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 Douglas Adams – with a few from myself…
10 Tips For Writers From Douglas Adams
1. Choose your sources with care. ‘All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.’ Not exactly sure what this means, but my SF is based on as current real science as I can make it. That’s NOT to say I don’t twist it around to fit my needs. I’m pretty sure Adams tweaked the science to invent the Improbability Drive…
2. Trust the process. ‘I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.’ (The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul). Funny, I’ve started to write that way more and more in the past few months. I start with what I call a “circle” plot, just an event -> event -> event ->event…etc. Then I curve it around a sheet of paper to squeeze it down as tight as I can. That’s usually the “bones” of a story, but it usually doesn’t survive very long. The characters take over and like a story I just finished called (currently) “Patch”, it really didn’t end up where I thought I did, but like Adams says, “I ended up where I needed to be.”
3. Change your perspective. ‘He was constantly reminded of how startlingly different a place the world was when viewed from a point only three feet to the left.’ (The Salmon of Doubt) I have a story originally called “May They Rest”; changed to “By Custom and Law”; and now I realize I may have the WRONG VIEWPOINT CHARACTER…so that one is waiting in the wings to be completely re-written.
4. Look for ideas in irritating things. ‘So where do the ideas actually come from? Mostly from getting annoyed about things. Not big issues so much … as the little irritations that drive you wild out of all proportion.’ (The Frood: The Authorised and Very Official History of Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) Only one short statement here: The name of my blog is, of course POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS!
5. Observe everything all the time. ‘They were not the same eyes with which he had last looked out at this particular scene, and the brain which interpreted the images the eyes resolved was not the same brain. There had been no surgery involved, just the continual wrenching of experience.’ (So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish) I wrote a story about an abandoned building I’d been driving past for 20 years. Made of corrugated steel, MADNEDVILLE MEATS: Equipment & Supplies was easily visible from the frontage road along a major interstate. For some reason, it inspired in me some kind of macabre ideas…
6. Make your writing user-friendly. ‘If you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else.’ (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency) That’s what I try to do! However, I wrote a short-short piece that the editor got enough to buy it…and then I proceeded to field questions about what it was supposed to be about for months thereafter. I still have a document with my explanation in it on file! So at least once, I did NOT make the story user-friendly…
7. Push your boundaries. ‘Let’s think the unthinkable, let’s do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.’ (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency) Oddly, “Patch” allowed me to do something I’ve never done – dialogue the way the CHARACTER would speak. The character is an angry, criminal, post-adolescent who (like most Army folk) is inordinately fond of a particular vulgar word. I’ve avoided using the word in my characters ever since I started writing, but it’s how this young adult would speak. HOWEVER, I have him use the word a dozen or so times until another character asks him if he knows what “vulgar” means. The character replies, “_____ cussing!” The other gives him the real definition of “vulgar”, and as the story continues, the post-adolescent uses the word less and less as his character grows. I don’t think I “effed it”…
8. All writers procrastinate. ‘I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.’ (The Salmon of Doubt) I know that one! I find myself looking at the news from BBC-online, FB, Twitter, emails…as much as I can. But I DO recognize that they’re time sinks (just as much as me getting off-track in my research!) Because it’s not as critical now that I’m retired, I don’t worry as much. When I had a 40+ hour a week job, I was ruthless. I’ve never had a writing deadline (OK, I have, but never for a piece of fiction…)
9. Create a world and create conflict. “The story so far: ‘In the beginning the Universe was created’. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe) Actually, I rather like it as a beginning and think things have been going along, while not nicely, but progressively, supposedly from bad to better. It’s the ending that seems to have everyone in a tizzy of late. But I’m one to just let the story go on. If I leave the visible storyline before it’s over, then so be it. In my writing, I ALWAYS have conflict of some sort. GETTING TO THE CONFLICT is sometimes a challenge for me because I love the worlds I create and assume everyone else does, too…I like it because my worlds show to me how incredibly brilliant I am!
10. Do your research. ‘I’d take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.’ (The Salmon of Doubt) I’d have to agree. I’ve been an educator my entire life, both professionally and by my nature. I LOVE to explain stuff! I love to do the research to find out HOW stuff works. I love when other people don’t understand new stuff and are just puttering along, making up things that explain what’s happening! Then I can poke around their theory and see what it says and how it impacts my life and how it MIGHT impact the lives of my characters.
