{"id":675,"date":"2024-09-06T20:09:32","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T20:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/?p=675"},"modified":"2024-09-06T20:09:32","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T20:09:32","slug":"beginning-and-ending-tips-and-tricks-to-writing-short-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/?p=675","title":{"rendered":"Beginning and Ending: Tips and Tricks to Writing Short Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The ordinary caveat: Every writer\u2019s process is different, so attending a session such as this is not about finding \u201cthe answer\u201d to the question of how to write short stories. It\u2019s about being exposed to another writer\u2019s approaches, and even for that writer, those approaches can vary from day to day.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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Writing a short story is like creek fishing. Sometimes you do everything right: you have the proper equipment, it\u2019s the right time of the day, you\u2019ve approached the creek with the wiliness of a fishing veteran, your technique is perfect, you\u2019re persistent, but at the end of the day you\u2019ve caught nothing. Not even a strike. You might have seen a fish dash under the bank. That\u2019s the closest you had to success that day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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The next day you a bent paperclip through a piece of week-old sausage that has been sitting on the table in your kitchen, tie it to an eight-foot long piece of twine, toss it into an irrigation ditch where no one has ever caught a fish, and you walk away with a trophy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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You just don\u2019t know.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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So, keeping that in mind, here we go.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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I\u2019m a pantser, generally. So beginning a short story is hardly ever about having the whole story in my head. I begin with an interesting image, action, character, mood, situation or just a fun first line. Everything boils down to language eventually (or immediately) so for me, putting down the first sentence is my springboard into the story.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Remember, all decisions when writing are fungible. That first sentence can change later to set up the ending better, but I\u2019m surprised how often my choice of the language to begin remains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Here\u2019s three of my first sentences. Each came with no story attached. I barely had a whisper of where I was going afterwards:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d assembled my time travel device of circuits, microchips and clever wiring, but the gods or magic or fate controlled it.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n
Willard was day dreaming about Elsa when the shark caught Benford, the new mail boy, directly in front of Willard\u2019s desk.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n
The women I\u2019ve loved are all decades dead.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n
Look for beginning sentences. Read a bunch in a row. I like opening an anthology so I can see a bunch of them at once. I also, when I\u2019m in a bookstore, open a dozen books in a row to read their first sentence.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n
The important tip is to begin. A first sentence is like the first step when you start a hike. You have to take the first step to get to the last one. As reluctant or nervous or insecure as you might be about that first step, the resistance to begin can only be overcome by taking it. The second step in a hike is almost never as difficult to take as the first one. A first step gives you momentum. Write a first sentence.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n
By the way, this is the exact advice to write a novel.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n
Also, by the way, if you\u2019re sitting at a computer right now, or you have a notebook you\u2019re writing in, you could begin a new short story in the next thirty seconds. All you have to do is write your first sentence. It could be anywhere from two words to dozens, but that\u2019s all you have to do. Starting a story is always a first sentence away. Easiest thing in the world.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n
Remember that the first sentence and the sentences that follow are a move, like in chess. They\u2019re the opening gambit. Also, remember that the beginning is the setup for your ending. Whatever you begin with leads to the ending. Often the ending echoes something from your beginning. Keep that in mind.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n
You have choices that generally fall into these categories:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n
Begin with setting. Here\u2019s a good setting beginning:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.\u201d The Haunting of Hill House<\/em>, Shirley Jackson.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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A setting beginning tells the reader that the setting is important to the story. The setting can immediately establish mood. Imagine you wanted to write a story that takes place here at the K Diamond K ranch. Go outside and wander around a bit with your senses open. Surely you can see (and feel, smell, hear, taste) the story potential in this place.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Writer Brenda Cooper encouraged me to go outside last night and look into the moonless sky. The milky way stretched above us, a lazy river of stars. You don\u2019t get that view in the city! Settings can be powerful!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Begin with a character description:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cMR. UTTERSON, THE LAWYER, was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable.\u201d From Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde<\/em> by Robert Lewis Stevenson.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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A character introduction starts the process of getting the readers to sympathize with a person in the story. The best stories often contain sympathetic characters. A sympathetic character doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be one we like. To be \u201csympathetic\u201d in this context means that we understand why the character is the way they are. If we care about the characters, we\u2019re likely to be involved in the story and wonder what will happen to them next. It\u2019s a weird way to think about it, but characterization is a writerly trick to keep the readers involved.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Eventually every single problem in writing a story is a technical one. How do we get the readers to care? How do we get the readers to forget they\u2019re reading? How do we create language that is memorable? How do we fulfill the promise to the reader that if they\u2019ll give us their attention, that we will reward them with an experience that is worth their time?