Category: Musings

Musings

Weekly Musing: Write Long and Prosper?

DH Hanni

I didn’t know until May 26th that May is Short Story Month and only because I received an e-mail from a Anne R. Allen’s blog . In the article, it extolled the advantages of writing short stories vs. novels.

Some of the points in the article got me thinking about my own writing aspirations as well as the pro-short story arguments.

Personally, I love novels. I guess it’s because I’ve always had an attention span. I love the build-up. I will stick with a story if it is paced just right even epic, behemoth novels. I need and want that background. I need the time to have the characters fleshed out. I can read a novel faster than I can a short story collection. With a short story collection, I find myself flipping through the pages more to see when the story will end. I will groan if I see that it doesn’t end for a while. I guess I could just skip to the next story but I have this odd thing that I should finish a story. The author put in all that time and effort, the least I can do is finish a 10 page story. For example, it took me about 2.5 weeks to get through a 177 page short story collection. In comparison, a 260 page book I got through in about 8 hours. Naturally some of this is due to the content of the story itself.

The biggest reason for the resurgence of short-stories is due to people’s decreasing attention spans coupled with many small screen digital devices. Short stories and flash fiction, an even shorter story, are easily digestible. That’s fine however, I’m not sure encouraging people to become even less engaged in long-term critical thinking is a good thing. We are already far too much of a disposable society. When it comes to something I feel is as sacred as the written word, shorter isn’t always better. I’m not saying all short stories are poorly written or can’t say anything, then can and do, but it dismays me to see further erosion into ‘this bores me already’ culture. It’s a further dumbing down and boosts short-term gratification.

In my opinion, novellas and novels more fully engage the reader to think deeper about the characters, issues, themes, plots, and subplots. More subtext can be developed. A reader can take the necessary time to appreciate what is going on. With a short story, you read the story then move on. It’s just an appetizer and if you feast solely upon appetizers, you will never get full. Whereas a novella or novel, I can have an appetizer, move through several courses, and then have dessert; a much more satisfying experience. It will stay with me longer. And maybe even give me heartburn.

As a beginning writer, I view composing short stories as training wheels. I need to cut my teeth and learn how to craft all the elements that go into a story. Writing short stories allows me to do that. It helps build my confidence in what my abilities are before I tackle a novel, the writing form I’m most interested in. One point mentioned in the article noted above is the author’s own admission of viewing short story writing as just practice before graduating to novels. For me, I equate it with learning to crawl before being able to walk and run. I don’t feel my skill level is up to tackling a full-blown novel. There are too many things to think about and to practice but then again, I’m a pretty cautious person.

Another advantage I am finding to writing short stories is the ability to play with different genres. I believe as I’ve mentioned in one of my first posts, I’m a fan of different genres; I’ll read anything if it sounds interesting so why should I limit myself to just one? It’s about the story, not the category it fits into. And with short stories, I can do that. I just finished a Victorian vampire story but I’ve also written a Steampunk-inspired pirate story, a story inspired the bombing of Hiroshima, a priest reflecting back to an incident in his childhood in Spain, and a reanimated corpse stuck in a county morgue, to mention just a few.

The idea, though, of sticking strictly to short stories, has never crossed my mind. True, writing a short story takes a much shorter commitment of overall time than a novel does. And it is more efficient in terms of per year production. And it probably is a more lucrative way to make money as an author, but my heart loves novels. Maybe it sounds pretentious or naïve, but a good majority of the story ideas I have saved on my hard drive feel like they require a few hundred pages to be developed properly. Perhaps I’m just a glutton for punishment.

Musings

Weekly Musing: I Have Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself, Maybe

DH Hanni

Personally, I have a lot of fears and anxieties. Some of which I’ve been able to overcome the past few years as I get older while others I know I will never outgrow. I don’t see that as a bad or good thing. We all have fears and anxieties. It’s how we choose to cope or overcome them that matters.

But this isn’t one of those personal philosophical postings, rather I would like to discuss my professional fears and anxieties. Not so much ‘will I get published?’, ‘when will I get published?’, ‘will people like my work?’, etc. I do feel anxiety about my abilities. All writers and artists do, it’s why we can become quite nutty, but I know I can study how to improve, get advice from fellow writers, listen to the feedback from the writers group I’m in.

There are certain subjects, topics, and types of writing that frighten me: violence, in particular rape, sex scenes, fan fiction (I feel massively childish by wanting to express my dorkiness), unsympathetic characters, abuse in any form, and anything resembling experiences I’ve gone through in real life.

As a reader, I get squeamish at times reading certain scenes or reading experiences of a particular horrible character. If I can, I try to skim these passages even though I know these scenes are part of story and character development. Emotionally, it can be too much to take. Oddly enough, I don’t mind gory horror I guess because I know zombies aren’t real, vampires don’t exist, and there are no such things as werewolves.

But as a writer, I should be paying attention to those uncomfortable scenes. I should be studying the mechanics of the scene. I need to learn to step back from the scene emotionally as a reader, and don the intellectual cap. Does it go too far to make its point? Or does it not go far enough? Is this being done purely for shock value?

