(Disclaimer - This article is not meant for the "Literary Artist" who writes for the sake of their own soul/sanity/pleasure, but for the "Mercenary Writer" who fully intends to do this for MONEY.)
The Essentials of a Short Story
Edgar Allen Poe - 1837
(Stolen from EA Poe's critique of Hawthorn’s "Twice Told Tales")
Edgar Allen Poe, celebrated as one of the finest short fiction writers of all time, was also a literary critic. These are bits of his wisdom on writing short stories, gleaned from one of his critiques.
- “The true critic will but demand that that the (story’s) design intended be accomplished, to the fullest extent, by the means most advantageously applicable”-- Poe
Poe’s Prerequisites -- in a Nutshell:
To deliver fullest satisfaction, a short story should be structured:
1) To be perused in an hour.
2) Conceived with deliberate care toward a single effect.
3) With words restrained in style and tone.
4) All done that should be done, with nothing done which should not be.
Poe’s Prerequisites -- in DETAIL
A short story should be structured:
1) To be perused in an hour.
- “Were we bidden to say how the highest genius (of the short story) could be most advantageously employed for the best display of (the short story’s) own powers, we should answer, without hesitation- in the composition of a rhymed poem, not to exceed in length what might be perused in an hour.”-- Poe
Translation:
- How much can YOU read in an hour (or two)? A short story should be no longer.
According to TODAY'S publishing standards, this means no more than 15k, (15,000 words) or 60 NY publishing formatted pages. (60 pages -- at 12 point courier font, on an 8.5” by 11” page with 1” margins -- are counted as 250 words per page, regardless of actual word count.) 20k, or 80 NY publishing formatted pages, is commonly considered a Novella.
Keep in mind, EVERY publisher has their own requirements. For example, Magazine publishers tend to look for 5k stories, (5,000 words) or 20 NY publishing formatted pages.
ALWAYS read the SUBMISSION GUIDELINES for each individual Publisher -- before submitting anything!
2) Conceived with deliberate care toward a single effect.
- “A skillful literary artist has a constructed tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents- he then combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tends not to the out-bringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step.” -- Poe
Translation:
- Plot the damned thing out, every character, every incident, with a single Purpose in mind, a Premise. You DON'T think up an event, and then decide what you're going to do with it -- you consider what you want to Say First -- and then craft your characters and incidents to illustrate the point you are trying to make.
What are YOU saying with your story?
What Point are you trying to Prove?
- The reality of Love? - Romeo & Juliet
- The pain of Jealousy? - Othello
- The results of Revenge? - Hamlet
- The path of Ambition? - Julius Caesar
What kinds of Characters and Events will it take to make your point? What needs to happen to illustrate what you want to say?
PLOTTING is Good for you!
- Plotting is essential in all forms of fiction for cohesion. Plotting ensures that your cool idea has all the important bits needed to be a full-blown STORY, such as: a beginning, a middle, and an end. It keeps you from missing something vital or putting something in that does not belong.
Side-tracked by a really cool subplot?
--> Does it fit with the theme of what you are trying to accomplish?
* If it does ? GREAT! Is there enough room for it? (What kind of word-count limit are you dealing with?)
* If it doesn’t ? GREAT! You have the makings of a whole new story! (Chop it out and make a whole new document file just for it.)
However, Plotting does NOT have to be a chapter by chapter outline; it can be a short list of just the important bits:
A Plot Arc
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Introduction
Early trouble, revealing the character's talents and setting
Adversary meets Proponent (Hero meets Villain)
Rising Action
Increasing tension - crisis after crisis
(One succeeds in seriously pissing off the other.)
Climax / Reversal
Point of highest tension & where everything suddenly falls apart.
Proponant succeeds, then something happens to mess everything up.
(Hero wins the fight, but loses the battle.)
Falling Action
All plot threads unravel leaving only one unsavory solution.
(All angsty secrets are uncovered, revealing the REAL problem with a suicidal solution .)
Confrontation
The final battle is enjoined, ending in hope or ruin.
