Dedicated Space

Still there. Image by Gene Selkov on Flickr

A few weeks back, Matt was talking about forming good habits.  This got me thinking about how to do this.  In fact, the comment I made was to have a terminal solely for writing.  Matt has previously talked about creating a space for yourself and your writing, a bubble within which you can fully connect to the writing process.  Or something.  If you are having trouble with your writing (and again, I mean me here) then this is probably a good start. 

When I first got my net-book, writing is all I used it for.  It can’t run any games, I didn’t have wireless internet when I got it, so that was out, all I was using it for was the writing.  And it worked.  Because I knew, every time I switched the machine on, I was going to do some god damn writing.  In fact, it was because of this that I managed to storm my way through the serialised piece I did last year in eight weeks.  For me that was an achievement.  That was the equivalent of a book, in eight weeks.  This of course made me feel good about myself, which inspired me in my other writing. 

But time wore on, I did get wireless internet, I installed a video player and got a bucket load of anime that had been recommended to me, and then I fell victim to the syndrome.  What syndrome you may ask? 

‘I’ll just have a quick look online before I get started.’

 
Technology.  I have a love hate relationship with it.  On the one hand, it is advancing at a quickening pace, which (in theory anyway) should make it easier and easier to write, make notes, whatever, on the move, in any spare time you have (unless you write cyberpunk of course, in which case you have to keep updating it to stop it looking… dated).  On the other hand, better technology provides more avenues for easy distractions.  Wireless internet everywhere you go, addictive little games on your handheld devices, easy and simple and oh so very distracting, texting, IM, Twitter… 

The other thing I really need to do is to change my mentality.  I get in from work and I think about writing, but I’d rather do something relaxing instead.  Like murder gorgeously rendered people/aliens/monsters on my PS3.  I need to start thinking that the writing is fun!  I know, I know, that might work if you’re a casual writer, if it’s a hobby or whatever, and somewhere down the line I lost sight of that.  Maybe it’s this tortured writer cliché.  Writing cant possibly be fun right?  Writers sit there, agonising over the placement and use of every word, and usually end up dying alone and penniless in some squat, having drank themselves to death, right? 

Exuberance!

 
This is how you need to feel about writing (and again, I mean ‘I’).  It is a creative process after all.  You mould and shape your words to bring this beautiful project to life, after all, what could better than to bring something fresh and new and alive into this dull, depressing world we live in?

As long as it isn’t dark romance involving vampires.  Ugh.

I would think of Star Wars, and how Mr. Lucas started with the middle three chapters of the story (and we’ve seen what difficulty he had in trying to start from the very beginning. Born from midichloreans indeed); and I watched Akira, noticing how the vast bulk of the story actually happened in the past. Backstory was everything.

It would follow then, that a large portion of my writing time would be spent on fleshing out the backstory, and making it compelling. It was, after all, the backdrop to the story; the motivation for the characters; the very reason for the events in the story proper to now take place. Complete all this, and my story would take care of itself.

Well, okay. Maybe. But I don’t think that way now, and in truth, I never tried it out this way either. Of course backstory is important, and especially in a film like Akira, where the situation is basically, “what happened before might happen again”. But I would argue that the really important parts of your backstory, the ones that make your premise possible, you already know. The rest is for texture and theming; still important of course, but I’m not keen on spending pages and pages writing complete histories for each of my characters. And I don’t think it’s necessary.

With the story I’m currently writing, I’m taking the same approach to backstory as I’m trying with plot (see this article from Craig). I’m not entirely making it up as I go along, I have a very rough idea, but for the most part, I’m experimenting, having fun just making stuff up, and seeing what feels right. That stuff stays, the rest goes. I’ve got to be careful, of course, when I plant the seed of a potential plot development or character backstory, I’ve got to be aware that’s what I’m doing. I’ve got to remember I’ve done it, and think about where it can go, what other connections can be made. Otherwise I’ll just end up with a birds nest of ideas. I think as long as I keep my wits about me I should be alright, but I’ll keep you posted.

Any tips or discussion around backstory? You know what to do!

So, my solution is to reward myself when I’ve completed the draft of the story. Or, rather, I am delaying some other gratification. The new Muse album is now out, and I of course bought it, being a big fan. When it came I gave it straight to my wife and asked her to hide it from me until I finished this story.

To be honest, I’m not sure if this is a reward or a punishment! Or whether that matters.

I did make a mistake, however. I think I should have simply said, “don’t get anything new for yourself, or at least don’t allow yourself to use anything new.” you see, I bought Batman: Arkham Asylum the other week also and played it. It’s a great game by the way. But now my “get something new for yourself” itch is pretty much scratched and I’m not so bothered about that Muse album anymore! Oops!

Anyway, I was really wondering what other people do to reward or punish themselves in order to get that extra motivation kick. And which have you found better, stick or carrot?

