Why Focus Matters In Short Stories

Over the past weeks I've been judging a couple of short story competitions. There have been several well-written stories which lacked focus or rather, had several different areas to focus on and I didn't know where the writer wanted me to look. Consider this story outline:

The story opens with scene between Character A and Character B having a row about a minor car accident. It then moves on to Character A going shopping for food for a dinner party Character A is throwing to impress the boss. The dinner party goes wrong, leaving Character A feeling sad/angry/relieved/whatever - The End.

So, is the focus on Character A and Character B, or on the dinner party and the consequences? The reader feels cheated because they felt directed to focus on Character A and Character B as they were present right at the start, but Character B never turned up again and the accident had no purpose for the rest of the story.

What should have happened is that Character B has a crucial role later in the story - perhaps they could have turned up at the dinner party as the boss's partner and that's why it went wrong.

Nadine Gordimer wrote, "a short story is a concept that the writer can 'hold', fully realised, in his imagination, at one time." Everything in the story should tie in with the main focus - the under-lying concept - because, unlike in a novel, there simply isn't the space for digressions.

Apples and Pears - Markets for Short Stories

When I started writing I wrote short stories, and it became very clear that there were two sorts of short stories: those that won short story competitions and those that were published in the women's magazines.  

They were not the same thing at all, as different as apples and pears.

When I started teaching I had a student who was determined to crack the women's magazine market because it was the only one that paid.  This is true.  He'd come to my class because he was getting rejected. He suspected a female conspiracy against him because he was a man.  Not true.  A good story is a good story, regardless of the sex of the writer.  

What became clear was that his inclinations were to write literary short stories, apples, if you like.  But the women's magazine market wants pears.  It makes no difference if you've got a juicy Braeburn, a crisp Cox's Orange Pippin, or a woolly Granny Smith - they're not pears.  

He refused to accept this, and stomped off in a huff. 

The same is true the other way round - if you're writing pears, they won't get placed in a literary short story competition.  Another student was having great success with the womags - hardly a week went by when she didn't report another sale - but yearned to win a short story competition.  It didn't happen for her, although she worked very hard at her writing.  

If you want to write short stories then you need to know your market.  How? Easy - read. Read, read, then read some more.  Apples?  Or pears?  Work it out, then apply to your own work. 

Another Take on Short Story Judging

I was scooting around the web and came across this great post on short story competition judging, and why stories failed to make the short list. It's a long post, but worth reading to the end because all the points made are good ones.

This one particularly resonated with me:

4. Solipsism. One miserable person being miserable. This was the most common and depressing failing. Unrelenting monotony of one single, invariably miserable and oppressive viewpoint. No sign of concern or even mention of any other character, nothing other than one person’s dreary moaning. If you are not interested in other characters, at least make it funny.

I can remember one point when I started writing when I had a phase of writing this sort of story. I think I thought it was 'being literary'. Luckily, I bored myself so the phase passed quite quickly.

It's easy to forget that stories are essentially about entertainment. In short stories you can get away with miserable, unlikeable or irritating main characters in a way you couldn't in a novel, but they've still got to be entertaining. Stuff needs to happen. Change has to happen (and not of the sort, things were bad and then they got worse). We don't want to spend time with miserable people moaning in real life, so why do it in a story?

Short Stories for the Womag markets

One lunch time about a month ago my publicist rang me up: Woman's Own were urgently looking for a short story - could I provide one that day? I gaily said yes, despite not having one to hand. Say yes now, panic later, that's my motto. Luckily last year I'd been on a great course run by Joanna Barnden on how to write short stories for the women's magazine market aka womags.

Jo has had great success with this market herself and has worked out - well, I don't want to say formula as that sounds disparaging but essentially that's what it is, for writing womag short stories. It's quite straightforward and could apply to almost any form of writing: define the character's main problem and concentrate on how they solve it. With a novel the characters will have many problems to solve, some of which may never get resolved, but there is usually one central problem that has to be dealt with.

There's more to the day with Jo than just that as she takes you through all the elements that make up a successful short story. I'd half written one on the day, which she'd given me some feedback on which of course, I hadn't done anything about until my publicist called....but four hours later, armed with Jo's advice, I finished and sent off the story. You can see it in the current Woman's Own Summer Special - The Last Fairy on the Right. (It was supposed to be called The Last Pixie on the Right, but no pixie pix, they'd only got fairies hence the title change.)

So, many thanks to Jo. She's doing an Advanced Short Story course in Cornwall in August which I'm going to go on, but does others all round the country. I love going on writing courses but I wouldn't recommend many of the ones I've been on. I would this one; Jo's a good teacher, the course is well-organised and hey, I wrote a story and got it published!

Come to the launch party for Kissing Mr Wrong, 6.30pm on 20th May at Waterstones, Milsom Street, Bath. All welcome, but please ring 01225 448515 to let them have an idea of numbers.

Arbitrary Stories

All stories are what you, the writer, make of them. If you give the bare bones of a story to different writers, they will choose different elements to add, different voices to work with, different styles, different tones, different settings, different everything! The same story can be compelling or dull, depending on how you tell it.

