What If Our Baby Grows Up To Be Prime Minister?
Personally, I find politics very frustrating and unappealing. Don't get me wrong: I think politicians are important people, and we need to have good people out there who aspire to be great politicians. For myself, though, I find the partisanship, hostility, and negative campaigning tactics really exhausting.
But if our baby decides to go into politics, then I'm going to do everything I can to help him be a good politician and to become Prime Minister! Because if our baby grows up to be Prime Minister, I'll probably get to meet lots of famous people, and that's always fun.
I'll help our baby run straightforward election campaigns and never stoop to smearing his opponents or trying to dig up their personal histories to make them look bad, like all the other politicians out there do. I'll advise our Prime Minister baby to do what he knows is good and right, regardless of the public outcry.
Then I'll get him to declare my birthday a national holiday, of course. Hooray!
Learning How to Write Conflict
One of the main reasons I challenged myself to do the Year of Stories was to force myself to practice my writing. I've written 11 stories at this point and released 5 of them, with February's batch of 4 more coming out soon.
Putting together a new short story every single week means that I have to explore lots of different plot types and methods of storytelling. Here are some of the lessons I've learned so far, relating mostly to developing conflict.
1. Clarify the conflict.
Sometimes I'm tempted to write a story that's based more on a concept than a conflict. In Burns Mar the Sun-Grasper's Hands, for example, there isn't actually much of a conflict: the events of the story take place without a whole lot of tension, and it doesn't really feel like there's something at stake.
As a speculative fiction writer, I love a good concept. I love to build a story around an idea, a "what if" scenario, like I did in Diana and the Animal and A Kingdom of White. If the concept is all the story has going for it, though, then it isn't much of a story.
Conflict and tension keep the reader reading, so that's something I'm trying to be more intentional about creating as I come up with the ideas for my future stories.
2. Tell the story during the story.
In Discovery Two, a significant portion of the conflict has been played out in the past, and doesn't happen during the flow of the story. Building a conflict outside the events of the story doesn't involve the reader in what's happening, and it's very important for the reader to feel involved, I think.
In the case of Discovery Two, the "outside-the-flow" conflict was playing out as the backdrop to an active, "inside-the-flow" sequence of events, so I think the story reads okay because of that, but if I was writing the story again I would try to find a way to build those past events more directly into the flow of the storytelling.
3. Make the characters proactive.
Don't let the story happen to the character. Make them an active part of its evolution and resolution. Having passive characters who simply react to a story playing itself out in front of them is the storytelling equivalent of using the passive voice to build a sentence.
Not to pick too much on one story, but Burns Mar the Sun-Grasper's Hands is an example of the main character being largely reactive rather than proactive. I don't think the story is terrible, but I feel like the way I constructed it didn't allow for the strongest storytelling.
4. Resolve the conflict.
If I do all of the other steps above, building a good conflict, playing out that conflict within the flow of the story, and making the characters proactive in exploring that conflict, it will all come to nothing if I don't resolve the conflict.
Obviously there are exceptions to this rule. Short stories are an especially fertile ground for cliffhangers, partial resolutions, and other forms of alternative plotting. But in general, a reader wants to feel satisfied with their experience when they come to the end of the story. The main questions should be answered. At least part of the conflict should be resolved.
A Kingdom of White is an example of a story that I think does this well. The overall conflict may not get resolved, but the conflict that is actually played out within the story--the character's internal conflict--does get resolved. The larger, external conflict is left as a sort of cliffhanger. (That external conflict is something I'd love to expand into novel length, if I get the opportunity.)
Obviously I'm not an expert at applying all of these rules to my writing, not yet. I have a long way to go this year, and I expect to learn a lot more. I'm sure I'll still see some of these weaknesses creeping into my stories here and there, but I'm growing and improving as a writer, and I hope that comes across to you as a reader.
A Declaration of Intent: The Grocery Fund
My Dream
For a long time I've downplayed, shrugged off, or even been embarrassed about my dream to be a full-time author. I've convinced myself that it's just a fantasy, one of those pointless thought exercises, like "What would I do with a million dollars?"
I've made a conscious decision now. It isn't a fantasy, it isn't pie in the sky. My writing is no longer just a hobby. It's a mission.
My Pursuit
Every person I know of who has built a career out of a creative pursuit has made it to where they are through a combination of both talent and time investment. I think I have the talent to be a professional author, but I know I'm going to need to invest a lot of time--probably years' worth of time--into seeing that talent bear fruit. What I'm saying today is that I'm ready and willing to invest that time.
Today, I am writing full-time while I search for a job in my field (sociology). In addition to working on two ongoing series (Special People and Losing Freight), I'm putting out a short story every Monday, maintaining my 50-Word Stories site, and trying to make headway on a novel. I'm honing my skills, improving my storytelling, and taking the creative side of things very seriously.
Of course, I have to take the financial side of life seriously, too. It's important to be realistic: right now my writing is not paying the bills. I hope it will some day, and that's what I'm working towards, but I'm not there yet.
It's going to take a lot of time and a lot of hard work to get where I want to go with my writing. I'm going to have to accomplish a lot of smaller goals along the way. I'm declaring one of those "stepping stone" goals today, by setting up the Grocery Fund. I want to sell enough of my self-published writing to pay my family's grocery bills each month. That's about $300.
