In the spirit of your bite - sized approach: I agree that de la Mare was good at atmosphere. I had to memorise his poem "The Listeners" at school and it's a doozy. My favourite Lovecraft (I think) is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Of James' books I've only read The Turn of the Screw but it was a belter. Decades ago I read some de Maupassant short stories and liked them a lot. Wasn't there a locked room mystery in one of them or am I confusing him with someone else? I hadn't heard of John O'Hara so thanks for that. Now get back to your writing and may the force be with you.
The links in the article are to a few recent posts that develop these themes. I think I’m one piece into the word count topic, so here’s my thinking about it as of today. Prob slightly redundant with previous things but maybe at least a little fresh.
The word count project started because i have a bunch of short stories I need to finish, including some editing and polishing, a little rewriting too on some of them.
And I wanted to have a sense of whether their length would be similar to stories I’ve read. I’m trying to place them in magazines, so length has a practical connection to a story’s appeal for a magazine/journal etc.
But getting past that: I wanted to look at stories of various lengths and see whether their characteristics were different from those of a shorter or longer story. What are the benefits of a story under 1000 words? What can a story do if it’s under 500? Can a story that’s over 4000 words achieve certain effects that would be hard if it had 3000 words?
Are certain styles of writing/certain genres more compatible with a shorter story? Is humor less effective if the story gets above a certain word count? Etc.
This project— where I’m digging into these questions— has ballooned quite a bit. It’s just become too interesting for me to stop at the small number of stories I began with.
So I’m using this information to help polish my current writing, but I’m also interested to see whether consideration of length suggests other kinds of stylistic approaches. I come from a songwriting background, where song structure and length are hugely important, and I figured that moving into fiction would make more sense if I become more thoughtful about these concerns.
Re: novelette and novella. I’m still learning about the differences. Writers I’ve seen talking about it have said that the differences are important. P.G. Wodehouse spoke a lot about story length and structure— he didn’t care for the novelette length. I have seen writers excited about the possibilities of novella length, but the list of truly great novellas seems short.
Each length, I think, has advantages and disadvantages. Think of it this way: if you have a big back yard, that’s better for touch football, or having people over for bbq. But now you have to mow a big back yard, rake leaves, etc.
So I’m slowly getting at all this, and as I post these short essays, I’m definitely eager for feedback and any data readers like you may have about what you’ve observed.
Wodehouse may have disliked the novelette, but I’ve found a bunch of really strong stories in that length. So the project continues, slowly.
The writers I’ve been studying sometimes fall into this length project. But I’m also doing a survey of books about writing, and some writers I’m looking at have written ABOUT writing, and I’m slowly covering those books.
"I’ve been studying Borges, William Gass, Roberto Bolaño, Francine Prose, Burroughs, and more." Holy cow that's a stellar lineup. I love all of those writers.
I greatly admire Henry James, and some of his best are his novellas/novelettes (the distinction is interesting but I'm not sure I find it useful). "The Beast in the Jungle," "The Figure In the Carpet," etc.
You seem very invested in the significance of word counts. Did you discuss the reasons why in a previous post? (I'm only lately on the KS train.)
I kind of want to write a novelette just because that sounds dainty AF. I don't write fiction, so there's that. Hope yours is progressing well though!
In the spirit of your bite - sized approach: I agree that de la Mare was good at atmosphere. I had to memorise his poem "The Listeners" at school and it's a doozy. My favourite Lovecraft (I think) is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Of James' books I've only read The Turn of the Screw but it was a belter. Decades ago I read some de Maupassant short stories and liked them a lot. Wasn't there a locked room mystery in one of them or am I confusing him with someone else? I hadn't heard of John O'Hara so thanks for that. Now get back to your writing and may the force be with you.
The best Godzilla movie ever is Godzilla Minus one because it's so deeply human.
The links in the article are to a few recent posts that develop these themes. I think I’m one piece into the word count topic, so here’s my thinking about it as of today. Prob slightly redundant with previous things but maybe at least a little fresh.
The word count project started because i have a bunch of short stories I need to finish, including some editing and polishing, a little rewriting too on some of them.
And I wanted to have a sense of whether their length would be similar to stories I’ve read. I’m trying to place them in magazines, so length has a practical connection to a story’s appeal for a magazine/journal etc.
But getting past that: I wanted to look at stories of various lengths and see whether their characteristics were different from those of a shorter or longer story. What are the benefits of a story under 1000 words? What can a story do if it’s under 500? Can a story that’s over 4000 words achieve certain effects that would be hard if it had 3000 words?
Are certain styles of writing/certain genres more compatible with a shorter story? Is humor less effective if the story gets above a certain word count? Etc.
This project— where I’m digging into these questions— has ballooned quite a bit. It’s just become too interesting for me to stop at the small number of stories I began with.
So I’m using this information to help polish my current writing, but I’m also interested to see whether consideration of length suggests other kinds of stylistic approaches. I come from a songwriting background, where song structure and length are hugely important, and I figured that moving into fiction would make more sense if I become more thoughtful about these concerns.
Re: novelette and novella. I’m still learning about the differences. Writers I’ve seen talking about it have said that the differences are important. P.G. Wodehouse spoke a lot about story length and structure— he didn’t care for the novelette length. I have seen writers excited about the possibilities of novella length, but the list of truly great novellas seems short.
Each length, I think, has advantages and disadvantages. Think of it this way: if you have a big back yard, that’s better for touch football, or having people over for bbq. But now you have to mow a big back yard, rake leaves, etc.
So I’m slowly getting at all this, and as I post these short essays, I’m definitely eager for feedback and any data readers like you may have about what you’ve observed.
Wodehouse may have disliked the novelette, but I’ve found a bunch of really strong stories in that length. So the project continues, slowly.
The writers I’ve been studying sometimes fall into this length project. But I’m also doing a survey of books about writing, and some writers I’m looking at have written ABOUT writing, and I’m slowly covering those books.
"I’ve been studying Borges, William Gass, Roberto Bolaño, Francine Prose, Burroughs, and more." Holy cow that's a stellar lineup. I love all of those writers.
I greatly admire Henry James, and some of his best are his novellas/novelettes (the distinction is interesting but I'm not sure I find it useful). "The Beast in the Jungle," "The Figure In the Carpet," etc.
You seem very invested in the significance of word counts. Did you discuss the reasons why in a previous post? (I'm only lately on the KS train.)