Lately, either because of a lack of time or interest or both, I’ve become extremely picky about the reading materials I select. Maybe it’s because after years and years of gorging on erotica and romance novels and US Weekly magazines, my brain has finally had its fill of junk. I couldn’t even sit through the entire hour of LOST last night. These days I seem to be drawn to Smithsonian magazine, serious fiction, modern dance concerts, trip hop and The Secret Life of the American Teenager (which I can and will vigorously argue with you that it’s not junk, Bristol Palin notwithstanding). Not quite cognoscenti-levels, but definitely a departure from my normally pedestrian taste.
I mention this because I’m seriously considering trying my hand at the short story. I might be good at it in theory, short attention span and all. Thing is, I don’t read it and know nothing about it. Don’t know how to structure it, don’t know the rules, don’t know how and where to sell it. I do know that short stories, as a collective format, are a literary cut above genre fiction (no such thing as “genre short story,” is there?).
Since I have characters and a story cooking in my brain, I might give it a try. After a bit of research first, of course.
I’m on Christopher Vogler’s website and your blog came up in a link. If I read Vogler correctly, your short story needs to start with a startling event – death is good, disaster is good, dynamite in other words – short stories then pick up the pieces and look at them to put it all together again. Humpty first fell off the wall in other words.
By: Tobias on July 18, 2010
at 3:56 pm