story while live-streaming! Writing is a pretty personal, intimate process and so I don't think it would be possible to write anything good while having thousands of people watching my first draft live haha.
@@ShaelinWrites I completely understand! I'm the same way with my writing-intimate & personal-so I totally get it 😘
Hi Shaelin, thank you for all you do on your channel.
Please, please, please make a video on publishing contracts and the terms that an author must absolutely include in their contract and the ones they shouldn't agree to.
I wish I could, but unfortunately I don't have any experience or knowledge on this topic!
@@ShaelinWrites don't you have to sign any type of a contract or an agreement to publish short stories?
@@dariakey5318 Usually, but they're very straightforward, nothing like the contract for signing a novel which is a lot more complicated and I have no experience with.
Great video. I love to write on the flash fiction, short story borderline. 900 to 1.5k words is my usual, most natural length. I definitely agree with the advice about writing the story, and letting it find its own length. Whether it turns out to be this or that length may have an impact later, if you want to submit to a publication. Other than that, it doesn't much matter. I also wish people wouldn't call the microfiction they post on Twitter, sometimes called Twitterature, "flash fiction", as this causes confusion. Flash is usually at least a few hundred words in length. The Twitter shorts are their own achievement, of course. I wish I could write them, as I'm sure it would help me to be successful on the platform, but alas...!
Ephiny Gale has a very useful video on finding a market to which to submit a story. It was helpful to see the process of actually finding a marker and submitting to it. Next time you're submitting a short story, would it be possible to do this for a video? I really struggle with finding appropriate markets and I'm ok with rejections now, but it still makes me wonder if I'm meant to be a writer every time it happens. I think submitting to appropriate markets would help with that.
Thank you for this, and the confidence video! :-)
i dont even write short fiction but of course im not gonna say no to listening to shaelin be a genius for 20 minutes
thanks Shaelin
This was most illuminating to me as a reader of stories. Thanks.
I did not think enough about stories being in conversation with each other, but read them in collections as discrete and stand alone.
Frank O'Connor's collections *Crab Apple Jelly* and *The Collar: Stories of Irish Priests* have a clear pattern in the carpet.
So do *A Good Man is Hard to Find* and *Everything That Rises Must Converse* by Flannery O'Connor.
And of course Ray Carver's *Cathedral* (with the last one about Chekhov's death: a story about a great short story writer).
I must reread Katherine Govier's *Fables of Brunswick Avenue* as well as early Alice Munro and Bharati Mukherjee, writers I love
There is also a collection by Clark Blaise *Resident Alien* with an introductory essay: Where do stories come from, what is their source?
And there is *The Lost Salt Gift of Blood* by Alistair MacLeod which even I could see were linked thematically by sense of place.
*The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy* (2013 Livewright) were described as a ten-pound box of poison chocolates, and Purdy had such a bleak anti-American vision that he could not get published in his last years. There are online articles including Xmas With James Purdy.
Just a thought, but I wonder if a volume of stories could have no theme, stories seen as freaks and misfits?
An idea that definitely belongs in Purdyia country.
Correction: *Everything That Rises Must Converge* : Her essays on writing *Mystery and Manners* is also essential reading.
James Joyce's collection Dubliners has the theme of paralyzation as the connective tissue between the stories.
As for a collection of freaks and misfits, isn't that normally called the author's "lesser work?" I actually just did an interview with an author who published a collection she called "Her Lesser Work," poking fun of the idea that anything that stems from an artist is lesser (less them). Elizabeth Ellen is the author if you're interested - just careful about looking up the book since the cover image is probably NSFW.
@@authorgreene I left a reply but it seems to have disappeared, Randal.
@@jackjohnhameld6401 No worries! UA-cam magic is sometimes good, sometimes bad. :)
@@authorgreene I wanted to thank you for recommending Elizabeth Allen's collection, Lesser Work.
Yes, once he had escaped Ireland in the company of Nora Barnacle, Joyce looked back on life there as paralysing.
The Dubliners would have been published years earlier if the stupid printer had not objected to the book's content.
In the last story, Gabriel feels immobilised by his wife's story of Michael Furey's love for her: the connective tissue.
There is that haunting line, 'Yes, snow was general all over Ireland.'
Joyce said that 50 miles outside Dublin he was lost: Nora introduced him to the West, where Michael Furey lay buried.
Penguin has published a centennial edition of The Dubliners with a foreword by Colum McCann.
Penguin also reprinted Portrait of an Artist with back page notes by Seamus Deane and an intro by Karl Ove Knausgaard.
By stories designated as freaks and misfits I did not mean the author's lesser work, but rather her unclassifiable work.
I am sure that Shaelin will do a vlog about this one day.
A book of stories that are not in conversation with each other (to borrow Shaelin's memorable phrase) has its attractions too.
I am thinking of Gordon Lish's collection *What I Know So Far* and Harold Brodkey's *Stories in an Almost Classical Mode*.
I am also thinking of stories which are conversing with each other but in some esoteric language like Kabbala.
I am thinking of Sarah Vincent's self-published *The Gingerbread Wife* a Welsh writer, see www.sarahkvincent.co.uk
Also, Mike McCormack's collection *Getting it in the Head* - and his novels *Notes From A Coma* and *Solar Bones*.
Also, Ann Quin's *Passages* and *Passages* - author of *Berg* who drowned herself in 1973, a terrible waste.
See *Women Writers and Experimental Narratives* edited by Kate Aughterson and Deborah Philips.
Hi Shaelin, please tell the names of stories you have written. Also, where to get them?
You can read Shaelin’s short stories, I Will Never Tell You This, Barefoot, Wishbone, Solarium, Cherry and Jane in the Garden of Eden, Hold Me Under Until I See the Light, and Beautiful Animal.
My published stories are all linked in the description!
@@imaginativebibliophile549 Thank you so much for the reply.🙏 I appreciate this. 😊
@@ShaelinWrites Thank you so much for the reply. 🙏 I really appreciate this. 😊
Hi Shaelin How Are You 😊
how to jump from a scene to another? it's harder in short stories than it is in novels.
I just do a line break and keep it moving ☠️
Where can I find "I am a wolf in wolf's clothing"?
It's not published anywhere yet, I'm currently submitting it! I link all my published short stories in the description, so if/when it's published you'll spot a link to it there.
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