Taven Moore's Blog, page 54
July 16, 2012
Writing Status, July 2012
We’ve been pretty busy behind the scenes. I haven’t been blogging about it much because I’m never sure what is interesting to other folks versus what’s just interesting to me and it feels weird to talk about writing things that you guys may not get to see for a while.
Even so, a writing update every year or so is hardly blasphemous, am I right?
Besides, some people may be wondering about the little progress meters in the right sidebar of the website: what they mean and why they keep changing.
Choose
Choose is going into hibernation. It’s not dead (Remora and crew would hardly permit that!) but I won’t be writing any more on their adventures in the Interactive Webserial format. I could see picking them up again for short stories, novellas, or novels, but the “hurry up and wait” format of the interactive webserial saps my ability to write on other projects.
The final post will go live tomorrow, which is a bittersweet feeling on many levels, not the least of which is the niggling fact that the story isn’t even close to finished. “Finished” is light-years away, however, and I need to take the lessons I’ve learned from Choose and grow with them.
Volume 3 will be subtitled “Crossroads in the Sky” and takes place almost entirely on Bespin. At 36 installments (several of the later installments being far longer than the originals) this will be longer even than Volume 2.
Volume 1 introduced us to the world and characters, and set the crew on its journey.
Volume 2 added some characters and started revealing answers. Why doesn’t Hank trust Jinn? Why would Remora be on this crazy quest? We see bonds starting to form between the new crew members. Remora and Jinn spend some time together and Hackwrench actually manages to earn some of Hank’s respect.
Volume 3 complicates Remora and Jinn’s relationship with another big reveal and brings to the forefront the motivations of every character, including Snow and Hackwrench. We start to see some of the machinations in the greater world beyond their little airship. For many characters, we get a glimpse into not only the dark secrets of their past, but also hints at a greater darkness looming in their future.
Next up is polishing Volume 3, then submitting it to the Amazing Steve Hall for editing, then incorporating his edits, then getting the thing formatted for eBook. After THAT, I’ll beg Steve to format the entire three-volume series for print, because he did such an amazing job on the Saucy Unicorns Collection and I want to offer a dead tree book that’s WORTH spending the money on. Steve can accomplish that.
I still don’t have cover art for Volume 3, though. Hmmm.
Saucy Ink
My short story for the Saucy Ink Dragons collection is completed and its final draft submitted to the editor … but the book itself won’t be available for quite some time. We still have three short stories that haven’t been group critiqued yet, so it’ll probably be months before the entire collection is purchasable.
Unicorns was good, but Dragons is even better. Every returning author has improved as a storyteller and we’ve picked up a few new authors that have very strong contributions. I can’t wait to share it with you guys.
My story is entitled Love’s Champion, and follows Nathaniel Jones, a tattooed cowboy doing a favor for the fire god Hephaestus, only to find that favors to the gods are rarely as simple as they seem.
I won’t be making an “audiobook” version of this one. The last “audiobook” took me far too many hours to record and compile and I’d rather spend that time writing and planning more stories.
I do have my Saucy Ink Unicorns story out on submission to a short story magazine. Wish The Taxidermist luck!
Short Stories
Saucy Ink may not be hosting any more short story collections, but that’s no reason I can’t write a few more. One story I’d rejected for the Dragons collection is currently being reworked by Steven and myself. The new version will be very similar to the old one, but will contain 80% More Worldbuilding and 50% fewer words. The original story had been titled Wicked but the new version focuses less on dark vs light magic and will need a new title.
Once that story is done, I’d love to revisit the cut story thread and create a standalone short out of it.
As if that weren’t enough, another of the sparks I’d nurtured as a possibility for the Saucy Dragons can be modified to fit Nathaniel Jones’s world, so we’re doing the plotting and additional worldbuilding necessary to write the tentatively titled David’s Champion.
Novels
I know that the next novel I write will be Dragonspark.
I do not know that I will begin writing this story in 2012. I’m still not happy with what I’m seeing in the professional publishing landscape. Additionally, I’m quite pleased with how I’m learning and growing as a writer from writing these short stories, so I don’t feel pressured to get started being a seriousface writer and getting that novel done.
I’ve written multiple novels at this point, and I don’t feel like that particular milestone is what makes me a “real writer”.
