Five Elements of a Short Story

This blog offers information for authors who want to write short stories.  Fans of fiction can enjoy reading this information to appreciate what makes stories fun to read.

Good short story writing contains five important things: character, motivation, conflict, change and resolution.

I’m using my own short story, “Lace”, to show examples of the five elements. “Lace” is one of six short stories in my 2013 book called “The Device.”  

A short story and even a novel begin with a character. Once that main character begins to move, we as authors write what he or she does and says. Stories are about people, not ideas or even events. Ralph is the main character in “Lace.” He is a poor cotton farmer who lives on a long- time family farm with his wife.

Ralph has invented something that will glean more cotton off the plants at harvesting. This will give more tonnage and profit to the farmers. Ralph’s motivation is to develop his invention and use it to improve the yield of cotton from his farm and the farms of his neighbors and friends.

Conflict is a critical part of any story. Ralph’s story begins with conflict. In the opening paragraphs, Ralph is beaten by two thugs hired by a ruthless corporation. The company wants his invention to increase the yield from the cotton fields. The two hired enforcers try to convince Ralph to submit to their demands.

Change happens quickly when Ralph’s wife, Phyllis, kills the two intruders. She’s a tiny woman, but Phyllis can handle a 12 gauge shotgun.  This is where a flashback is used to tell the reader the whole story. Flashbacks are a literary device we will explore in a future blog. 

Ralph and Phyllis use resolution to get benefits from the antagonists who tried to kill them.  The story has a surprise ending that adds to the importance of giving the reader a conclusion, either good or bad.

Authors who like to write short stories should keep these five parts in mind. However, the most important thing to remember when writing fiction is to simply tell me a story.

Thank you for taking time to read this blog. A new blog will be here in about one week.

See my web page at www.joevlatino.com.

Rhinoceros and Fog: Handling Criticism

This blog provides information for fiction writers. It gives readers of fiction some background information to help them better enjoy this art form. 

Someone reads one of your short stories and criticizes your use of character development.  Maybe the critic says the story is boring.  Whatever the comment is, it hurts your feelings and makes you burning mad.

I’m addressing the ways an author can cope with harsh, unjustified criticisms.  Being criticized and sometimes insulted about the stories we write can hurt our egos and infuriate us.

Authors have fears like everyone else that affect our actions and reactions to the people around us. Two common fears most of us have are the fear of rejection and the fear of being criticized.  These two similar fears are strong within us, especially among young people who depend on forms of social media to establish their standings with their peers. These two fears can make authors defensive when their writings are targeted by caustic evaluations.

Criticisms are routinely passed against the works of creative people. The stories we write are unique and personal. It’s natural to feel defensive against anyone who makes remarks against our stories. The best way to respond to someone’s mean, often cruel comments about your writing is to avoid your impulse to react to the critic’s words. The only reaction that works is to not respond at all.

Two quite different things that can help you cope with criticism are (stay with me) a rhinoceros and fog. People who are overly sensitive to anyone’s comments about them are said to have a thin skin. Think about the thick-skinned rhinoceros. Those animals have a hide so dense that it is difficult for spears or arrows to penetrate. Imagine that your skin is thick enough that criticism about your stories bounce off you the way spears and arrows bounce off the rhinoceros.

When you are confronted with harsh criticisms in a face-to-face situation, make yourself a wall of fog. The words directed at you simply pass through the fog without any resistance at all. Keep smiling and simply tell the critic thanks for his or her opinion and interest. Explaining your story or defending your writing won’t do any good.

If you confront a critic who has written or spoken harsh words against your work, the situation worsens and it can result into an upward spiral of arguing back and forth. The conversation between the two of you will take on a continuing dialogue that serves no purpose. Remain quiet and professional.

As writers, we need to be aware of the social and legal limits that affect critics of our work. Anything we write for public consumption is available for reviews and comments from anyone who has an opinion he or she wants to express.  The creative works of fiction we write are available for criticisms the same way any artist’s works are open for comments.

It’s the price we pay to get our hard work read. That freedom of criticism stops, however, if libel or slander is leveled personally at the artist. Only the creative work can be targeted, not the author personally.

Professional writing is a highly competitive field where criticisms are always present. Everyone is a critic, because everyone has an opinion. Welcome the input and keep writing.

