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Anyone here writing short fiction? Any writing book Reccomendations

  • Thread starter swords
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A while ago I was brainstorming on a new sculpture series I want to do. I started writing up detailed descriptions of the characters I wanted to sculpt, kind of to give me a better mental picture of them before sculpting. This little diversion lead to working on expanding some of the descriptions into short stories in which they could appear and do stuff and have stuff happen to them. So now I'm working on making the stories read properly with a final goal of submitting them to Weird Tales, Realms of Fantasy, etc.

My specific interests for writing are short stories of supernatural fiction and Sword & Sorcery adventures - the classic pulpy stuff - the only stuff I read. I'm not interested in avantgarde wordsmithery that lays bare the soul of the world, I just wanna make stuff that's fun to read but I wanna do it properly. I'll leave the deconstruction of a teardrop to the true arteests...

So, I've been buying a series of Elements of Fiction books published by Writers Digest which detail specific topics like: Plot & Setting, Description, Dialogue, Charachter Archetypes, Conflict, Action and Suspense, Character Emotion, etc. These seem very helpful but I was wondering if anyone else here is doing some writing, specifically short fiction and what books you might recommend? There's tons of those cheesy "How to write a bestseller in 30 days, A successful novel the easy way, Your story will make you rich, etc" books out there, I'm not interested in those kinds. But books that you've found helpful I'd be interested to hear about.
 
i made a picture book in 3rd grade. I think you could categorize it as fiction....
 
You might give Robert McKee's Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. While geared towards screenwriting his priciples on story structure are universal to fiction. All the studios send their writers to his seminars. If you saw the Spike Jonze movie "Adaptation" they lampooned him (as well as purposely breaking a few of his 10 commandments) in the film but the characterization of him was spot on.

Bob McKee's Ten Commandments of Writing:


ONE: Thou shalt not take the crisis/climax out of the protagonists' hands. The anti-deus ex machina commandment. No surprises!

TWO: Thou shalt not make life easy for the protagonist. Nothing progresses in a story, except through conflict. And not just physical conflict.

THREE: Thou shalt not give exposition for strictly exposition's sake. Dramatize it. Convert exposition to ammunition. Use it to turn the ending of a scene, to further the conflict.

FOUR: Thou shalt not use false mystery or cheap surprise. Don't conceal anything important that the protagonist knows. Keep us in step with him/ her.We know what s/he knows.

FIVE: Thou shalt respect your audience. The anti-hack commandment. Not all readers know your character. Very important.

SIX: Thou shalt know your world as God knows this one.The pro- research commandment.

SEVEN: Thou shalt not complicate when complexity is better. Don't multiply the complications on one level. Use all three: Intra-Personal, Inter-Personal, Extra-Personal

EIGHT: Thou shalt seek the end of the line, the negation of the negation, taking characters to the farthest reaches and depth of conflict imaginable within the story's own realm of probability.

NINE: Thou shalt not write on the nose. Put a sub text under every text.

TEN: Thou shalt rewrite.
 
Thanks NaN, I'll see if I can find it at a shop so I can look it over. Have you read it - are you working on some writing as well?
Isn't "Adaption" the movie take on The Orchid Thief? I read the book but haven't seen the film yet.
 
Yes, "Adaptation" is based on "The Orchid Thief". I've not read the book but it is on my to read list.

I have McKee's book. I also took his seminar in 1988 or 1989. There were only 30-40 people in the seminar unlike the hundreds portrayed in the movie. Maybe it's like that today, I don't know. He started out doing them from his home with maybe 10 people. Among the people in the seminar I attended was a group from Disney working on the "Winnie the Pooh" TV series and Kirk Douglas. I got him to autograph his book "The Ragman's Son" which was a best seller at the time.

I've dabbled in writing in the past.
 
Honestly, the best thing you can do to improve writing is simply read. Read everything you can, and think about it. If something seems off in a book, think about why. If something works well, figure out how the author put it together. And simply notice what works.

Also, and it's a bit odd, I find that role-playing games help a lot, especially when they aren't the hack-and-slash sort. They teach you to invent a character and then 'play' them through the book, which IME reduces annoying instances of 'breaking character' to accomplish some plot point.