Dragonspark is coming, but there’s a chance it’ll be a 2013 project for me. Who knows? Half a year still remains, and when Choose is no longer dictating so much of my writing attention, I may get antsy for another big project.
Related posts:
Writing Status : In The Shop For Repairs
July Arts
Where’d the Writing Go?
July 12, 2012
New Flash Fiction: Muppet Wars
Mr. Moore convinced me to start posting a few more of our random flash fiction for you guys to read if you felt compelled. Flash Fiction is (by my definition) anything under 500 words, with a preference for things under 250.
The first one’s up now and ready for reading, and is set in an alternate fan universe where all of puppet-kind has been torn apart by the horrors of war.
Related posts:
New Flash Fiction Up
Flash Fiction Update
Sparrow | New Flash Fiction
July 9, 2012
Art: All Cats Are Big Cats
Gift art for our vet, Dr. Kay at the Companion Animal Hospital here in Madison. We couldn’t have asked for or even hoped for someone so willing to go above and beyond to save our little Neens, but she’s been all that and more.
With her help, we hope to have him around to yell at us for being too slow feeding him for another couple of years, yet.
We found out he’s got cancer. Dr. Kay is helping us through the post-op recovery, and then he’ll be on steroids and a chemotherapy pill every two weeks. His quality of life should be near 100% of a normal, healthy cat.
Related posts:
Race for the Cure
July 5, 2012
15 Opening Sentences
Idea shamelessly stolen from Bre (and you should go look at her picks, because they’re great).
Hunter’s Oath, by Michelle West
“A near skeletal boy peeked out from around a shadowed corner.”
So few people know if this pair of books (the second is Hunter’s Death). One of the best epic fantasies I’ve ever read, with so many gorgeous things that I love. Evayne, who is still the best and most tragic time-travelling character I know (well, excepting perhaps the Doctor). The dogs. The streetrat girl who became so very important. The thief, torn from his goddess. The brash hunter and his soft-speaking companion. I love them all.
The Gandalara Cycle, by Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron
“You understand what you must do.”
Another little-known and out of print series. This one taught me that “fantasy” wasn’t all swords and sorcery, and took me on a desert journey that turned my understanding of epic fantasy upside down. Also? Giant telepathic saber-toothed lions ridden by the characters. Win.
Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey
“A gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the tree, but the young girl seated beneath it did not seem to notice.”
A book that found me at the exact and precise moment I needed it to. A book about a shy, sweet, emotional girl who loved to read being whisked away to become so important that she saved her kingdom? I can’t imagine why I loved it so much. *wink*
Summon the Keeper by Tanya Huff
“When the storm broke, rain pounding down in great sheets out of a black and unforgiving sky, Claire Hansen had to admit she wasn’t surprised; it had been that kind of evening.”
The first book that taught me just how funny a fantasy could be and reminded me that not all stories were EPIC fantasy. Some of them had fun, too. I wish I liked the main character a little more, but the side characters were just lovely, from the cat to the French ghost to the clean-obsessed man to Hell in the basement. (Hell talks to itself.)
The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett
“Some things start before other things.”
The book that reminded adult me that YA books were still amazing and worth reading. Tiffany Aching is young, but so incredibly pragmatic that I can’t help but love her. From the moment she used her baby brother as bait so that she could use a frying pan to attack a dangerous water spirit, I knew I wasn’t going to put that book down till I was done with it.
Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
“Linderwall was a large kingdom, just east of the Mountains of Morning, where philosophers were highly respected and the number five was fashionable.”
I found these books early, then re-found them again as an adult. Fairy tale tropes turned on their ear and a female protagonist who was not only intelligent and self-sufficient, she knew what she wanted and she went for it. I fell in love, not just with these stories, but with this author’s remarkable voice.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.”
When Steven and I met, he only read comic books. I gave him this book, and he became a Reader. What more can you possibly ask of any novel than that?
Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon and The Callahan Touch by Spider Robinson
“Callahan’s Place was pretty lively that night.”
and
“Opposites make good companions sometimes.”
Two quotes/books provided because I believe The Callahan Touch is one of the best books ever written, while Steven prefers the first and original book. These books changed the way I view the world and made me want to be a better person. I love the entire Callahan Series with all my heart, and have loaned and lost more copies of The Callahan Touch than I care to admit. I figure the people who kept them needed them more than me.