With an arbitrary short story, you get supplied with the bare bones of a plot to which you then add the details. I love doing this in large groups and seeing all the variations that emerge from the different imaginations. Here's one we did in class last week...

Read 1, and write a paragraph. Then read 2, and write another paragraph following that direction, then 3 and so on.

1. Someone is on their way somewhere.

2. A form of transport goes by - they get on.

3. They see someone - describe this person.

4. They find something in their pocket.

5. It makes them remember something.

6. They reach their destination.

7. They change their mind about what to do next.

All story telling is about going from A to B to C to D, what matters is how we write the journey.

Judging a Short Story Competition

It looks as if Spring has finally arrived and with it lots of short story competitions. This year I'm judging the short story competition for the Wells Literary Festival so I thought I'd write what I'm looking for. But first I must stress that all I'll see is the short list, the final 15 or 20 that make it through the preliminary rounds. That means there may be a story entered that I'd love which never makes the final round.

The short list turns up and I immediately read them all without making any notes. Then I put them away. A week or so later I get out the envelope but before I read, I make notes on the ones I can remember. Then I shuffle them up so I don't read in the same order. Then I read through again, this time making notes as I go. One final read through, and I've got a fair idea of which are my favourites. I look at the stories on different days to try and get a bit of objectivity into the process, but let's face it, a lot will depend on my mood on the time, and the stories I'm presented with. I entered a lot of short story competitions before I started writing novels and I know how many hopes go along with each entry. It's not a job I take lightly.

What am I looking for? I like story telling, so wispy little bits of lovely writing without much story attached aren't to my taste. I like stories that move me - tears or laughter, I don't mind. I like stories that stay with me. I like bravura writing, big bold ideas, I like to be amazed by the firework display but I also like the sort of story William Trevor excels in, a life summed up in one tiny incident.

I'm not keen on animal stories or sci fi, yet stories about a cat going to the vet and a futuristic traffic jam made the top 3 for the last competition I judged. The top spot went to a story about relationships, so (being contrary) I was prejudiced against it, but it was written with such style and wit I longed to have written it myself. So, I wouldn't say there are any particular genres to avoid: a good story is a good story.

And that's what it's about: writing a good story. Good luck!

In case any one is interested, I'm running a class in Bath on Friday afternoons for 8 weeks over the summer, a mix of exercises and workshopping. Contact me for more details on sarah@sarahduncan.co.uk

Short Story Competition Info

Rebecca asked about short story comps and where to find them, so here's a list of free web sites - there are others which you can subscribe to.

www.theshortstory.org.uk

Lots of info for short story writers, including competitions although these are listed alphabetically rather than by closing date. Also carries a list of magazines that accept short stories from Granta to People's Friend and everything inbetween.

www.writingcalendar.com

A calendar of writing competitions, listed monthly. The info comes from Sally Quilford who has lots of writing advice on her author site .

www.prizemagic.co.uk

Site run about winning competitions - all comps, not just writing ones - but it has a list of writing competitions with the author's quirky comments.

www.literaturetraining.com

Listings of jobs, courses, information and writing competitions. You can sign up for the fortnightly newsletter so the information comes to you.

www.nawg.co.uk

The National Association of Writers Groups run a useful site which includes competition listings.

womagwriter.blogspot.com

If you're thinking about writing for the women's magazine market this is a great resource.

You'll also find listings in the writing magazines such as Mslexia, Writer's News and Writing Magazine, Writers Forum and The New Writer. The New Writer sends out a monthly e-newsletter with competition info to subscribers.

If you're interested in a competition you can often find the previous year's winning entries on line which is useful.

Finding Your Voice

I loved my MA. I'd started writing with short stories and carried on, experimenting with different styles and genres, happily going all over the place, sometimes ultra literary, sometimes more down to earth. I must admit, I never worried about finding 'my' voice, as I know many people do. I just assumed that as it was me writing, my voice would sort of turn up at some point.

Then, that Christmas, there was a Stephen King short story competition in the Sunday Times and I gaily decided to enter, despite having read only one Stephen King novel in my life. I felt that the essence of Stephen King involved sex, violence and assault by unlikely objects or animals. My short story, Slither, was about a sexually frustrated young woman who ends up being eaten by killer earthworms, all written up in a over-blown literary style jam-packed with symbolism and alliteration. It didn't win.

Some years later I was rooting around my files looking for a 'how not to write' example for class and came across Slither. As I read the first paragraph I realised that this would do nicely as a 'how not to write' example, so carried on reading. And there it was. Half way down page two. My voice. In between all the symbolism (and it's amazing quite what you can get from the humble earthworm) there is a short passage when the main character is having a pass made at her by a would-be lover. She's unmoved, bored even, as he rummages down her bra as if trying to find Radio 4 despite dodgy aerial reception. Then it goes back to the killer earthworms and their literary intentions and all is lost.

That passage is the first time I'm aware that my voice turns up. But the thing is, I didn't recognise it at the time. I carried on writing and a few months later started the novel that became Adultery for Beginners. So, I don't think you need worry about finding your own voice. It's going to be there. You just might not recognise it right now.