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Begin with action:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cI was surprised to see a white man walk into Joppy\u2019s bar.\u201d Walter Mosley,\u00a0Devil in a Blue Dress<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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An action beginning is sometimes called in media res, <\/em>which means in the middle of the action. This is the most often recommended beginning. People are naturally drawn to movement, to action, to something happening. I grew up in a home with a party line\u2014that\u2019s how old I am! When we picked up out phone, we might hear the conversation a neighbor was having. Etiquette of the time was to hang up quietly, then make our call later when the line was open. But you know how people can be\u2014how tempting it might be to cover the microphone part of the phone and listen. Here\u2019s what\u2019s interesting about that once you get past the creepiness factor: you have stepped into the middle of a conversation. The neighbors don\u2019t know you are present. They don\u2019t stop to give you any background information, but you can inevitably figure out what it going on in a minute or so. Starting in media res<\/em> can be like that. Your reader will figure out pretty quickly from the action everything you might be tempted to tell them as a writer. Figuring things out is half the fun of reading.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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A hallmark of an inexperienced writer is a tendency to stop the story to tell the readers facts the author is sure readers need to know to understand what\u2019s going on. Try to resist doing that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Begin with a distinctive, interesting voice:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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You don\u2019t know about me without you have read a book by the name of\u00a0The Adventures of Tom Sawyer<\/em>; but that ain\u2019t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. Huckleberry Finn<\/em>, Mark Twain<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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You better not never tell nobody but God. It\u2019d kill your mammy. DEAR GOD, I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me. The Color Purple<\/em>, Alice Walker<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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First person narrated stories are always, inevitably about the narrator, no matter what else they might look like. The Great Gatsby,<\/em> for example, looks like it must be about Gatsby, and it is, but Gatsby dies well before the end of the book (sorry, plot spoiler). The last chapters are about how Nick Carraway, the narrator deals with this death, and the end is about how watching Gatsby and what happened to him changed Nick.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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There are other ways to begin, like with an odd statement the reader wants clarified, like \u201cOnce a guy stood all day shaking bugs from his hair\u201d which is from Philp K. Dick\u2019s A Scanner Darkly<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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You could start with dialogue (that\u2019s a variation of in media res<\/em>) like when Charles Wallace says, \u201cThere are dragons in the twins\u2019 vegetable garden\u201d to start Madeleine L\u2019Engle\u2019s,\u00a0A Wind in the Door<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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The point is that multiple kinds of writing exist, and you can begin with anyone of them. Think of the types of writing that go into a story: setting, character, dialogue, description, action, flashbacks, exposition, etc. Anyone of them is potentially an opening move.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Remember, when readers pick up your story, they want you to succeed. They want to be entertained or informed or moved. They\u2019ll cut you some slack, but you can\u2019t waste their time. Give them interesting stuff at the beginning. Throw your heart into it and give them your best.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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This chat is about beginnings and ends, but I also said I\u2019d offer \u201ctips and tricks.\u201d For me the middle of the story has three requirements:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Very early on I need to establish the conflict. Conflict is a character wants something, something stands in the way, and something of value is at stake. Once I know those three things, I can progress. What does my character do to get what they want? How does the result of their action change the situation (most of the time what they do makes things worse)? I keep writing my character trying until they do or don\u2019t get what they want, and that\u2019s the ending.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Remember in the middle that your character isn\u2019t alone. Sometimes other characters do things that change the direction of the story. Sometimes there\u2019s bad weather. Sometimes there are accidents. Sometimes a messenger doesn\u2019t get Romeo\u2019s letter with his plan to save his love by faking his death to Juliet in time, and Romeo and Juliet turns into a tragedy instead of a comedy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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I compose a story almost entirely of scenes or episodes (if you prefer). A very short story might only have one scene. A longer one could have a bunch. A novel has a bunch of bunch more. (these are very technical writing terms).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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So, oh my gosh, my time is more than half gone and I haven\u2019t talked about how to end stories yet. But as you can see, you can\u2019t talk about a single element in writing short stories without eventually talking about the rest of them. A story is a combination of all the parts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Sheesh.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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To talk about the end I have to talk about the author\u2019s intent. Why do we tell stories in real life? You\u2019ll notice often when friends get together, they often tell little stories. Maybe somebody had an uncomfortable experience at the dentist office. Someone else had an amusing encounter at the farmer\u2019s market. A third received a troubling phone call from a distant relative. The thing about these stories is that you hardly ever think when they\u2019re done talking, \u201cWhy did that tell me that? What\u2019s the point?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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There\u2019s always a point unless you have a friend who does tell you pointless stories, but they\u2019re almost always damaged in an unidentifiable way, and you are kind enough to not tell them so. The point might be \u201cdentist appointments can be scary,\u201d or \u201cpeople in farmer\u2019s markets can be ridiculous,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m lucky my life isn\u2019t like my distant relative\u2019s life.