Amazon Link (for Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon)
Amazon Link (for The Callahan Touch)
Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
“Willie McCoy had been a jerk before he died.”
Say what you will about the later novels of Hamilton, she made me want to read MORE. I love the characters, the style, and the wry humor, even if she managed to drive even me away a few years ago. Her first Anita Blake novels are still favorites of mine (everything up to and pinnacling (is that a word) with Obsidian Butterfly).
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
“Once upon a time when the world was young there was a Martian named Smith.”
One of Steven’s favorites, and a book that touched me deeply as well, this is a sci-fi tale of a human born amongst Martians, and his unique adult perspective on humanity as he tried to adjust to life on Earth. Better than that synopsis sounds, this book is exciting and heartbreaking and wonderful and thought-provoking.
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
“I had always wondered what it felt like to die.”
(actually, that’s the first line of the main character’s voice. The actual first line details the geneology of the Persian king, and I didn’t want to type all that.)
Gates of Fire was the first audio book I ever listened to, and it is BREATHTAKING. This historical re-telling of the battle of Thermopylae is one of the most heart-wrenching, heart-stopping, heart-pounding (and other things to do with the heart organ) books that I have ever encountered.
Last of the Breed by Louis L’Amour
“Major Joe Makatozie stepped into the sunlight of a late afternoon.”
“What is this”, you ask incredulously. “Is this … Tami admitting to reading something that isn’t fantasy?” Why yes, yes it is. This is a no-longer-modern-day story of a pilot captured by Soviet Russia … who escapes and uses his Native American skills to not only survive, but gain the upper hand on his previous captors. Superbly written survival fiction.
(And Now For Some Shameless Self-Promotion)
Choose: The Search For a Captain
“Lady Remora Windgates Price perched uncomfortably on the edge of the dirty bar stool and wondered if perhaps now was an appropriate time to belch.”
The Taxidermist
“Seated at his workbench, the taxidermist contemplated the bottled banshee scream in his shaking hands.”
Love’s Champion
“Riding a dragon was nothing at all like riding a horse.”
My most recent short story, currently up for critique with my writing group, Saucy Ink. Will be part of the next short story collection, and is not currently available.
Related posts:
Dog-Eared Old Friends
Book Review: Beka Cooper Series by Tamora Pierce
July 2, 2012
Writing Group Activity – Short Story Collection
Saucy Ink
My writing group is kind of awesome, I won’t lie.
Saucy Ink was borne out of the ashes of the now-defunct Saucy Wenches Podcast. Initially, it was mostly just a group of people who wrote stuff. A few critique posts and a NaNoWriMo review session sparked the idea of doing a short story collection.
*see footnote
Short Story Collection
I love that we’re creating short story collections. They’re fun, challenging, time-consuming, and honestly some some of the most valuable time I’ve spent learning to hone my writing skills.
I see no reason why other writing groups couldn’t do it as well. =]
Our Process
Agree on a theme. Thus far, we’ve done “unicorns” and we’re working on “dragons”.
Agree on rules. For us, that’s between 2 and 10 thousand words, and must tell a complete story (no vignettes or portions of a larger work).
Set Deadlines. We typically allow 6 weeks to write the first draft, 1 week for critique, 2 weeks to incorporate critiques into a polished draft, then six weeks to incorporate edits into a final version.
Critiquing is on one story at a time and although every writer doesn’t have to critique every story, it is highly encouraged to critique as many as you can, as thoroughly as you can. No one is exempt from this. Anemic critting is likely to get your story booted from the collection. (more on critiquing below, as it’s the most interesting part of this).
Once the story is pulled from critique, the writer incorporates the critiques into (what ought to be) a stronger polished draft.
Polished draft is submitted to our fearless editor, Steve Hall (
Editor provides a final editorial pass and a formal stylesheet, and returns the annotated word document to the author.
Author accepts/denies/fixes anything in the editorial pass, then returns the now-final document to the editor for inclusion in the volume.
Editor provides back cover blurb and pre-story blurbs.
Editor submits a pdf of the finished story to the author, so the author can approve of the formatting.
Cover artist designs the cover art.
