More than simple words

A successful short story is a sophisticated form of fiction that readers love and publishers respect if it is commercially popular.   

An intriguing character, feelings, ideas and meaningful action in such a limited economy of words! And short stories are currently enjoying even more success with the proliferation of new ways to sell online.

A few students are so inspired by the story they write that they have goals of going onto a novel.   The process of converting your short story to a novel can reveal a great deal about the strengths and weaknesses of the storyline, which is why you never end after a first draft. In some cases, you may need to revise the old story.   

Here are some ideas on how to make it come together.  

Create a new outline
It’s essential to make a plan for the structure of a book, particularly when expanding from a short story to a novel.

An outline provides an opportunity to step back and see where you can flesh out the original incomplete material with more linked events.

Each chapter gives you the opportunity to add and subtract elements, move them around, and to insert more dialogue and visual description at key points.

Remember that outlines are never carved in stone, since they’re usually polished and revised once you start writing again and the book takes on a life of its own.

Conceptualize anew
When you create a longer work from a short story, you’re not just filling in the holes. You’re painting the picture on a larger canvas.

The rhythm of a novel is different, the pacing more ample, so breathe! You have the luxury of spending extended time with the characters so we know more about their history, where they’re coming from, and the deeper complexity of their motivation and actions.

What you thought had to be a brief and sketchy as a back-story may in fact become where the book actually begins and may very well be an opening hook.

Where you once had only one character, now you can have two or even three, each representing various aspects of the same theme with a variety of temperaments and behaviors.

There’s more room to write about the setting, visuals, colors, and the scents.

Deconstruct the original draft
Take apart what you have so far, and look for the holes. Study the characters. Are they alive, three dimensional, speaking and behaving in a credible and compelling manner?

Analyze the sequence of events. How can you expand on the existing scenes so they have more meaning and power?

Consider the novella
Collections of short stories may be organized as a group that can also be read as chapters in an episodic sequence that portrays a common theme, with a focused group of characters in place and time. In this, a collection of short stories may be read as a full-length work which can be greater than its parts.

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Have you wondered about this process?  Or are you assembling a collection of stories that work together in some way? Now you can write more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwus-6Hu0Kw&feature=related

I’d love to hear about your own ideas and experiences with this process.

A man’s fame lasts longer than his life

Here we are again St. Patrick’s Day which reminds me for being such a small country Ireland has made a large contribution to the world of literature.  All that cold nasty weather forcing people to be indoors must have encouraged imaginations to stir into rich prose mixed with humor.  So once again I have conjured a list of favorites. Five classic authors and three contemporary along with comments on why I find them extraordinary.

 

James Joyce- I read the Dubliners in College and loved that I wasn’t told what to think but rather I was left to come to my own conclusions; this is an evident contrast with the moral judgments displayed by other writers at that time. There is a lack of traditional dramatic resolution within the stories but there is plenty of room to think about what the short-stories actually mean.

 

Oscar Wilde- My all-time favorite Irishman.  His presentation of late-Victorian society, while simultaneously mocking them is exceptionally witty. With a gift for comical farce in the Importance of Being Earnest, every time I hear the line about being born in a handbag, and bred at Victoria Station, I burst into a roar.

Lady Bracknell: Are your parents living?

Jack Worthing: I have lost both my parents.

Lady Bracknell: To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. Do you smoke?

Jack Worthing: Well yes, I must admit I smoke.

Lady Bracknell: I’m glad to hear it. A man should have an occupation of some kind.

 

Samuel Beckett- I have seen Waiting for Godot more than any other production. Why? Because it takes on how we as individuals create value by affirming and living life, not by simply talking about it or philosophizing it in our minds. The play validates how each of us either creates value and the place of (or lack of) God in our lives. It has depth.  I see God and Godot as one and the same.

 

George Bernard Shaw- His ironic wit and his way of joking is to tell the truth, it’s why I love his quotes so much, such as— All great truths begin as blasphemies.  A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.  Youth is wasted on the young. Life isn’t about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself.  And of course his play Pygmalion which on the silver-screen became the 1930’s movie of the same name and later was adapted to the musical, My Fair Lady.