The Grocery Fund is a pretty ambitious goal for me, and it may take some time to get there, but I know I already have a great base of friends and fans who support me, and I'm confident it's an achievable target.
How You Can Help
If you enjoy my writing and want to help me pursue my dream, there are two main things you can do: you can support me with a dollar, or with a minute.
With a Dollar
- Check out my Store and pick up a book or a short story. I'm putting up new stories, collections, and books all the time! Everything is Creative Commons licensed and DRM-free and comes in a wide variety of file formats to make it easy for you to read and share.
- Support me directly with a tip or a donation. I put out a lot of content for free, so I'm relying on your generosity to see a return on my time investment.
With a Minute
- Share one of my stories or one of my sites with your friends, online or in person. Every conversation, tweet, and Facebook post is a big help!
- If you've read one of my stories or books, leave a quick review/rating for it on Amazon. Reviews only take a minute or two to write, but they go a long way towards bringing in more eyes and more customers.
- Say hi to me on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. It's a big encouragement to hear from all of you, and encouragement is currency to a creative person like me. Don't be shy!
The Grocery Fund is not intended to be a request for charity. It's a call to action for my friends and fans. This is your opportunity to invest in me and my writing.
You'll be able to track my progress day-to-day, month-to-month, on the Grocery Fund page.
Keep checking back in on my blog as I continue to release more of my writing, put up more products in the Store, and document my triumphs and my struggles along the path to my dream. It's going to be a bumpy ride, I'm sure, but I hope you take the journey with me.
Thanks,
Tim Sevenhuysen
Stephen King Thinks Readers Are Too Lazy For Short Stories
In a video that I was linked to a couple of days ago, world-famous author Stephen King discusses why he thinks people don't tend to read short stories anymore. Since I've been writing so much short fiction recently, and since I plan to write a lot more of it over the next year, I found this really interesting.
So, are readers "too lazy" to reinvest their attention in a new story every 10 or 20 pages? Or is there some other reason why short stories are so much less popular than novels?
My Thoughts
For my own part, I think short stories are really well suited to the interest levels and attention spans of today's reader, especially online. Short videos, in the 3- to 5-minute range, are super popular on the internet. I see no reason why stories that take 10- to 15-minutes to read shouldn't be, as well.
When comparing novels to short stories, marketing and publicity play a pretty important role. When someone wants to find a new novel, they go to a bookstore, or a bookseller's website. But where do you go to find short stories to read? In my experience, you have to search harder to find quality short fiction. If you know where to look, you can find hundreds of online magazines publishing short stories, but the number of high quality, "flagship" short story publishers is not very high.
I think, also, that novels tend to be more marketable because they can be spun into other formats more easily. So many movies, and even TV shows, are based on novels, and that drives up interest in those novels. Then bookstores harness the movie hype to promote other, similar novels. When's the last time you saw that type of publicity chain working in favour of a short story?
Chime In!
What do you think? Do you agree with my reasoning? Are there other reasons why short stories don't enjoy the same popularity that novels do? I've been getting some interesting opinions on Twitter and Facebook, but I'm interested in what my blog readers have to say about it. Let me know in the comments!
Surprise Baby Shower
While Larissa and I were on the mainland last week visiting with family (on both her side and mine), Larissa's family surprised us with a baby shower. The "surprise" portion of this was no small feat: Larissa is notoriously difficult to surprise.
The closest I've come to surprising Larissa was when I gave her an antique secretary desk as a Christmas present a year ago. She had no idea until Christmas Eve, when she followed me downstairs at my parents' house and found me putting the finishing touches on it.
The way the family managed the surprise this time around was pretty ingenious. Larissa had contacted her cousin, Kristal, asking if she and her husband wanted to get together while we were on the mainland. Kristal invited us over for dinner.
A couple of days later, Kristal mentioned our dinner date to her mom. Aunt Anneliese suggested that they could jump on that opportunity and turn it into a baby shower. Pretty much all of the female sisters, cousins, and in-laws were able to make it work. So we went over on Thursday and had dinner with Shaun and Kristal, and about fifteen minutes after we'd eaten there was a knock on the door and the house flooded with women!
(Larissa cried! It was cute and sweet.)
I spent the evening with Shaun, watching sports highlights and talking about music, books, and movies. In the meantime, Larissa was being showered generously with gifts. Along with all kinds of newborn diapers, toys, and clothes, we also received a brand new car seat! So that's one of the Baby Fund items crossed off the list. We've been taken care of so well that I think the Baby Fund is more or less fully funded at this point. I may have to direct future writing profits towards something else! :)
Thanks so much to our extended family for the baby shower and all of the wonderful gifts.
For more pictures and another write-up of the evening, check out Aunt Anneliese's blog post. She also has a tutorial on how to build your own Diaper Cake, like the one featured in the picture above.
DISCOVERY
Prefer the feel of paper to the look of a screen? DISCOVERY is the first quarterly Year of Stories print book. You get nearly 200 pages of exciting fiction for only $11.99!
Preorder now! DISCOVERY will go to print in mid-March.
Flare Fiction: Volume 2
Year of Stories
Special People
Special People is serialized superhero fiction with a fistful of twists.
Special people have special problems.
Galloway’s Hunt
Galloway's Hunt is a novelette set in the world of Galloway's Voyage, my work-in-progress novel based on the same title character. Buy it now for only 99¢!