(Love is declared; battle-lines are drawn; sides are chosen; the last hurrah...)
Denouement
Resolution
Happily (or Tragically) ever after.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3) Using words restrained in style and tone.
- “The author who aims at the purely beautiful in a prose tale is laboring at great disadvantage. For Beauty can be better treated in the poem.” -- Poe
Translation:
- Hunks of sweeping, emotionally blissed-out, text is generally SKIPPED in favor of: “What happens next?” The only place for fancy words is in Description.
"WHAT?!? Skip the bliss? But...Why?"
If you DON'T intend to write for money, by all means - bliss as you please! BUT ~ if you expect people to BUY what you to write, then you'll have to write what the public wants to read.
In this day and age, the average book-store browsing Reader does not have the PATIENCE to read fancy prose. As a rule, only the college-heavy teacher-types read literary prose for pleasure. Everybody else (the BUYING public) reads pulp fiction.
Think I'm kidding? In this very article, how many of you have been skipping over Poe's literary-heavy quotes to get to the Translations? (Retorical Question! You are not expected to answer!)
Seriously, no matter what genre you write, the average Buying Reader reads with a TV-Watcher's attention span (about the same as a 12-year old) because the average Buying Reader of every genre, grew up watching TV.
THINK: How long is a TV program? Sit-coms are half an hour. Actual programs are an hour - two at the most. Your story has to fit into a TV-program slot -- and compete with the next program they plan to watch.
(Remember, TVs didn't exist in Poe's day --1837. Neither did Radios. Wind-up phonographs were their radio, and Books were their TV, so the longer and harder it was to read, the more entertaining it was.)
DESCRIPTION is a MUST in Modern Fiction!
- Our modern-day, TV-addict readers are trained (by their TV-watching,) to be VISUALLY stimulated. These readers PICTURE their stories as they read them, and expect enough description to be able to make those mind-pictures crystal clear -- AND emotionally visceral.
They not only want to SEE it, they want to FEEL it too -- but they don't have much of an attention span, so every word must count!
Description should be trimmed down to:
- Distinct nouns rather than Vague nouns: Toyota instead of car.
- One Adjective per Distinct Noun: The rusted Toyota.
- Two Adjectives per Sensation: smell, taste, texture, sound, view: “The Toyota chugged and wheezed down the narrow lane.”
- Two Adjectives per Emotion: anger, lust, love, joy, misery -- “The bitter ache of loneliness in my weary heart…”
4) All done that should be done -- With nothing done which should not be.
- “In the whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design. And by such means, with such care and skill, a picture is at length painted which leaves in the mind of him who contemplates it with a kindred art, a sense of the fullest satisfaction.”--Poe
Translation:
- Make every character, object, event… COUNT! Don’t just throw something in the story for decoration, like a sex scene, or a piano in the living room. Make that piano, or that love affair, IMPORTANT to the story. Make something happen Because they had sex. Make something happen Because they played the piano.
This is more commonly known as:
The “Gun on the Mantelpiece” rule of Fiction.
- “If a gun is shown on the mantelpiece in Chapter One, it better go off by Chapter Three, and there had better be a damned good reason for that gun to go off.”
The trick to knowing what to include in any story, is whether or not you intend to actively USE it. If the character trait or object does not matter to the plot -- skip it. If it doesn’t Actively MOVE the Plot, (even a teeny bit,) you don’t need it.
The shorter the story the LESS room you have to work with, so the only details that you need are what actually Changes the plot. Even with character details. If that detail has no bearing on the plot, you don’t need it.
In Conclusion…
-- Poe’s Prerequisites -- Translated
A short story should be Plotted:
1) No more than 15,000 words. (If you plan on publishing it.)
2) With a Beginning, Middle, End, and a Point in mind.
3) Designed for a TV-watcher’s visually oriented (12-year old) attention span.
4) Using only what is needed to make your point, and complete the story.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Memoriam:
Edgar Allen Poe
Aevum brevis, ars aeternum…
(C) Morgan Hawke - 2005/2006
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