Short Story Genre Study
Genre Short Fiction
Detective/Mystery
Science Fiction (LeGuin)
Alternative History
Fantasy (Block)
Short Short Fiction
Microfiction
Sudden Fiction (International)
Flash Fiction
US American Short Fiction
O’Connor
Bierce (“An Occurrence at
Faulkner
Salinger (Nine Stories)
Singer
Raymond Carver (Cathedral)
Hemingway
O’Brien (“How to Tell a True War Story” in The Things They Carried)
Cisneros
Alexie
International Short Fiction
Kafka
Joyce
Checkov
Garcia Marquez (subgenre: Magical Realism)
Miscellaneous Anthologies (Collections of Short Fiction)
For each of the three short stories do the following…
Write the story’s title and author.
Then write…
- Three aspects of the story from which you could learn something about writing short fiction: character, setting, event, plot, narrative voice, symbol, motif, theme, mood, tone, etc. (Paragraph.)
- Two questions you have about the story.
- One creative writing assignment based on the story. (Provide directions.
2 comments:
Subtotals
Gregory Burnbam
-'Subtotals' is an ongoing list of numbers of things that a character has had in his life (refrigerators, insults given and received, love affairs, business suits...). With each number Burnbam introduces a new story. This makes it possible for him to fit hundreds of stories into a page and a half of writing.
-The numbers vary from serious aspects of the man's life to boring ones. And although the list is long, each number is extremely important to the character.
-Since the story is written in the form of a list, each detail is very blunt, but doesn't give away too much information. This helps to maintain the reader's interest.
-Are the numbers provided random or is there reasoning behind them?
-Is the character Gregory Burnbam?
-Invent a character and as that character compose a list. It could be any sort of list -- a grocery list, a list of guests to invite, a list of addresses or phone numbers...
Here's Another Ending
Diane Williams
-The writer ends the story by saying "There is another, more obvious reason." This makes the reader feel like there's something hugely fascinating they've missed and causes them to consider the story for a long time. Ending a story like that makes it memorable.
-The writer begins the story by writing in first person and introducing it as if she's having a conversation with the reader. This immediately catches the reader's attention and makes them feel involved all the way through.
-The writer uses creepy images (such as a large Doberman and a dead rabbit) to make the story stick in the reader's mind.
-What is "the more obvious reason"?...is the story supposed to have a moral?
-The first sentence says "This time my story has a foregone conclusion." Was there another version of the story written, or was the sentence a ploy?
-Try writing a story as if you are telling some one the story out loud. Use words and phrases that you yourself would actually use when telling a story.
Snapshot
Harvey Cedars
-Cedars compares the physical compositions of two people to what's going through their minds as they sit together on a beach. There's something haunting about the comparison. Physical description can alter the mood of a story.
-The story ends with a glimpse of the future for the couple. The last sentence doesn't fit in with the tone of the rest of the story. This makes it more meaningful.
-The story is set on a beach, which allows the writer to describe the characters in a vulnerable position (being in bathing suits in a crowded place).
-The first few sentences of the story rhyme...is that on purpose?
-Is the couple only together because they look like how a couple is supposed to look when they're together, or were they in love at some point?
-Go to a crowded place and pick a stranger to observe. Write about where that person will be in 20 years.
Salem by Robert Olen Butler
A man is looking back on his experiences in a war and inserting new knowledge he had earned into the things that he hadn't known when he was in the war. Reflecting.
A lot of this man's internal monologue has to do with “knowing” what one of the men he had killed was like, he was so certain of his conjecture without any evidence of it being true, but these assumptions about the other man led to his understanding of the experience he had been through.
The end of the story has a very definite ending that show the audience how the man decides to deal with his new understanding of the man he killed, but physically it is a very small action that conveys this.
What inspired Butler to write a story from the point of a Vietnamese man trying to understand an American soldier and not the other way around?
Would the narrator have ever come to the same conclusions about war and the man he had killed if it hadn't been for the picture of the man's wife on his cigarette carton?
*Write from a created character's point of view about an event in their life that they didn't understand completely at the time, but has since grown meaningful.
Where I Work by Ann Cummins
The female narrator of the story is clearly not completely there in the head, but it is expressed entirely in what she says and how she acts. The author shows, doesn't tell.
The narrator will often give instructions on how to do things – walk down a street in the Projects, not catch yourself on fire. Often it is very clear that the narrator is just reiterating instructions that she has been given and passes them off as her own.
The narrator dwells a lot in the 'could be' and even outlines what she'll do for the rest of the day, including dialogue between her and her brother. This makes up a lot of the structure of the story.
What was the narrator doing before she got the job in the clothing factory? Was she being supported by her brother or other family member?
I'd like to know more about her relationship with her brother, who both says that he will always take care of her and also throws a tantrum when he has to pay her rent for her.
*Show the personality of a character by the way that they give instructions for something – in whatever form, monologue, dialogue, etc.
Post a Comment