Short stories -R- us
So, yeah. Last week I hit a wall in my Stormy Weather outline. I'm rewriting/expanding/making awesome a YA ... novella ... I wrote about four years ago. I like the concept and I like the characters, so I wanted to clean 'em up and see what I could do with 'em. I got about 10K in before reworking the outline again. (This is usual for me: outline, write, rework the outline, repeat). However, I kept hitting stumbling blocks. I could get my characters to do what I needed them to, and get there where the story needed them to be, but I failed to see why anyone would give a shit.
So I said "fuck this novel shit" and pulled out a short story I wrote four years ago with the intent of tweaking it a bit. After reading the first few pages, I decided that while I liked the concept, it deserved an overhaul and not just a tweak. So! I'm rewriting a short story about an assassin having a mid-life crisis. About a third of the way through, and if I don't screw around too much, I should have it done this week.
Which got me to thinking about why I love short stories so much and why it's so frickin' hard for me to write first drafts of novels (aside from the obvious instant-gratification reasons). I realized a few things about character.
1) Characters for my short stories usually land into my head almost fully formed. Yeah, I usually know the basic plot of the short when I sit down to write it, and I learn lots about the character as I go through the story, but when I start I have a pretty good idea of what it feels like to walk around in their skin for a day or three.
2). Characters for my novels are more of a mystery to me. They are waiting for me to figure out who they are and what their story is.
Which brought me to an epiphany of sorts. (Just a little one). Perhaps if I treat each chapter of a novel as a short story (more in my head and not in actual execution), I'll be able to flesh out my characters a bit more. Great characters=readers giving a shit about the story they're in. Viola!
So now I'm looking forward to tackling my Stormy Weather outline again (after finishing the short story, of course.)
So I said "fuck this novel shit" and pulled out a short story I wrote four years ago with the intent of tweaking it a bit. After reading the first few pages, I decided that while I liked the concept, it deserved an overhaul and not just a tweak. So! I'm rewriting a short story about an assassin having a mid-life crisis. About a third of the way through, and if I don't screw around too much, I should have it done this week.
Which got me to thinking about why I love short stories so much and why it's so frickin' hard for me to write first drafts of novels (aside from the obvious instant-gratification reasons). I realized a few things about character.
1) Characters for my short stories usually land into my head almost fully formed. Yeah, I usually know the basic plot of the short when I sit down to write it, and I learn lots about the character as I go through the story, but when I start I have a pretty good idea of what it feels like to walk around in their skin for a day or three.
2). Characters for my novels are more of a mystery to me. They are waiting for me to figure out who they are and what their story is.
Which brought me to an epiphany of sorts. (Just a little one). Perhaps if I treat each chapter of a novel as a short story (more in my head and not in actual execution), I'll be able to flesh out my characters a bit more. Great characters=readers giving a shit about the story they're in. Viola!
So now I'm looking forward to tackling my Stormy Weather outline again (after finishing the short story, of course.)