References: https://www.writerswrite.co.za/10-tips-for-writers-from-douglas-adams/?fbclid=IwAR13h3X417m8rt3iX86dPckjR5wRKirhjTURNEYY3-ZJ40nid57QpCFFuXU
Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320
2. Trust the process. ‘I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.’ (The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul). Funny, I’ve started to write that way more and more in the past few months. I start with what I call a “circle” plot, just an event -> event -> event ->event…etc. Then I curve it around a sheet of paper to squeeze it down as tight as I can. That’s usually the “bones” of a story, but it usually doesn’t survive very long. The characters take over and like a story I just finished called (currently) “Patch”, it really didn’t end up where I thought I did, but like Adams says, “I ended up where I needed to be.”
3. Change your perspective. ‘He was constantly reminded of how startlingly different a place the world was when viewed from a point only three feet to the left.’ (The Salmon of Doubt) I have a story originally called “May They Rest”; changed to “By Custom and Law”; and now I realize I may have the WRONG VIEWPOINT CHARACTER…so that one is waiting in the wings to be completely re-written.
4. Look for ideas in irritating things. ‘So where do the ideas actually come from? Mostly from getting annoyed about things. Not big issues so much … as the little irritations that drive you wild out of all proportion.’ (The Frood: The Authorised and Very Official History of Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) Only one short statement here: The name of my blog is, of course POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS!
5. Observe everything all the time. ‘They were not the same eyes with which he had last looked out at this particular scene, and the brain which interpreted the images the eyes resolved was not the same brain. There had been no surgery involved, just the continual wrenching of experience.’ (So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish) I wrote a story about an abandoned building I’d been driving past for 20 years. Made of corrugated steel, MADNEDVILLE MEATS: Equipment & Supplies was easily visible from the frontage road along a major interstate. For some reason, it inspired in me some kind of macabre ideas…
6. Make your writing user-friendly. ‘If you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else.’ (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency) That’s what I try to do! However, I wrote a short-short piece that the editor got enough to buy it…and then I proceeded to field questions about what it was supposed to be about for months thereafter. I still have a document with my explanation in it on file! So at least once, I did NOT make the story user-friendly…
7. Push your boundaries. ‘Let’s think the unthinkable, let’s do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.’ (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency) Oddly, “Patch” allowed me to do something I’ve never done – dialogue the way the CHARACTER would speak. The character is an angry, criminal, post-adolescent who (like most Army folk) is inordinately fond of a particular vulgar word. I’ve avoided using the word in my characters ever since I started writing, but it’s how this young adult would speak. HOWEVER, I have him use the word a dozen or so times until another character asks him if he knows what “vulgar” means. The character replies, “_____ cussing!” The other gives him the real definition of “vulgar”, and as the story continues, the post-adolescent uses the word less and less as his character grows. I don’t think I “effed it”…
8. All writers procrastinate. ‘I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.’ (The Salmon of Doubt) I know that one! I find myself looking at the news from BBC-online, FB, Twitter, emails…as much as I can. But I DO recognize that they’re time sinks (just as much as me getting off-track in my research!) Because it’s not as critical now that I’m retired, I don’t worry as much. When I had a 40+ hour a week job, I was ruthless. I’ve never had a writing deadline (OK, I have, but never for a piece of fiction…)
9. Create a world and create conflict. “The story so far: ‘In the beginning the Universe was created’. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe) Actually, I rather like it as a beginning and think things have been going along, while not nicely, but progressively, supposedly from bad to better. It’s the ending that seems to have everyone in a tizzy of late. But I’m one to just let the story go on. If I leave the visible storyline before it’s over, then so be it. In my writing, I ALWAYS have conflict of some sort. GETTING TO THE CONFLICT is sometimes a challenge for me because I love the worlds I create and assume everyone else does, too…I like it because my worlds show to me how incredibly brilliant I am!
10. Do your research. ‘I’d take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.’ (The Salmon of Doubt) I’d have to agree. I’ve been an educator my entire life, both professionally and by my nature. I LOVE to explain stuff! I love to do the research to find out HOW stuff works. I love when other people don’t understand new stuff and are just puttering along, making up things that explain what’s happening! Then I can poke around their theory and see what it says and how it impacts my life and how it MIGHT impact the lives of my characters.
References: https://www.writerswrite.co.za/10-tips-for-writers-from-douglas-adams/?fbclid=IwAR13h3X417m8rt3iX86dPckjR5wRKirhjTURNEYY3-ZJ40nid57QpCFFuXU
Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320
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