Editor creates the ebook and print versions and puts them up for sale on Amazon. (At this point, there should be no question as to why the editor gets the meager sales money from the volume. Steve does a TON of extra work that nobody else has to do.)
As you can see, saying “Yay, let’s all write a story about unicorns!” is the easy bit.
Critiquing
The absolute, unquestionable, best and most damaging aspect of the whole process is critiquing.
The mechanics of how we critique are pretty straightforward.
Author posts story in (multiple) google docs, linking the next section at the bottom of the previous one. We get so many comments that putting the whole story into a single doc is a bad idea. Docs slows down, tries to crash the browser, and is generally a nasty, unpleasant place to be. We’ve found about 3k words per doc to be a decent rule of thumb, but your mileage may vary.
Permissions on the doc are set to allow comments by anyone with the link, and the link is handed out. (We’ve got a nice spreadsheet created by Sir Editor to help us keep things straight).
Critiquers go through the document, highlighting and commenting on anything from weak underlying story structure (“But if this is true, then why would the bad guy be able to do this other thing?”) to character issues (“wooden, emotionless” “Why did X character do this? I don’t think I understand his motivation.”) to sentence structure (“You’ve used the word ‘pooka’ three times in the last two sentences. Find a new word.” and “I may start charging you money for every comma you use. Make smaller sentences!”). Also, there’s a goodly number of “this is great!” and “I just love this imagery!” or even a simple “
Here’s a silly little document that Steve, Bre, and I cooked up as an example of critiques using google docs. Or google drive now, I suppose. Whatever those kids are calling it these days.
Behind the scenes, though? That’s where the magic happens, because every writer puts up their draft secretly hoping that everyone will universally love it.
No matter how jaded or experienced you get, it’s always disappointing and disheartening to have a dozen people wander through your draft and poke holes in the bright tissue paper wrapping you’ve slaved over.
Almost certainly, every writer is going to come out of this wondering why they ever thought they could string sentences together.
That moment? That dark, despairing place where everything seems like a waste of time? That’s when the real magic happens, because that’s when the writer squares their shoulders, lifts their chin, and decides to KEEP GOING ANYWAY.
That’s when the rough drafts turn into polished drafts.
That’s where the writer learns their strengths and weaknesses. Where they learn how to construct not just proper sentences, but GOOD ones. Where they see the problems with how they approached writing this story, and start coming up with ways to make the NEXT story even better.
This is where a writer becomes an author.
The critiquing stage takes the longest to complete, is the most difficult for both critiquers and writers, and is absolutely the most important piece of the pie. I’m sure every author from the Unicorns collection would agree.
Footnote
* As a side note, Saucy Ink is always open to new members, but we communicate primarily through forums and we are looking for like-minded individuals.
We do NOT want people who simply want eyeballs to read their work and tell them how wonderful they are.
We DO want people who actively seek improvement in their writing — including having skins thick enough to handle thorough critiquing
We DO want people willing to put forth the sweat and effort to help the other members improve as well. There are no one-way streets in our critiques.
In other words, this is a give-and-take environment. I’ve met otherwise perfectly lovely people who aren’t one whit interested in anyone else’s writing. They just want people to spend time to help THEM out.
That’s not how we roll.
Most of our members write fantasy or speculative fiction.
Also, our current short story collection is NOT open to additional writers. We’re full up AND too far along in the process.
We’re not looking for people who are only interested in the fact that we make books. Anyone can make books these days. We’re building writers, here, and that’s a trickier business.
*slides soapbox away*
Related posts:
Fire and Storm – New Short Story Up
New Short Story – Murder
New Short Story : Theodore’s Adventure
June 28, 2012
Finding a Bra That Fits You
First and foremost, I did NOT write this post.
It is directly copy/pasted from Reddit and was written by Redditor MyWifesBusty.
HERE IS A LINK TO THE ORIGINAL.
The only reason I am pasting/reposting here is because things on the internet have a habit of getting unlinked/broken, and I think this is some of the best bra-fitting advice I’ve ever heard.
As a woman, I feel compelled to pass this on.
Men, I know this isn’t a topic for YOU, necessarily — but that doesn’t mean it’s not interesting, or potentially useful to the women in your life. (Or the man who wears bras. I ain’t judgin’.)