The most famous example of a 6 word story comes from Ernest Hemingway in the 1920s. He made a bet that he could write a story in only 6 words. He won that bet, and the result is quite brilliant considering this limit. The story is simply:

For sale. Babies shoes. Never worn

I have always loved this story. It gets around the whole 6 words problem by making what is not said the most important thing. There are a few possible reasons why these shoes are for sale, sure, but we will automatically choose one that is story worthy. There is a wealth of pain and sadness behind those six words that goes far beyond what could be communicated with “sadly, her baby died. The end”. Six words, no impact. A deliberately obtuse alternative, admittedly, but nevertheless, this example goes to the heart of the “show. Don’t tell” ethos. Show the reader what’s there, and let them fill in the gaps. They will feel it more.

Here’s one I knocked together based on my mini-saga example:

He positive. She negative. Divorce inevitable.

or an alternative:

He positive. She negative. Poles attract.

I also found a rather charming collection from sci-fi and horror writers for Wired. Most are funny, and a few are similar to each other, but in my opinion none come close to Hemingway’s.

So there ends our trilogy of really short story types. I hope that’s given you a bit of inspiration. One exercise might be to take one story (or at least one inspiration), and do all three types of story around that one idea, gradually condensing it until you get to six words only.

I’d love to see any attempts at any of these really short stories, so pop them in the comments for us to have a look at!

Although a few Twitter story tellers have come and gone there are still some around. @arjunbasu is one such tweep and one all should follow.

If ever there were proof that a very small story can be a successful one then he is it.  He will often twitter more than one story in a day.

Despite the limit each one feels complete. Often, they describe a domestic situation unfolding, and the conclusion forms a witty punch line.

It’s an excellent demonstration of clarity through precision. 140 characters forces merciless cutting. Only the kernel of the story remains.

And that’s all the tips I can give (being inexperienced myself) – pick a situation, then cut cut cut. Finally, juggle words and punctuation.

I think the beginning middle and end bits take care of themselves – they naturally appear from the way we build sentences. Here’s an example

This was what he’d been waiting for, a chance to be heard! He opened his mouth to speak, but practice had rendered him completely voiceless.

And this isn’t the only creative writing going on on Twitter (it could be argued that all Tweets fall into that category, but I won’t here).

Some impersonate dead celebrities like @cdarwin who uses the writing of Charles Darwin to Tweet his Beagle trip as if it were happening now.

Poems are a favourite too. @thebookwright announced on @thecreativepenn‘s podcast that he will be tweeting his poem 100 Years Of Ermintrude.

Haikus are a great medium if you LOVE strict rules. The combination of 140 characters plus the required syllable count are a real challenge.

I’m sure my readers and followers have come across some excellent writing on Twitter, so please share Tweeps you follow in the comments bit.

Leave your comments, stories or other Twitter writing, plus your Twitter handle at http://www.getmewriting.com/short-stories/twitter-stories

This is the biggest of our tiny stories – it’s all downhill with the word count from here on in. A mini saga is essentially a story in 50 words. Exactly 50.

Personally, I first heard about them in high school, and have always thought them an amusing idea, but I haven’t revisited them since. I found a couple of websites citing Brian Aldiss as the inventor of the mini-saga. I’m not sure on the validity of this, as like I said, it was only a couple of references. There was actually a competition involving Brian Aldiss and the Daily Telegraph, the result of which is this book. I haven’t read it myself, but if you’re interested in mini sagas, it will likely be a good collection (if anyone has read it, please let us know what you think in the comments). I also tried a search on Google for any famous examples, but didn’t get anywhere. Anyone know one?

Obviously the aim is to be as concise as possible. Keep your ideas simple. And be prepared to be a little mysterious – if the reader has to work to fill in the gaps, that’s no bad thing, and it will cost you fewer words.

I had to give this a go of course. I wrote what I thought was a very brief story, but it turned out to be over double the required wordcount! Here is the first draft.

They were crossing the road just as the driver turned the corner. He glared and shook his head, but John simply waved back and smiled.
“Don’t smile at him – he wasn’t indicating,” Said Jane.
“Ah, well ,” John replied, “we all make mistakes.”
They were never quite the same after that. It took a while but eventually Jane was broken by John’s overwhelming positivity.
“I’m leaving you.”
“Well, if you don’t want to be with me it will only make us both unhappy. It’s better this way.”
She left him and took to drink. He found someone else.

This was hard, but a lot of fun. It took about twenty minutes and about five drafts. I was reminded of reducing wordsto fit them into a text (because I’m tight like that). Here is the end result. I actually think it’s pretty good, and I’m surprised that there are two sentences that did not change from the original.

They crossed as the driver turned the corner. He glared. John waved.
“Don’t smile – he wasn’t indicating,” Said Jane.
They were never the same. His positivity broke her.
“I’m leaving.”
“It’s better than us both being unhappy.”
She left. Took to drink. He found someone else.

And I’d love to see yours, so please post them in the comments! For an extra challenge, it might be fun to try one made entirely of dialogue.