“If I had more time, I’d write a shorter story.”— Mark Twain Today’s Guest Blogger, Guy Biederman, talks about crafting short fiction. I’ve always been intrigued by the challenge of creating something small that has big power. Giacometti said he wanted to make a sculpture the size of a matchbox, but so dense no one could lift it. The first micro story I remember reading was “Coup de Grace” by Ambrose Bierce, with a gotcha ending. O. Henry’s “Gift of the Magi used” a similar technique. I was astonished by the wallop a short piece could pack. As a young writer, I cut my teeth on Raymond Carver’s work. Carver’s stories weren’t always short, but they were spare and vivid, conveyed feeling, empathy and understanding, and explained very little. I didn’t know what he was doing or how he did it. I only knew that reading his work was like…
Tag: Mark Twain
The Truth About Fiction — Guest Blogger L. Avery Brown
Guest Blogger L. Avery Brown writes about The Truth About Fiction. “It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” – Mark Twain Smart fellow, that Mark Twain. He really understood the difference between storytelling via the written word as opposed to the tradition of oral storytelling. Case in point . . . my father was a master storyteller. And any little thing could trigger one of the stories in his ginormous mental Rolodex of memories. Every time he told a story it was slightly different and yet it was always the same. The people, the setting, the ending – they were always fairly consistent even if he left out little details. But that was fine, because his storytelling did what it was supposed to do . . . it planted the seeds of memories I didn’t realize had even taken root until years later when…
“Writing is easy.” Mark Twain
“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.” Mark Twain