By the way the title is just a play on one of the names of the short stories we've read so far. I am in no position to tell you how to write a good short story, as I first need to get my crap together.
Now that we have that out of the way, here comes the real part of my blogpost: so far, all of the short stories we've read so far gives us something to think about after we've read it: for O'Brien, it's about the morality of war; for Hemingway, it's about relationship dynamics between man and wife; for Salinger, it's about social interactions in general; and finally, for Baldwin, it's about racism and how it affects people.
The way each of these authors goes about doing it is different though. All of them do only give a small snapshot of a person's life or a specific event. Some stories give you a satisfying ending, but leaves you thinking about the events that occurred within the story, such as "The Rockpile"; in there, we see the dynamics between Johnnie and Gabriel, and how Gabriel favors Roy a lot more than Johnnie. Others put a twist ending on them, leaving you to speculate why that certain event happened like that; we can see this in many of Salinger's stories - I mean almost all of them, like how in "A Perfect day for Bananafish", Seymour shot himself in the head or how in "The Laughing Man" the laughing man decided to kill himself, leaving the Comanches to walk home in fear. Even others just don't give you a satisfying ending, leaving you with a "what the hell" mentality and then try to understand why the author made it that way. This was typical of Hemingway, such as in "A very Short Story", the ending tells us the narrator got an STD. Another thing that made me keep on reading the stories was that they seemed so real to me. Maybe that was why Mr. Mitchell had us write anecdotes, which is something truthful that did happen to us, and use that truth to flesh out a story that will also seem truthful?
Anyhow, those are just some observations I've made. I would tell a lot more, but I've forgotten a lot of things that I wanted to say... I really regret not writing my ideas down. Look forward to the comments section, as I will very likely be posting followups when my brain is in better shape... but leave in the comments below of how you think a successful short story should include!
Hey guys,
ReplyDeleteI apologize for my incompetence yesterday! Now that my brain is fresh, I'm gonna try to make up for that...
So yesterday I was really trying to focus on one particular story of Baldwin's, specifically "Previous Condition". From our student discussion last Friday, I could tell that everyone was hooked by this story, but what made it so effective?
I looked up a couple of tips on how to write a successful story, and all of the websites I came across said that it should be short and sweet, and that most of the most successful ones are under 3,500 words. Although I don't know the word count for "Previous Condition", I can confidently say that he uses every word to the fullest - even the title had implications that can be interpreted as a direct reference to the 15th amendment of the constitution or to healthcare (like Nicholas stated). Every scene had its purpose - there was no "filling" to the story.Within these 18 pages, we can see clearly the dynamics of race and how they affect three different minority groups that are discriminated against: an African-American, a Jew, and a previously poor, Irish girl (who's also married to a gay ballet dancer for money).
Anthony, I think you've really hit the nail on the head here, in noticing one particular thing about short stories: They've really failed if all they leave you with is the plot. You pulled up some nice examples about the different things the various authors we've read have done, and about how making stories real to the readers is also extremely important. Well observed!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Timmy's analysis of your post, Anthony. One of the biggest themes that has been represented throughout all of the stories that we have read has been that the reader should be getting more out of the story than just the story. I think this is especially true in stories like "How to tell a true war story," (the reference in your title is very apt) and I think that this trend will continue with the other books we read. Great post.
ReplyDeleteWhat Joaquin and Timmy have discussed is interesting. When writing my short story, I always had trouble making it more than just a story. When people think of writing a short story, they think "Oh I have plenty of stories to tell, I'll just write one down" and it ends up being a plot with no depth. What this has made me realize is that writing a short story really is not as simple as it appears.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you say that you weren't going to actually tell us how to write a good short story... because you certainly gave us a set of things to look for in writing as "observations." The fact that you identified these trends in good writing (we know it was good because Mr. Mitchell wants us to read it) allows us to generalize them as makers of good writing?
ReplyDeleteI particularly enjoyed short stories with endings that can be interpreted in many ways, allowing the reader to kind of chose what they think happened. This technique allows the reader to interpret the stories differently. For example: at the end of "Teddy", Salinger's last story, we hear a scream coming from a "small female child" at the pool. We don't know exactly what the cause of the girls scream which leaves it open for interpretation.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started reading short stories with open endings, I didn't really like them because I felt very unsatisfied thinking that I would never know the "real" ending. But the more short stories I read with these open endings, the more I enjoyed them. I realized that although endings that come to a resolution are often satisfying, stories with open endings really open up opportunities for discussion. Not only that, open endings make you go back into the story and look for evidence to support a particular idea/ending that you thought of. Overall I have really come to appreciate the three types of endings that you have mentioned. Each has its own merit and appeal, and I definitely agree that the ending is a very important and memorable part of the short story.
ReplyDeleteI think with these "what the hell" moments, it's what short stories are really about. They aren't about they plot. If they were, it would be a novel. The short stories we've read have all been about how they make you feel. While you may fight back and say that it does have to do with the plot, I'm not denying that, I'm just saying the plot is a mechanism to make you feel. Like with "The Things They Carried" O'Brien changes who killed who and what really happened, in order to make you feel something. (and then he writes an authors note to make you question everything you've read and want to throw your book out the window, but you actually like it so you don't)
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