Short Fiction

The genre of Short Fiction is defined by its length, well, technically, its word count. Short, also called 'short-short' and (rarely) 'sudden' Fiction is exactly what the name implies. It can encompass any of the other genres, as long as it meets all length requirements. The challenge when writing within the short fiction genre, is that the end result should be a complete and interesting story.

 As I'm discovering, brief yet satisfying stories are a challenge to write, and as a result, the majority of Short Fiction pieces rely on the use of a twist ending to add interest. 

Authors such as O Henry and HH Munro grew famous for their works of Short Fiction.

2. Twitterfic

Having never ‘tweeted’ before, I had no idea how hard it would be to write a Twitterfic story. As one of the newest known subgenres of the Short Fiction genre, Twitterfic stories must fit within one Twitter post, being fewer than 140 characters. Twitterfic stories characteristically have a twist ending, but this is not always the case. 

An example found on the Twitterfiction twitter page: 

"He knew it. Sensed it. A dreadful feeling shot up to his mind just a moment before she spoke. It was over. Her husband knew. He had to hide." 

My own attempts: 

“As hard as she tried she couldn’t forget his smell or the way his lips met hers. Yet now he was dead and she had naught but these memories."

“I’ve fallen I love with random women on the subway too many times for you to feel anything for me but pity. Pity clouded with revulsion.”

“He spent twenty years building up the courage to ask her. When she said yes he almost died, but didn’t. He died instead as he said, “I do”.”

Conclusion: After initial confusion as to whether spaces count as characters or not (turns out they do), the previously mentioned numeric incompetence came into play. I really don't do numbers well...

All in all, I really enjoyed writing these. Again, the practicality of this subgenre stumps me (it's useful if you live your life in status updates, not useful if you don't), but then again, it is deceptively challenging and a nice exercise of brain power.  

1. Six Word

When I first saw this genre I thought, “Six words! Seriously? This is going to be simple!” As it turns out, it’s not. It’s really quite difficult. 

Six Word is exactly that, a story created with only six words, making it the very shortest of all sub-genres. Unlike the other sub-genres of the Short Fiction genre, Six Word stories aim to be poignant rather than have a twist ending. For example, Ernest Hemingway is said to have written: "For sale, baby shoes, never used." I didn’t come up with anything quite so poignant…

“He came, I saw, he bellowed,”

“She should have followed her heart.”

“His biggest mistake was trusting her."

“She hurt him because she could.”

Conclusion: Well, apparently I have trouble counting to six. Quite a few times I thought I had come up with something amazing, only to recount and find I had five words. My doubts as to the practicality of this genre aside, my numeric incompetence indicates that it’s not really for me. 

The Experiment Begins...

It is often said that everybody has at least one good novel in them, one story worth writing down and sharing with the world. Now, I don't know if this is true or not (I highly doubt it is) but I thought I'd give it a go, and a go I did give it. 

I had thought about writing a novel for a while, fantasying about how I'd love to introduce myself to people as a published author, preferably one who pushed the boundaries of social normalcy and stood out from others as somebody of spunk despite not having any discernible talent. And so I picked the genre of romance, thinking the almost formulaic plots of romances would make it simple to write. I devised a story, developed characters, wrote a sizzling sex scene, had over ten thousand words of (borderline) literary brilliance, and in one half hour of crippling self doubt, deleted it all. All of it. Every. Last. Word. 

Devastation doesn't even cover how I felt when I realised what I had done. It had taken 5 seconds to delete over 4 weeks of hard work. Now, you might ask, "Why did you do it, Alex? Was none of it salvageable?" The simple answer is, no, it was not. The main reason for this is truly embarrassing to me, something which I wouldn't admit to anybody as freely as I do here if it weren't for my practical anonymity: 

I deleted all I had written because I was simply too lazy to edit it in a way that would be acceptable or satisfying. Twelve thousand words into my novel and I just couldn't write anymore. I knew where the plot was going. I knew how the characters would relate to each other. I knew what they would say to each other at the end when they explained their previous actions before declaring their undying love for each other and falling into the nearest bed and consummating this love in a maelstrom of feeling... but despite this, I just could not do it. 

It took me a while to figure out why. Despite my love of the romance genre, it was not something that came naturally for me as a writer. It had taken so much effort to write those ten thousand words that the exercise was no longer enjoyable. It was then that I decided that I needed to know what is.  

This is where this blog comes in. Using the List of Literary Genres found at http://www.cuebon.com/ewriters/genres.html, it is my intention to write a snippet based on each genre in an attempt to discover where my literary heart lies. 

In each post, I will explain the genre in question, discuss my initial reactions to the genre and present my own attempt(s) at the genre, before closing with my conclusion. This conclusion will discuss any problems experienced and my final thought on the genres as a whole. 

It is going to take me a while (there are over 250 genres listed), but I will persevere. At the end of the day, if it all fails terribly, at least it will make a great story to tell in years to come.

Then perhaps I'll write it down...