Short Story Tutorial
I’ve thought about writing some shorter works lately, but realised that it’s been a very long time, and I think I might have lost my touch. I haven’t really tried to do much in the way of short stories since university. It seems that all of my story ideas feel like they would take 250 pages to tell.
So it seemed perfect timing when Sally over at THE ELEPHANT IN THE WRITING ROOM started a series of short story tutorials. I decided to play along. I’m already behind, because I wasn’t expecting her to work so quickly, but I plan to catch up! I really liked the first lesson, where she went over the basics and gave us a short exercise to do.
The instructions were to write about a street musician, or someone observing him. She said: “Don’t at this stage tell me a story. Or create a structure. Or describe where we are. No. What I want you to do is merely describe the person. Not his or her physical appearance, unless it might be relevant to what they are such as blindness, but how they are feeling and why they’re there doing what they’re doing. I want to have a feel for the kind of people they are without your telling me they’re, say, old, grey-haired and miserable or young, troubled and penniless. Show me.”
Here’s what I came up with:
She watched him from the mobile phone shop’s window. The glass blocked the sound he beat out of his worn guitar, but she knew every note. His growling voice sang in her memories. Late nights and hard living had left grooves in his skin, and his clothes were faded and worn, but still his body moved with rapture as he sang. When the song finished, his blue eyes turned toward her, as though he’d felt her stare. Her courage failed her now as it had ten years before. She ducked behind a 3G display.
I don’t really have any desire at all to write a short story about a street musician, but as with the Writing Adventure Group, I think we learn a lot when we write on a pre-determined topic not of our own choosing, I think it flexes certain writer-muscles we don’t use any other way.
Note: The thumbnail pic for this post is a photo of my friend, Swedish rockstar Andreas Lundgren (he hates it when I call him a rockstar… hehe). I took this photo when I was creating his website BannedFromUSA.com and it seemed perfect to go with this post. He has a ton of free music on his website to download or listen to via streaming, so if you’re interested, check out the site. I also did the cover art for his “Bad Buddah” album. (Yes, it’s spelled wrong on purpose 
— Musicians are funny, what can I say?)
BTW, if you’re an author wanting a new website, I do freelance design work, so drop me a line via the contact form and we can talk about your vision for your author website.
—
One more note… I would encourage everyone who can to think about participating in the 2010 New York Writer’s Coalition “Write Your Ass Off” day this Saturday. For those who can’t get to NYC to participate, there is an online version as well!
This is the first year that we are offering the chance for you to Write Your A** Off from anywhere! We’ve created the challenge of writing 3,000 words (about 10 pages) in one day, and we know you can do it!
Our FREE Write-A-Thon site features discussion forums, a prompt station, online workshops, resources to help you on June 12th (as well as before and after), chances to connect with other Write-A-Thonners and much more. Click here to sign up!
I’ve been cooking along pretty well with my WIP lately, and know that 3000 words in one day is certainly doable. The main reason I’m wanting to participate is really for the community feel of it. I have really been enjoying the support of the Twitter #amwriting and #writegoal folks, and have made some good writerly friends that way.
I hope you’ll join us!
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
I love short stories. In fact I feel more comfortable with them than with novels, so I’ll check the site you mentioned.
I liked your first task.
I could do that. The 3000 words in one day, I mean.
[ Follow me on Twitter: alexjcavanaugh ]
Yeah, I don’t actually find it that difficult if a story is going well. Today I wrote 2888 on Wildings without a lot of effort. My problem is that I can’t do that every day. How great would that be?
[ Follow me on Twitter: IndiaDrummond ]
Now that’s a good exercise. I don’t have time for the longer ones, but I could do one paragraph.
Oh yes, writing about a predetermined topic does flex certain writer muscles! As much as I procrastinate on it, the stuff that comes out when I get it done is sometimes better than my chosen topics.
Hi India, writing about a set topic is a great idea alright. Sometimes, it’s hard to come up with one out of the blue and sit down to write about it.
[ Follow me on Twitter: oliveobrien ]
Sounds like a really great tutorial and worth the time put into it! Sounds like you’ve got some great things going with your writing and setting short term goals for yourself is what its all about!
[ Follow me on Twitter: katiemills18hotmail.com ]
Oh I love your piece about the musician – already there’s a story brewing. I love the tension created to – and the hint of their past histories together. Lovely, thank you.
Take care
x
Excellent! I see him. I see her. That’s real tension you’ve built there.
[ Follow me on Twitter: girlfrenkate ]
Funny, I have a hard time with short story format. I tend to write very short (250 to 1500 words) or novella or longer length. For some reason the 2500 to 12000 length story is very hard for me to do.
I can do 3000 words in a day, but not consistently. Deadlines help in that regard.
Good luck on WYAO Day.
~jon
[ Follow me on Twitter: jmstro ]
I’ve been interested in writing short stories too. Thanks for sharing what you’ve learned.
You help set up websites? I’m definitely interested in that. I bought a domain name but haven’t done anything with it. Please e-mail me at tmilstein at gmail dot com
I did 3000 words a couple of times last year in NaNoWriMo… Haven’t been motivated or had the time to write that much in a day since.:)
[ Follow me on Twitter: michelledevans ]