In this feature, I’ll be looking at “advice” for writing short stories – not from me, but from other short story writers. In speculative fiction, “short” has very carefully delineated categories: “The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula award categories by word count; Novel 40,000 words or over; Novella 17,500 to 39,999 words; Novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words; Short story under 7,500 words.”
I’m going to use advice from people who, in addition to writing novels, have also spent plenty of time “interning” with short stories. While most of them are speculative fiction writers, I’ll also be looking at plain, old, effective short story writers. The advice will be in the form of one or several quotes off of which I’ll jump and connect it with my own writing experience. While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do most of the professional writers...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see! Hemingway’s quote above will now remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!
Without further ado, short story observations by William Sydney Porter – with a few from myself…
I suppose I should start off by saying that William Sydney Porter is most famously known as O. Henry…
Unfortunately, he only gave one interview during his career, and that was in 1909. A long-time recluse, all the world ever saw of him was his work. I’ll be drawing heavily from the interview. However, other people have analyzed his works as well and some have deduced lessons from O. Henry. Herewith, I offer a few.
To begin, “[Poet] James Whitcomb Riley thought of [Porter] only as a literary genius who with pen wand conjures from his ink pot ‘delectables conglomerate…In spite of the fact that for the past six or seven years O. Henry has been one of the most popular short-story writers in America… acclaimed by many…as one of the greatest of this country's tellers of short tales.”
Physically, at the time the interviewer described him as “short, stocky, broad-shouldered, ruddy-faced, clear-eyed, and none of his hair missing. He has none of the wan intellectuality, none of the pale aestheticisms that are conventional parts of the make-up of the literary lions that disport themselves at afternoon tea parties, One can readily see that he is the natural father of ‘the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating’, which moral reflection is the thread upon which most of his stories are strung.”
OK – now we’re getting somewhere. I’m going to gather all of these threads together at the end of this essay and reflect on how his work ethic and mine coincide or clash.
After several…florid starts at various careers, he started to write in earnest in New Orleans: “I sent stories to newspapers, weeklies, and magazines all over the country. Rejections? Lordy, I should say I did have rejections, but I never took them to heart. I just stuck new stamps on the stories and sent them out again. And in their journeying to and fro all the stories finally landed in offices where they found a welcome. I can say that I never wrote anything that, sooner or later, hasn't been accepted.”
The interviewer asked for advice to young writers, “…[Here’s] the whole secret of short story writing…Rule I: Write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule II…If you can't write a story that pleases yourself you’ll never please the public. But in writing the story forget the public…I get a story thoroughly in mind before I sit down at my writing table. Then I write it out quickly; and, without revising it mail it to the editor. In this way I am able to judge my stories as the public judges them. I've seen stories in print that I wouldn't recognize as my own.”
The interview concluded with the announcement that he was writing a novel that would soon be published. But just before that, he said, “…change Twenty-third Street in one of my New York stories to Main Street, rub out the Flatiron Building, and put in the Town Hall and the story will fit just as truly in any up-State town…So long as a story is true to human nature all you need do is change the local color to make it fit in any town North, East, South, or West. If you have the right kind of an eye--the kind that can disregard high hats, cutaway coats, and trolley cars--you can see all the characters in the Arabian Nights parading up and down Broadway at midday.”
The essay points out aspects of what made – and continue to make –O. Henry’s work vivid. “…humorous languages. He is a master of using paronomasia [aka “word play”, in its crudest form, “puns”], metaphor, irony...skilled in conceiving the surprise but logical ending…the result always changes suddenly and contrary to readers' expectations. The unexpected endings can make people think more about the problems or situations that the story has revealed…[He writes in] the style of “tearful smile”, which is the combination of comedy and tragedy…even though the ending is sad, there are usually some hopes and lights in it.”
And finally, O. Henry wrote with common themes: “…deception (such as turning the tables on Haroun Al-Raschid,” the caliph ancient time who would mingle with the common people), mistaken identity, the effects of coincidence, the unchangeable nature of the fate and the resolution of seemingly unsolvable difficulties separating two lovers… the pretense and reversal of fate, discovery and initiation through adventure, the city as a playground for imagination, and the basic yearning of all humanity.”
Everyone knows that O. Henry was an absolute master of the surprise ending: “[His stories] lead you on it the beginning with a thought that everything is going according to plan. He lets the reader…think that we have it figured out, [but] He has something waiting for us at the end of the book. Something that would seem like it came out of nowhere” but is perfectly logical on later reflection!
It's clear that this master had a way with words, but is it something someone like me could imitate?
Maybe. Laid out plainly, there are six things that O. Henry did:
1) Start with a quick opening that pulls the reader into the action with surefire ‘hook’
2) Add a confiding narrator who holds back important information until the last moment
3) Write with a pleasant and worldly wise tone including chitchat, wit, satire, philosophy, and swank (ie, behavior, talk, or display intended to impress others)
4) The open-minded use of a ‘humane renegade’
5) Make sure you add a dash of coincidence usually with a reversal in which everything is saved and set right
6) Last of course, is his signature surprise ending
In my own writing, I’ve learned to do the first. I’ve practiced so much that I can usually turn out a quick hook. The second thing may have changed since the early 20th Century. I’ve heard it said that we don’t hold ANYTHING back – at least not important information. That said, it’s no problem if we convey information that SEEMS unimportant but IS…and this is a problem that can only be resolved through practice.
My narrators seem to be one of my weaknesses. Sometimes I can create great ones, other times, they fall flat and are boring. Even to me – I’ve discovered that the fourth viewpoint character in my WIP is boring…who knew? I can communicate well with realistic dialogue, but wit, satire, and swank…hmmm. Not so much.
The “human renegade” is a concept I never considered. BUT, looking at some of my favorite books and stories, I can easily see the character now. That’s something I’ll have to work on. As for coincidence, I’ve heard it said many times that our writing isn’t REAL LIFE…it’s LIKE real life with all the boring parts cut out. I happen to prefer “happy endings” to ones where the hero dies a gruesome death through no fault of their own. OTOH, if you’ve ever read Craig Johnson’s LONGMIRE books, you know that it’s contrived coincidence that has kept him alive through twenty-three stories, novellas, and books!
And the surprise ending – sometimes known as the “punchline”. There are editors that abhor this kind of writing, but I think people still LIKE the unexpected. When novels and stories pretend to mimic the random disasters of life, it makes me put the book down and say, “If I wanted to read something realistic, I’d go to BBC.com…” I don’t always want to read something that’s realistic. Sometimes I need to read something that SEEMS realistic, but isn’t at all.
Anyway, I’ve learned a bit from this. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go make some changes to my WIP!
References:
The only interview O. Henry ever gave: https://library.greensboro-nc.gov/research/north-carolina-collection/o-henry-portal/resources-at-the-greensboro-public-library/o-henry-s-only-interview
A Brief Analysis of the Typical Writing Styles of O. Henry: https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/iconfem-16/25867465#:~:text=Another%20writing%20style%20of%20his,surprising%20endings%2C%20and%20tearful%20smile.
Themes, Style, and Technique of O Henry: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/themes-styles-techniques-ohenry.php
Image: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41JNnybcihL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
