Short Story 100: #1-10
Apr. 22nd, 2019 09:32 pmAs of April 21, I’ve written up 10 stories for my Short Story 100 project, putting me at 10 percent of the project goal. For more info about the Short Story 100, check out this post.
It’s been fun to scavenge for short stories to read. I’m opening up long-untouched collections on my home bookshelves, exploring new sections of the library, and getting cool recommendations from friends (thanks,
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bironic !). I had a rough idea of where short stories were published before embarking on this project, but it’s been instructive to see where specific stories appeared for the first time, whether in print or online magazines or as part of author collections or anthologies. My “25 or more works written in 2000 or later” rule has given me a welcome shove outside of my classics comfort zone, and I’m discovering new authors that I enjoy, including both Caitlín Kiernan and Raymond Carver. Thus far, I’d say my accompanying writing exercise for each story has been fruitful. I typically set a timer for 20 minutes or so and try to get through writing the synopsis, the logline, and other notes about things that occurred to me regarding structure, characterization, etcetera. While a complex story can take me more time to write up, I limit the amount of time I spend writing about each one so this overall project doesn’t become too overwhelming. Producing the synopsis takes up the lion's share of that 20-25 minutes, but this work sets me up to create the logline, which is the trickiest but also the most useful part of the exercise. My current challenge is trying to get ideas for short stories, so it helps to capture in one sentence what other people felt compelled to write about. I also appreciate the practice for when I need to write loglines for my own stories. Strong loglines make for good AO3 summaries, and when I write them in the middle of a project that’s lost its way, I can usually get myself back on track.
Based on the stories I’ve read so far, one trend has emerged: short stories are weird, man. At least these were. If they were pieces of music, they’d all be in a minor key. Even when they close on a hopeful note, their sense of uncertainty is what lingers in my mind. I suppose that as I keep reading, I'll learn whether this is a feature of the the stories I'm drawn to, or a more common feature across the board.
