Wordcraft -- The short and the short of it

“I had my first story published in the seventh grade,” author Lou Antonelli told his audience at the recent DFW Writers’ Conference. “The trouble was, I did it instead of my French homework.”

Possibly chastened by the story’s reception, Antonelli concentrated on journalism until ten years ago when he started writing short stories again. By the time the program for this spring’s DFW conference was printed, he’d sold seventy-six stories. By the first day of the conference, that figure got updated to eighty.

You’ve seen a lot of his stories if you read Daily Science Fiction. Or Asimov’s Science Fiction, Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine, or Greatest Uncommon Denominator, etc., etc. And the number is probably higher by now, since he’s listed new sales on his blog.

After last Monday’s post on short stories from the perspective of an editor, I wanted to give readers a take from the standpoint of an author, although I’m finding it hard to do a straight job of writing without tossing in Antonelli anecdotes, like the bait and switch he pulled on his homework assignment.

Or witticisms like “a short story has all the things a novel has -- beginning, middle and end -- and that order is important.”

I’ll attest to that, having once written a story in flashback, with the end at the beginning. It managed to get published (actually, twice) but the fact is, I’ve never tried it again.

Which is one of the great things about writing short stories -- we can try out a lot of different things. As Antonelli said, this time in apparent seriousness, “If you got to learn your writing craft, the short story is the place to do it.”

He echoed editor Matthew Limpede’s advice from last Monday about the need to hook the reader, in “An editor’s take on short stories,” May 13, 2013.

Some of us might think the first challenge in writing a story might be to have an idea, but Antonelli discounted that. “Ideas are the easiest part. Don’t fret over the originality -- there’s only so many plots in the world.”

The real first challenge for a writer, he said, “is to get the reader to turn the page.”

And for that, “humans have to be at the center. It’s the relationships that are important -- why should I care about this guy or this girl?”

Incidentally, Antonelli often used the term “conceit,” in the sense of an arresting metaphor, instead of “idea.” Despite his insistence on the human element, “conceits,” he mused, “have a way of getting a story going, like the grain of sand in the clamshell.”

And once we, the writers, have formed pearls around our grains of sand, “don’t give the editors an excuse to kick you out,” he said. “It’s better not to send a cover letter than to send a stupid one with a typo,” especially since your contact information should be on the story copy itself.

For more about Antonelli and his writing, see
http://louantonelli.blogspot.com/.

And oh, you wanted to know where to find story markets? Since his writing is usually somewhere on the edge of science fiction or fantasy, he likes the free site, www.ralan.com/.

(Next Monday, I’ve got room for one more DFW con post before moving on. The con had something new this year -- forensics experts who love to talk to writers. But you tell me which you prefer -- writing craft or knowing what really happens when somebody stumbles across a corpse?)

Wordcraft -- An editor's take on short stories

I don’t usually dabble in literary fiction, but recent words from Matthew Limpede, editor in chief of Carve magazine, and prolific science fiction writer Lou Antonelli have made me think more about the importance and influence of short fiction, whatever its genre.

Once, churning out short fiction was something even great writers did as a matter of fact. Entertainment was scarce, paper cheap, and large format periodicals, even nonliterary ones, were hungry for words to fill their space.

Try earning a living now at the U.S. professional rate of five cents per word for short stories. Paper publications are shrinking faster than the real estate bubble. Worse, none of the agents I researched for the recent DFW Writers’ Conference expressed any interest in representing short story collections.

So why write short?

Two words -- internet and craft. On the internet, nobody charges a publisher for paper -- the single biggest cost for print publications. And short fiction lets us hone aspects of our craft at a fraction of the time and effort we’d spend writing novels. So I listened to what Limpede and Antonelli had to say.

This week, I’ll take Limpede. His magazine, Carve, is currently hosting a contest with a guest judge, so apply much of what he said at the recent “Editor’s Perspective” of the Dallas Public Library International Book Fair to the magazine’s day to day operations rather than the contest, closing this Wednesday, May 15.

Major caveats for submitting to any magazine, he said, are knowing what professional publication standards are, and following the particular publication’s guidelines.

After than, “what will really make your story stand out?” Limpede said. “A really good first line (but) less is usually more.” And although “it’s really important to read the
magazine you want to submit to, so you know if it’s going to be a good fit for you,“ he also wants writers to “show us something we haven’t seen before.”

(As in movie magnate Sam Goldwyn’s dictum, “Give me the same thing, only different!”)

Stories without a strong plot are a turnoff and the “all a dream” stories are “a huge no-no.” He also avoids father-son stories, military stories, and, conversely, stories with “office cubicle” settings.

And although his tastes have changed over the course of his editorship, he has a preference for “stories that surprise and have arresting images.” He illustrated “arresting images” with a story in which raindrops hit the protagonists “like quarters.” He also is open to violence, more so than some of his listeners, as long as the violence is intrinsic to the story and not overly graphic.

In the end, he cautions, “don’t take it personally if you’re not accepted. Sometimes I’ll read a great story that just doesn’t meet our MO. Do what feels right for you. Find a magazine that you like and can call home.”

For help with standard manuscript formatting, check with Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (although advocating the Courier font may be out of date) at www.sfwa.org/.

The non-copyrighted Turkey City Lexicon of too-often-seen story ideas is available at www.critters.org/.

And for those interested in submitting to Carve, see http://carvezine.com/.

(Next Monday, science fiction writer Lou Antonelli has 80 published stories to his credit at last count. And he has a few things to say from an author’s side of the short story business.)