How To Size Yourself For a Bra
The guide is intended to get you really close to wearing the perfect size but there is no alternative to actually trying on bras and assessing the fit. Ideally, every woman would have access to a well stocked lingerie store that carried everything from 24A to 50K, but alas.
You’ll need a tailor’s/cloth tape, a scratch pad and pen, and (if at all possible) a friend/significant other to help. You don’t need a friend, but it’s really helpful to have one as they can make sure you’ve got the tape lined up neatly and do the measurement for you.
First, here’s the “Don’t do this!” part of the program.
Don’t measure yourself wearing a bra, even a bra you think is a good fitting bra. You’ll effectively be measuring the bra and not your breast tissue.
Don’t wear anything. You’re not trying to measure yourself to wear a bra over a t-shirt or a bra over another bra or anything. You want a skin-to-tape measurement.
Don’t do any weird math, fancy over/under the boobs nonsense, or anything else you’ve ever heard about measuring for a bra.Alright, you’re naked and you’ve got your tape and pen/paper. Now, let’s get measuring! =)
Lean forward so that your back is parallel with the floor. This is important. You want gravity the help pull all your breast tissue forward, even the breast tissue that your previously ill-fitting bra squished back under your arms (and even around onto your back). You may even want to take a moment to reach back and massage your sides, kind of pushing the breast tissue forward with a sweeping motion. Measure around your torso with the tape passing over the fullest part of your hanging breasts. Keep the tape as straight as possible (essentially perpendicular to the floor if you’ve done your best to make your body parallel to it.)
This measurement should be loose. Tighten the tape just tight enough that it doesn’t easily slide off the skin if nudged, but not tight enough to begin to deform the breast tissue.
So! Upper body parallel, measure with a snug and straight tape, and write that number down. For the sake of this example, let’s say 42 inches. Write it down.
Note: If you have pendulous breasts you may wish to take two measurements and average them. You can measure yourself once in the hanging position, then once in the standing position and average the two numbers.
I strongly suggest leaning towards the larger measurement. The vast majority of the “90% of women wear the wrong bra” crowd are wearing bras with radically undersized cups. Make sure there is room for your breasts and then work down to a snug cup fit!
Next we measure for the band. Wrap the tape around your torso, directly under the root of your breast. Wherever your breast tissue terminates into the torso, that’s where the band should be sitting. Even if it seems high (because you’re used to wearing poor fitting bras or you have breasts with a high root but signification slope) you want the band to sit at the root of the breast so that the breast tissue is laying nicely in the cups.
You want this measurement to be very snug. Pull the tape tight enough that it feels really snug but not so tight as to be a corset or a that it leaves a red mark in your skin. It’s important you get a snug measurement; If you start with a band that is an inch or more too big it will not only fail to support you right from the start but it will rapidly get worse.
So! Measure tight but not so tight that you leave a red mark on the skin. Write this measurement down. For the sake of this example, let’s say the measurement was 34 inches.
Armed with those numbers: 42 inches over the fullest point of the bust and 34 inches snug around the rib cage, it’s time to do some very minor calculating. You can do it manually or you can use a bra fit calculator. The big caveat is that 99% of bra fit calculators are absolute garbage; they’re so bad as to be completely useless.
That said, as of this writing (3/29/12) the bra fit calculator at Sophisticated Pair is excellent. Probably the best one online at the moment. If we plug in the numbers we got with our measuring, it suggests that our model would likely be comfortable wearing a US 34H or a UK 34FF.
If you’d like to calculate your bra size manually you need the band size and the difference between the bust size and the band size. In the case of our example the band size is 34 inches and the different is 8 inches. The cup size is determined by the difference (8 inches, in this case).
These are the most common measurements used by bra manufacturers [TAMI NOTE: I could not get this to paste correctly. Please visit original link to see the chart]
As far as the cups go… You want all the breast tissue in the cups. None bulging out in the arm pits, none being pushed back against your ribs, and none spilling out over the top of the cups (the dreaded quad-boob).
The band should be snug (you should be able to slide a finger or two under it comfortably, but no more), it should be parallel to the floor, it should touch your chest all the way around (if the band doesn’t sit flush to your breast bone in the front, that means the cups are too small and your breasts are lifting the band/gore away from your torso).