Mokele
 
Also, and it's a bit odd, I find that role-playing games help a lot, especially when they aren't the hack-and-slash sort. They teach you to invent a character and then 'play' them through the book, which IME reduces annoying instances of 'breaking character' to accomplish some plot point.

This is very true. My DM friend growing up wrote lots of great stories based on our "adventures." He also crafted some great comics and other mediums of storytelling.

xvart.
 
When I was like 6, I co-authored a horror "short story" with my brother. It was called "Give Me Back My Toe." It was indeed short (about 5 sentences) and was never published. In fact, I don't think anyone ever heard our toe tale since it was concocted in about 5 minutes trying to scare ourselves down in the basement.
 
When I was like 6, I co-authored a horror "short story" with my brother. It was called "Give Me Back My Toe." It was indeed short (about 5 sentences) and was never published. In fact, I don't think anyone ever heard our toe tale since it was concocted in about 5 minutes trying to scare ourselves down in the basement.

That is awesome.

xvart.
 
  • #10
Could you post the ENTIRE short story about the toe<.<?
 
  • #11
Could you post the ENTIRE short story about the toe?

I don't think that's possible based on the described girth of the story. I think there is a four sentence limit in posts.

xvart.
 
  • #12
Thanks for the input guys.

Moleke, I have a pretty good sized library of the kinda weird stories I like to work on (I hesitate to say write since none are "finsihed" yet). I guess I'm just a tad paranoid because I know I didn't pay any attention in high school to anything that was outside the art room. ;)

One of the hardest things for me is to make up believeable / interesting names of people and places (most of my first draft stories are set HERE or happen to SO AND SO). Today I picked up a gigantic Atlas of World History. it's full of political maps from all different eras throughout civilization who's names have been recorded and mapped. When I think up fake names on my own they always sound too fake, so for me this is a goldmine.

Xvart, I routinely break the 4 sentence rule, let him post the toe tale! :)
 
  • #13
Xvart, I routinely break the 4 sentence rule, let him post the toe tale! :)

Oh. Well then... I'll have to start watching you more closely :nono: . Anyways, I'm sure PAK's 6 year old brain was operating on one really long run-on sentence being 5 sentences so I guess my point is moot.

xvart.
 
  • #14
For names, you might even try things such as star names, variations on latin genus/species names (i.e. remove the "-us" kinds of things), or even words from other languages.
 
  • #15
Names are good, but there is a rule I made which must not be transgressed -

"All characters must have a name, shortened name, or nickname which can be easily cried out during orgasm."

It sounds bad, but think about it - do you know *anyone* with a more than 3 syllable name who doesn't go by a short form, nickname, or middle name? Long, complicated names are a pain, and make it harder to keep track of the characters. My rule is 3 syllables, but most of my characters have 2-syllable names at most, and several have 1-syllable names (Kurt, Zach, Steve, etc).

Mokele
 
  • #16
let him post the toe tale!

:(

I must have had a sex-change operation somewhere along the way that I didn't notice...

"Give Me Back My Toe" was about a dead man having his toe severed and his blood drained into a ketchup bottle. The dead man walked around in a zombie-like manner saying [spooky voice] "Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive me back my blood!! Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiive me back my toe!!"

Well, that was pretty scary when you are 6 years old. ???
 
  • #17
Moleke, I don't want anybody having orgasms in my sword and sorcery tales... Especially not while yelling out for Zack Braff! :-D

Actually I wanted ancient/obscure names because of the (imaginary) time periods I am interested in. I have an old Botanical Latin dictionary that may come in handy. Just the other day I realised that the massive appendix at the end of Tyson's annotated Three books of Occult Philosophy contains both a biographical and a geographical dictionary of philosophers, sorcerers and ancient sites insofar as related to cabalist magic up to about 1500 AD so that's a pretty good start.

There was a great cartoon on Fox Kids about 10 years ago called Mad Jack the Pirate, they had an episode where they stole a mummys toe and the mummy chased them around yelling in a Bill Cosby impersonation "Gieieive bee back bye toe!" The show would have done great on Adult Swim but it was on for kids at 9 am and they didn't get the jokes and impersonations. I taped every episode, I swear Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead) is Mad Jack's voice over!
 
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