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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The stories you tell have to end in such a way that their point is revealed. I have to use an English-teacher word here\u2014I apologize\u2014but the point of a story are its themes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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I told you at the beginning that I\u2019m a pantser. I often don\u2019t know why I started or where I\u2019m going, but sometime in the process of writing the piece I ask myself, \u201cWhy does this story matter to me?\u201d \u201cWhy am I attracted to the material?\u201d Until I answer that question, the writing will slow down. I need to think about \u201cwhat is the point?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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The conflict of what my character wants, what stands in the way, and why is it important ends at the climax. My character has won or lost or some weirdly appropriate alternative occurs that isn\u2019t a win or loss but is satisfying has occurred, but that\u2019s hardly ever where the story ends.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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The end is sometimes called the denouement. It basically means in French, \u201cthe action of untying.\u201d It\u2019s the walking away from the climax. It\u2019s what your characters are left with when it\u2019s all over. The climax of Star Wars: a New Hope<\/em> is the explosion of the death star, but the denouement is the awards ceremony where Han and Luke get medals. The point is something like \u201cthe brave and bold are rewarded at the end,\u201d or \u201ca good cause prevails,\u201d or \u201cwhite guys get medals, not wookies.\u201d Sorry, couldn\u2019t resist that last one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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The end of John Steinbeck\u2019s The Pearl<\/em> ends with the peasant throwing an invaluable pearl back into the ocean. The point might be something like \u201cgreed and great wealth can destroy our lives.\u201d Of Mice and Men<\/em> ends with a farmhand commenting, \u201cNow what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?” as George and Slim walk away. The farmhand might not know, but we know George had to execute his friend and ward, Lennie, to save him from a lynching. We know the grim point of the story, even if we can\u2019t say it, that maybe life is too cruel for our hopes to come true, at least for some people, or that the American dream isn\u2019t for everyone, or you don\u2019t know anyone until you have walked in their shoes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Stories have points, so your ending should give the reader a chance to see your point. You don\u2019t need to spell your point out, unless you are writing fairy tales for children that end with \u201cthe moral of the story is . . .\u201d But the story needs to take the readers to the place where they can see a point, and where they see the point is in what you tell them of the character\u2019s reactions or fate after the climax.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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You have tons of choices in your ending, just as you did your beginning. Here are some options:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Significant or meaningful dialogue<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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A symbolic action<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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A repetition of the beginning which will read completely differently now that the story has ended<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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A symbolic scenic description<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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A narrative reaction like the conclusion of Wuthering Heights<\/em> that ends with \u201cI lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Or the end of Huckleberry Finn<\/em> when Huck says, \u201cTom\u2019s most well now, and got his bullet around his neck on a watch-guard for a watch, and is always seeing what time it is, and so there ain\u2019t nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I\u2019d a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn\u2019t a tackled it, and ain\u2019t a-going to no more. But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she\u2019s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can\u2019t stand it. I been there before. THE END. YOURS TRULY,\u00a0HUCK FINN<\/em>.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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For me, I think endings can be tough. They\u2019re delicate constructions because they carry the weight of the story on their back. I\u2019ll tinker with the ending more than any other part.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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An ending is like a poem where the impact has to be greater than the sum of its parts. I\u2019m looking for resonance at the end<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Final thoughts,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n\n
You have multiple options to begin a story.
The beginning sets up the end. One of your first editing tasks should be to read your beginning and then your end to make sure it\u2019s clear that they\u2019re part of the same story, and the beginning knew were you were going to end up.<\/li><\/ol>
In general, stories are told in scenes with action, appeals to the senses, and time passing. Essays give a lot of information, but they\u2019re hardly ever stories. Write a story, not an essay.<\/li><\/ol>
Revise the story with the point of your ending in mind. Reinforce the thematic points. Remember, when you\u2019re writing you\u2019re the writer. You may not know where you\u2019re going. Writing is often an act of discovery, even if you are a planner instead of a pantser. When you\u2019re revising, you\u2019re transforming yourself from the writer to the storyteller. The story teller knows the middle and the ending and everything else. The storyteller knows where the story is going. Everything points to the end. Everything is a strategy or technical decision or a \u201cmove\u201d you make on the page.<\/li><\/ol>
Oh, and when you\u2019re writing your first draft, don\u2019t worry about much of this talk. Write to a conclusion. Finish the darned thing. You can\u2019t make the decisions I\u2019ve talked about here until you\u2019ve really reached the end and go back to work your changes.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n
Start as the writer and end as the storyteller.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,6,3,41],"tags":[21,4],"class_list":["post-675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-short-stories","category-writing","category-writing-advice","tag-advice","tag-james-van-pelt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=675"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":676,"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions\/676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesvanpelt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}