 

William Butler Yeats- His preference for using rhyme and strict stanza set him apart from the vogue of modern poetry. His creative imagination remained very much his own. An example is in The Drinking Song...

WINE comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That’s all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

 

Frank Mc Court- His memoir, Angela’s Ashes had me rolling from tragic comedies.  The misery and squalor of his childhood was brilliant. It was one book I thought of long after I put it down.  The film didn’t do the story justice.

 

Edna O’Brien- I was in awe when I read she wrote The Country Girls in a few short weeks. It;s lyrical portrayal of loving, sensitive, good women, being victimized by hard, callous men, and it’s publication hit the right note at the right time which is why it was banned in Ireland. O’Brien as a pioneer, set the road for women to write about relating to men sending out bulletins from battlefronts where other women dare not tread.

Nuala O’Faolain- She demonstrated terrific talent for being a counterpart to Frank McCourt.  Her memoir, Are You Somebody is so honest about her own shortcomings and dysfunctions at first it’s hard to like her but you will admire her. She floats from job to job–relationship to relationship without much thought to the consequences of her actions. It is not until she reaches a personal crisis at her parent’s death that she acknowledges the destructive role alcohol has played in her life—repeating familial patterns and the aimless way she has existed. It is then that she begins to emerge as a more introspective person and you come to love the person that she is.  It is truly beautiful.

How about you? The day inspire any stories?

Possibilities

Writing a great ending to a story is just as important as a riveting opening that attracts our attention and compels us to mentally linger over the story. Our response may be filled with joy, hope, happiness, or it may lead us to feel uncomfortable, frown, or contemplate the unknown mysteries of life.

I often say in my classes that I don’t believe there’s a predictable formula for every ending.  But, it’s essential to provide an emotional landing place, so the audience can feel a sense that their lives have been made richer for having heard the story. And while that may not be an easy feat, here are three tips to remember.

Find the right moment to end
It’s crucial to realize when it’s time to stop. The trick is to acknowledge mistakes and calamities without reiteration or blame, while at the same time avoiding any saccharine projections into the future.

Don’t end prematurely!
Sometimes the curtain falls with a surprising thud. Beware of premature endings that leave too many threads still unraveled. Crimes should be solved and the world saved from villains.
Most of my students write about themselves or an event in their lives. Focus on what makes a point, has a theme, and requires an enlightened ending, even though a life isn’t over. It doesn’t have to be happy, successful or inspiring.  What’s more important in a coming-of-age story are the resolutions of obstacles overcome, with experience and wisdom for anything that might follow.

Endings are about change
It’s disappointing for a reader to reach the end of a story only to realize that the characters and continuing events are basically at the same point as the beginning. 
Endings are about change. Fiction and narrative nonfiction stories are about overcoming major obstacles, quests, and transformations. The changes may not be all good. The story may be upsetting or depressing. But if no one learns anything and the challenges faced at the outset remain static and identical to those at the end, the story will seem pointless, unsatisfying, and without significance, not to mention the character staid.

Remember stories are about life which is why we respond to them.  Personally, my interest gets piqued by character-driven material— it’s one of the reasons why I love movies. I like to fall for characters featuring ordinary people who succeed in overcoming extraordinary challenges.   

What about you?
Are you working on the ending of a story? I’ll watch for any questions here in comments.

Nanu Nanu

I was reading somewhere online about the vast majority of indigenous languages still spoken in the United States that are on the verge of extinction.

Taken aback, I thought other than perhaps the Native-American tribes who speaks anything other than English in this country? I think that Americans are afraid of languages and resist learning them.  Its part of not wanting to give up control.  The melting pot  encourages a fusion of culture and language when it’s far richer to expand and motivate your left brain function. Our whole consciousness is framed by language and the loss of it serves as a break from identity. 

Linguist Elizabeth Little spent two years driving all over the country looking for the few remaining pockets where indigenous languages are still spoken — from the scores of Native American tongues, to the Creole of Louisiana. The resulting book is Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of America's Lost Languages.