Thank you for reading this blog.  In about a week we’ll have more information for writers and for people who like to read fiction.

***Look for my web site at www.joevlatino.com 

Similes and Metaphors

This is the first blog for 2014. Our goal is to provide information for new fiction writers and to give fans of fiction something interesting to read.

Today’s entry clarifies the confusion between similes and metaphors. There’s a personal note at the end of this post that is strictly my opinion about using similes. I hope you enjoy the blog.

A simile (sim-a-le) and a metaphor (met-a-for-er) are figures of speech that work in similar ways. They both compare something to another item or person. The comparisons can involve items or things that have very different qualities.

Creative writers use a simile or metaphor to put vivid descriptions into their verse and poetry. They are used almost exclusively in fiction rather than nonfiction.

The best way to explain these similar but different parts of speech is to provide some examples.

“The color of her cheeks looks like roses,” a simile. “She has rosy, red cheeks,” a metaphor.

“She’s as fierce as a tiger,” a simile. “She’s a tiger when she’s angry,” a metaphor.

“She eats like a bird,” a simile. “She has a bird’s tiny appetite,” a metaphor. To be accurate, we should point out that most birds eat proportionally much more than we do.

A simile uses the words like and as to describe the comparison. A metaphor describes a word or phrase aimed directly to an object or action. “It’s raining cats and dogs” makes the comparison in metaphor terms without any qualifications. “It’s raining as hard as cats and dogs” is a simile with some qualifications instead of the definite comparison a metaphor provides.

Two examples of a simile comparing two items as similar but not the same are “My love is like a red, red rose” and “He was as cold as ice.”

The fool-proof way to know when a simile is used is to find the qualifiers like or as. Otherwise the comparison came from a metaphor.

Actually, the important thing to remember is that similes have become self-serving, verbose descriptions that you should avoid completely. Don’t use similes at all—not ever.

My personal opinion is that the simile may come back into fashion someday. Now, however, that figure of speech is completely overused. The metaphor accomplishes the same end as the simile except in a direct way. Metaphors give more meaning to a concept. It helps an author use his or her words to paint a vivid word picture.

Thank you for reading this blog. In about a week we’ll have more information of interest to new writers and anyone who reads fiction.

***Look for my web site at www.joelatino.com

The Most Important Sentence

Welcome to another edition of our blog for new writers of fiction. We diverted from our usual comments about writing for the past three weeks to provide some entertaining subjects relative to the holiday season. Hopefully, you enjoyed our diversions into Christmas subjects.

We emphasize the short story art form, but any composition contains parallels that apply to all writing. This week we are focusing on the single most important element to capture our readers’ interests. It’s the first sentence that influences a reader to keep him or her interested enough to keep reading.

A skillfully composed introduction grabs a reader’s interest.  That interest in the written word must compete against all the distractions that surround us every conscious minute. The first sentence carries the most important stimulus to keep the reader reading. It must bring you into the picture, present an image and the main character of the story.  A first sentence can be surprising and even funny.

Franz Kafka wrote a novella in 1915. The first sentence is a perfect example of how to start a story.  The work of fiction is “The Metamorphosis.” It begins with the sentence, “One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.”

That 20-word sentence tells us the name of the protagonist, the setting (his bedroom), and the conflict that he must attempt to overcome. The opening is very interesting and designed perfectly to keep the reader engrossed in the story.  Gregor is never called a cockroach or a specific animal at all.  However, literary critics often use the roach reference in describing him.

A famous first line comes from Melville’s “Moby Dick.”  “Call me Ishmael” starts the novel and lets us know who the main character is.  The location and story conflict are shown quickly in the next few sentences. 

“Mark worked at a desk crammed into a small office.”  That’s the first sentence of a new short story written by me. The main character is portrayed as someone who works as a manager in a small, seedy office.

 Stephen King said during an interview that he goes back to a first sentence several times while he is composing a story.  Then he goes back to a finished story after several days.

It’s a cliché that good writing comes from rewriting.  Taking time to rewrite the first sentence to give it impact will make an improvement in any story.   

Thank you for reading this blog.  In about a week we will have a new blog that will explore another topic of fiction writing.