There is also the inevitable fear at the back of my head of ‘What will my family and friends think if I write this?’ That is harmful and stifles creativity. Not everybody is going to like my work and that includes family and friends. We each have our own personal tastes. I am merely the tool for the stories and characters in my head. Yes, I do create the stories and characters, to some degree, but even though I may plan out the story, once I sit down to write, the characters are the ones in control. They take turns into areas I hadn’t thought about, do things I don’t want them to do, and yes, some of those are some bad things. When I have tried to reign in some of the bad things, I’ve noticed that just creates a huge impasse. It’s when I start struggling. It’s when the writing feels like it is losing authenticity. And at the end of the day, the story needs to be authentic.

Stephen King, in his book On Writing , mentions receiving an angry letter from a reader accusing him of hating animals. In one of his books, a character kicks a dog to death. The scene was meant to show how brutal the character was, his disregard for life. It was part of character development. It wasn’t inserted in for shock value. He responded by noting he does not dislike animals nor does he advocate animal abuse. The character’s actions were not a reflection of his personal values.

It is incredibly easy as a reader, and I still do it this day, to believe that whatever a writer composes, it is an accurate and true reflection of the writer as a PERSON. I wonder if this is because writers are very often inspired by real-life events either in their own lives, the lives of those around them, or what they read/see. The lines are blurred even more with creative non-fiction which, by its very definition, is true life but with creative twists.

Writing, like all forms of art, can be a very cathartic release but it is important to keep in mind no matter how much a story could be based in the reality, it is NOT the writer’s own personal values on the page. We read stories to follow the paths characters take. We read stories to immerse ourselves in a different world, a different time. We read stories for entertainment. We read stories to reflect on our own moral compass.

In my opinion, the best stories I’ve read are rooted in realism. The characters say and do things I personally would never do but is the truth for the character. I can become sympathetic to a serial killer who murders because he was terribly abused in childhood. I can also become unsympathetic to a passive, mousy character who never stands up for themselves.

So as a writer, I need to work on emotionally allowing myself to push my creativity outside my comfort zone. Like everything else with writing, it is a long, never ending process full of successes and failures.

Musings

Weekly Musing: Kickin’ It Old School

DH Hanni

I must confess, I prefer to draft all my writings with pen and paper. It’s old-fashion, perhaps even quaint to some, but I love it.

I am what I like to refer to as the ‘transitional generation’ of people who didn’t grow up with computers. Sure I knew some people who had personal computers and there were a scattering of them in the schools I attended, but widespread computer usage, didn’t really take off until I was in high school.

At home we had a typewriter. All my papers were typed up on it by my mom, until I finally took a keyboarding class before my senior year of high school. We went through 2 typewriters growing up. I only vaguely remember the first one. It wasn’t the bestial kind you see in old movies. This one was probably from the 70s going by the styling of it. Man was that thing heavy. Or I just don’t have any upper body strength; my muscles flex pretty hard picking up an 8 pound cat. Hunting and pecking on that thing hurt, too. I had to jam hard on the keys and heaven forbid I miss one entirely. My skinny little fingers would be shredded as they scraped past the keys. I didn’t like this thing.

Our next typewriter was fancy by our standards. It was electric! And it was light(er)! Hooray! It didn’t make the ding sound non-electric typewriters are famous for. No, instead it did the lovely electronic chirp sounds popularized in the 80s and early 90s. It was faster and easier to read which I imagine was nice for my mom.

Because I didn’t know how to type, I wrote everything out by hand. Some may feel that is time consuming and I guess it was. But I truly loved the challenge of composing a paper, I didn’t mind. I think it made me more careful in what I wrote initially. I only had one opportunity to revise before giving the final product to my mom to type up.

Once I got to college, though, I had more access and exposures to computers. Even when I was able to buy my first computer, some cheap, slow thing with a woefully inadequate hard drive, I still wrote everything out by hand. The few times I tried writing a paper completely from scratch on the computer produced some horrendous results for me. So, back to pen and paper for me and I haven’t stopped since.

With pen and paper I have more of a connection with the words. It truly feels like a more organic process to compose one’s thoughts onto paper first rather than on a computer. I can just let the ideas spill out. There’s no distraction from the squiggly red, green, or blue lines under misspelled words or grammar questions Word thinks it knows. I can ramble on knowing I can always adjust it later. And with pen and paper, I’m not tempted to distraction as I am on a computer.

It’s more portable. I can take a notebook and pen with me anywhere. No having to turn off all electronic devices while on a plane. Don’t have to worry about damaging the hard drive if I drop it although rain and mud are a concern. The biggest worry with doing it old school: running out of paper and pens. Biggest worries with a computer: computer crashing, viruses and worms, actually damaging the computer, not backing up, Wi-Fi connection (where’s the nearest coffee shop?), no power, being hacked, etc.

So that’s why I love drafting my stories on pen and paper. Oddly enough, I can edit and revise on a computer but only after printing out the draft and going through it with pen. I view the computer more as a storage container rather than a primary tool for my craft. Perhaps with time I will change my methods. Maybe when I get around to writing novels, I’ll find the computer more effective for that rough, crummy draft. Only time will tell.