Speaking three — okay truth be told, maybe only two and a half but having a good ear whenever I even say the word “schmootzik” Yiddish for dirty to my Coco when we’re at the doggie park I get blank stares as if I’m from outer space. http://www.bubbygram.com/yiddishglossary.htm

For anyone who speaks more than one language, some words have more power and pizzazz in a foreign tongue. It brings to mind, when I was growing up name-calling was “verboten” in our household and grounds for punishment.  Telling my brother who was eleven months older, that he gave me “asco” Spanish for nauseate was the ultimate insult and would leave me feeling very satisfied.

If I were to embark on learning a language facing extinction, I would choose Yiddish and here’s why.  

Before I met my husband I went on a blind-date with a man who spoke it fluently.  We were at an upscale restaurant breaking bread for the salad. I wasn’t the least bit impressed by his looks but I was about to find out what a wonderful conversationalist he was.  He told me that his father had said (in Yiddish) that he was so forgiving that a person could spit on his face and he would say it was raining.  I snorted my bread from laughter!   

There is a depth of Yiddish that shows complexity and humor.  It’s loaded with a secret code of expressions, including terms of endearments, complaints and insults. And although it is fading fast since the Jewish European wipe-out, my wish is that it lives on. So I’ll end with a Yiddish proverb: If one man calls you a donkey, ignore him. If two men call you a donkey, think about it. If three men call you a donkey, buy a saddle.

Perfect ten

It’s now March which means it’s Women's History Month.  To pay tribute to the month I’m listing the names of ten writers which I feel offer inspiring, bold and sometimes even disturbing stories of women — along with what makes them notable. It's important to dig into women’s stories, to experience first-hand how their storytelling evolved. These are my picks.          

Isabel Allende- I once saw her coming out of a Spanish language bookstore in Berlin as I was walking in, and out of respect for her privacy, I smiled. I could kick myself now for not having spoken to her. A gifted storyteller, The House of the Spirits and her other works have a focus on Latin women.  Her stories inspire, haunt and touch on the magical, and mythical in the lives of everyday people.

Zora Neale Hurston- How she maneuvered symbolism and colloquialisms in Their Eyes Were Watching God demonstrated originality and an incredible force of talent. Her work is regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature. 

Kate Chopin- Her depth of a woman's struggle within oppressive social structures received much public contempt at its first release of The Awakening. Its initial controversy may not be felt today but the depth of a woman’s self-actualization is as applicable today as it was then.  

Lillian Hellman- Her play The Little Foxes is intense.  I can’t say if it’s better as a book or as a performance because I've only read it. The story centers on a dysfunctional family and Hellman does a superb job of exploring the Apollonian and Dionysian struggle through wealthy southerners.   

Flannery O’Connor- She has a distinctive tone. Her prose sings. The songs are dark, tragic and sad. A terrific short-story collection is A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories.  She draws out the internal despair of her characters in a way that makes them feel palpable and real.  

Amy Tan- I don’t know another author who writes about mothers and daughters with more empathy than Tan. In The Bonesetter’s Daughter she depicts tumultuous relationships and most women will recognize enough similarities in the characters feelings and actions that will be eerie.

Jane Austen- Both society and the English language have changed in the nearly 200 years since the publication of Sense & Sensibility. Austen's language is as eloquent, warm, filled with bits of irresistible sarcasm as ever. The plot is very cleverly weaved and her heroines are given a vast space to express their thoughts and feelings, highlighting all the way through the differences between them.

Colette- A flair for drama and role-reversals.  She was divided into idyllic natural tales or dark struggles in love.  On my first voyage to France I was given the paperback Gigi by a girl-friend.  It was surprisingly different than the American musical film I had seen. The story of a girl being groomed into being a courtesan was marked by clever observation and dialogue with an intimate, explicit style. 

Sylvia Plath- Extraordinary psychological insights.  She echoed her own experiences as a rising writer in the early 1950s in The Bell Jar. It chronicles the nervous breakdown of a brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, successful, writer.  Her prose is clear; well-written; and steeped in isolation as she herself spirals into the darkest recesses of depression.

George Sand- A spectacular pleasure seeker. A mammoth of a book (800 plus pages, I had more patience back then) Consuelo, is the lively adventures of an 18th century Gypsy opera singer. A rare examination between music, religious fervor, love, insanity, travel, while tossing in numerous fascinating historical figures from the 18th century. Lively with powerful plot twists written in a spirit of independence.