Here’s a quick trouble shooting list:
Breasts spill over cup either on the tops or out the sides (like into the armpit area)? The cup is too small, go up a cup size.
Bra cup is wrinkly? Either the cup is too big or the style of the cup isn’t suited to your breast shape (i.e. the cup is shaped to compliment a woman with upper pole fullness and you’re more of a lower pole kinda gal).
Underwires are digging into your sides/armpits or aren’t flush against your ribs? Cup size too small, go up a cup.
Band too tight? Increase band size.
Band rides up in the back? (i.e. curves towards your neck, not parallel with the floor?) The band is too big, go down a band size.
Gore doesn’t tack? (the center of the cups, where the underwires form a little bridge of sorts isn’t touching your torso?) Cup size is too small, go up a size.
Straps painfully digging in? Loosen the straps to a two-finger tightness. Do your breasts sag? Then you were using the straps to over support them. You most likely need a tighter band.Remember, the cup and band are not independent. If you make an adjustment to the cup or band size you need to make an adjustment to the other element. For example, if you’re wearing a 34H and you feel the band doesn’t fit well, your next stop should be a 32HH not a 32H (unless of course you’re attempting to diagnose a poor band and cup fit at the same time).
Most of all, it should be comfortable and flattering. Even if it meets all the requirements: breasts in cups, band flush, should straps not digging it… if it makes your boobs pointier than you’d like, gives them a weird shape, or otherwise doesn’t make you feel awesome… send it back. You’ve spent too much time wearing the wrong size bra to settle at this point in the project.
Back To Tami
A quick note: I’ve been “professionally” sized by four different locations recently, to find a strapless bra to wear in my friend’s wedding.
Every single location had a different size, and every single one of them differed from the above. One of them (*cough*Victoria’sSecret*cough*) was INCREDIBLY far off (they measured over my shirt and current wrong-size bra) AND they went so far as to cluck their tongue at me when I meekly asked if the fat rolls on my side were supposed to bulge like that. ”There are some things we can’t fix,” the girl said, obviously hinting that it was my body that was wrong, not their bras.
Note: I am NOT overweight, nor was I at the time I tried the bras on. Having been overweight and having worked to take all that extra poundage off, I am proud of my curvy body and I love the weight I am at. In no way, shape or form was that comment appropriate.
Even so, I find bra shopping to be demoralizing, uncomfortable, and demeaning. I never know if something fits just right, and places don’t like it if I ask Steven to come into the fitting room to help me verify whether something looks right. Sometimes, you just need a second opinion on that stuff.
Women? Don’t put up with that crap. Size yourself and find a bra that fits. I ended up being a 32DDD/F in american sizes, and I found quite a few nice bras in that size range at Macy’s (for ridiculously high prices. These bras had damn well better last me longer than the one I got at V.Secret.) I do not look like I am a DDD, but I fill these cups. Trust the measurement, and then go try things on.
Men? Wonder why your women have such terrible self-images? Crap like that is a lot more damaging than some photoshopped magazine models. Tell your woman she’s beautiful. Even if she doesn’t believe you at first, keep telling her. It took me a year of Steven telling me I was beautiful and sexy before I started to believe it, and I’m so very glad he was persistent.
No related posts.
June 25, 2012
Cute Critter Creators
I am often amazed by the tools people create — usually for free, and almost always out of the joy of the thing they are making.
Equally amazing is how much time I spent playing with these shiny toys.
Here are two of my favorite critter creators.
Related posts:
Best My Little Pony Songs
June 21, 2012
Best My Little Pony Songs
I love My Little Ponies
I loved them when I was a kid, hung on to them a little longer than most when I was a teenager, and am falling in love with them again as an adult. The new show, subtitled “Friendship is Magic” is bright, cheerful, and full of great little stories about friendship, love, trust, forgiveness, honesty, and teamwork.
The artist in me adores the fantastic animations and adorable ponies.
The writer in me revels in the great storytelling and writing (even within the constraints of a children’s show). I also can’t help but respect Lauren Faust (the creator of the recent revamp for the My Little Pony franchise) for things like this.
The Bathroom Diva in me cannot stop singing the songs. (Note: the following is an entire playlist of songs, not just a single. Enjoy!)
Getting Started
If you want to get started on My Little Pony (or get any idea of what all the hype is about…) here’s the first episode (part 1 of 2).
The first episodes are still my favorites.
Related posts:
TV Show Dissection : White Collar
June 18, 2012
June 14, 2012
On Short Stories – Part 3
Part 3 of 3
So I had Steven test-drive my intended post, as I almost always do. He said, “I love you. Break this into smaller posts so your readers don’t go insane.”
I cannot argue with his logic, so this is part three of three.
Part one includes the background, the disclaimer, and why I think this is worth reading.
Part two includes what I could find on official short story definitions
Part three includes what I like to see in MY short stories, and some pointed questions to try and fuel further discussion.
Catching Up
So by the end of Part 2, I’ve come to the conclusion that defining a “short story” is a lot like defining pornography. “I’ll know it when I see it.”
Whatever that popular definition may be, it certainly doesn’t seem to be what I’m looking for when I seek out “short stories”.
So What, Then?
So … no short stories for me, then? Is that where I’m headed?
The Short Story genre, such as it exists, seems to leave a slimy layer literary snobbery on my skin wherever I touch it, and I think that’s a shame.
I love STORIES.
Surely, somewhere out there are writers who love stories who also love to write shorter fiction. I know there are, because I’ve read them, tucked away in my beloved fantasy shelves. Books of short stories, chicks in chainmail, must love hellhounds (probably more of novellas than short stories, but still..), and many, many more. Heck, anyone else remember those old Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt stories?
What if I want a bite-sized piece of fiction that tells a full and complete story and leaves me feeling satisfied at the end?
Is that really so terrible a thing?
My Short Stories
I’d love to post here an excerpt from the requirements that Holly Lisle had put forth for her now-closed Rebel Tales short fiction magazine. (Closed because of the actions of one very unscrupulous person, much to my very real dismay.)
Unfortunately, I can’t find the original text, so I’ll have to wing it.
I believe that a story should be:
an interesting character (character)
doing interesting things (conflict)
in a setting that matters (setting)
to reach a goal (plot)
and that these things happen for a reason (theme)
-and-
preferably with some sort of magic finger-waggling goodness in there to warm the cockles of my heart
Pretty familiar list of five things, isn’t it? Looks a lot like what I posted above, and immediately said that many short stories disregarded. (We’ll say for the sake of argument I might be pleased to read a great short story that doesn’t include talking unicorns, so long as it contained all the other bits.)
I’ve gotten a bit more specific than the original list, and there are a lot of great sites that will help further define those items, for the curious.
Ideally, I think they’d fall between 2,000 and 10,000 words in length, but mostly because I reckon it’s pretty difficult to tell a complete story in less than two thousand words, but things have a lot of opportunity to explode out of control and take too long to read past the 10k mark. Also, I read pretty gosh-darned fast, so ten thousand words sounds about right for one sit-down session.
In a way, I could see my vision of a short story really being sort of a mini-novel. You’ve got all the same key elements in what I’d require for an entertaining novel or novella, but in a shorter, bite-sized package.
Short Fiction
I think one can have excellent short fiction that is entertaining and fun without it being a Story, necessarily.
Scenes, flash fiction, short shorts, vignettes — these are the things I’m talking about.
As it happens, these are the easiest types of things to write. They’re often much shorter than a short story, and don’t require all that work of fully creating characters, setting, or plots. All they need is to evoke an emotion in the reader and they’re done.
I’ve written a lot of these. They’re quick and fun to churn out, but they inevitably leave the reader wondering what happens next rather than feeling satisfied. The writing feels incomplete. I call them “single serving story snippets”. I think a lot of writers start out writing these. They’re potato chips. Crispy, yummy, but not really a full meal.
Almost never do these types of writing leave me feeling satisfied the way a story does.
What I Want to Know From You
What I am interested in knowing is this:
Do any of you feel the same as I do about the short stories you’ve been exposed to?
Do any of you wish you could find more short stories that were stories, based on my definition thereof?
Do any of you know of a fiction outlet that might already be publishing the sorts of short stories I’m looking for? (PLEASE)
How would you define short stories written for YOU? Ignore popular definitions and tell me what you want in your short story. =]
Related posts:
On Short Stories – Part 1
On Short Stories – Part 2
Fire and Storm – New Short Story Up
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