Link to the shortest short stories..

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html

Link to Roald Dahl's 'Lamb To The Slaughter'

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lamb.html

Story Bytes - Very Short Stories - 2 Word Stories

Story Bytes - Very Short Stories - 2 Word Stories

A link to two-word stories.


- I feel that these are not as powerful or 'truly' 2 word stories as they use the title to set the scene unlike the story about the Ad for baby shoes.

Some more tips & exercises!

Dear all, 

Please go through www.clichesite.com . It's a fairly comprehensive collection of cliches and sayings.

 

For those who want to read Araby ( by James Joyce) it's available HERE

 

The exercise Madhavi promised to put up:

 

Using the Quest plot pattern, write a story outline about any of the foll:

- a 12 year old girl who wants to give  her mother the perfect present

- a 30 year old male seeking the perfect wife

- a middle aged couple wanting to buy  the perfect house.

 

Briefly outline acts 1,2 and 3 ie  set up, rising action and climax.

Happy Writing people :)

Getting Started- part 3 (Style: POV, VOICE, TONE)

GETTING STARTED


In three paragraphs: Describe an outdoor accident in which a young man accidently – or not so accidently kills his friend. Describe this from the omniscient POV. Open the first paragraph with the set-up,  a description of the river/ mountain on which the two are present. You could  write about the treacherous current/ slope and the dangers of navigating it. In the next para, describe the actions and thoughts of the ‘killer’ – upto the accident. In the third para describe the actions and thoughts of the dying man.  As he gasps a final breath , give him an insight into what will follow.

You are free to cover the field from any vantage point, external or internal, but make sure that you strive for an orderly succession of images.

Objective: To check the multiple nature of the omniscient POV
Check: Make sure that you have not shifted from one character’s thoughts to another’s midsentence. Have you described the characters sufficiently? Have you described what dying  is like?

Construct an unreliable narrator. You could do this in the form of a letter or a diary entry. Have the narrator describe  a disturbing event in which he/she was involved. The narrator could be  the first young man in the earlier example; it could be a wife who thinks her husband is having an affair; it could be a shopkeeper who thinks his trusted employee is stealing from the cashbox.  Use  POV , voice and tone in conjunction to create the firm view in the reader that this is an unreliable narrator. ( For instance you could hint at a rivalry between the two friends or  at the insecurities of the housewife)


Objective: To learn to use the unreliable first person POV
Check: Have you managed to portray the narrator’s betraying the real meaning of his/ her statements? 

My mother said…
You’ve read the short story ‘Girl’.  At one level it is a ‘list’ of strictures handed out to a growing girl by her mother.  Using the story as a template, make a list of your own family expressions used  by your mother.  These expressions should bring alive her personal and cultural beliefs, values and attitudes on any one or all manner of subjects: food, hygiene, good habits, bad habits, religion, rituals, customs,  opposite sex, saving or spending money, etiquette, behaviour, cricket, recipes etcetera…  

Objective : To create a narrative using unconventional methods
Check: Have you given the reader  a story with a beginning, middle and end? Have the thoughts, feelings, perceptions of  the character come through sufficiently well for the reader to see her and  hear her ? Have these been presented in the right order to create a narrative?

Voice and humour

Many people claim that writing humour cannot be taught or learned; it is a natural trait. That is because one of the basic characteristics of humour is that  it evokes a spontaneous response: you either get it or you don’t. The key is: humour is never forced. A writer does not  try to be funny… He merely writes about absurdities. Humour springs out of absurdity. Absurd situations,  beliefs, customs, ideas.
Language is nothing more than the medium through which ideas are shared. But there are times when the medium is garbled and the original idea is replaced by an absurd version.


Lost in translation- some examples!

We will sell gasoline to anyone in a glass container

• Petrol station, Santa Fe, New Mexico

You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid

• Sign in hotel room in Japan

Customers who find our waitresses rude ought to see the manager

• Restaurant in Nairobi

Do not enter the lift backwards, and only when lit up.

• Sign in a lift, Liepzig, Germany

Please do not feed the animals.  If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.

• Sign in a zoo, Budapest, Hungary

In India, we have innovated with English: Hinglish, Tamglish and so on.  By playing around with diction, syntax, verb endings etc,  a writer can give a new twist to voice, thus making it one of the easier ways of writing humour.

Some examples..


Beloved younger brother,
Greetings  to Respectful parents. I am hoping all is well with health and wealth. I am fine at my end. Hoping your end is fine too. With God’s grace and parent’s Blessings I am arriving safely in America and finding good apartment near University. Kindly assure mother that I am strictly consuming vegetarian food only in restaurants though I am not sure cooks are Brahmans. I am also constantly remembering Dr Verma’s advice and strictly avoiding American women and other unhealthy habits. I hope Parent’s Prayers are residing with me.
Younger Brother , I am having so many things to tell you I am not knowing where to start. Most surprising thing about America is it is full of Americans. Everywhere Americans, Americans, Americans big and white it is little frightening. The flight from New Delhi to New York is arriving safely thanks to God’s Grace and Parents Prayers and mine too. I am not able to go to bathroom whole time because I am sitting in corner seat as per revered Grandmother’s wish. Father is rightly scolding that airplane is flying too high good view. Still please tell her I have done needful…
Gopal

Humour is very culture-specific. It is also the most difficult to write.  In Indian writing in English it is  virtually unexploited.  Humour comes from  various sources:

• Social comedy and the absurdities of culture.
• It comes from passing fads.
• It comes from parody: poking fun at conventions.
• It comes from situations.

Voice plays a very important role in humour. It can be deadpan, tongue-in-cheek, satirical, exaggerated etc.

So go on , tame the wild horse that is 'humour' and have fun with it. :)

G'luck

CHECKLIST FOR VOICE

CHECKLIST FOR VOICE

• Have you picked the voice that is in harmony with your POV, the personality of the narrator, and the narrator’s emotional distance to the story?
• Do your word, sentence and paragraph choices support your voice?
• Is the voice consistent throughout the story?

Exercise 3- STYLE: POV, VOICE, TONE

Exercise

Two cars collide at a intersection.
Write a brief passage describing this event from the POV of  a  medical college student; then again from the POV of a middle-aged socialite, then again from the POV of a village pradhan ( headman) visiting the city for the first time. 

You decide how these characters were involved in the collision. In all cases, let the character be a first person narrator. 

So pick the voice (conversational, formal, informal) that seems most appropriate  for your narrator. Whatever you come up  with , each passage should sound very different from the others because there are three very different characters.
20 minutes

Exercise 2- STYLE: POV, VOICE, TONE

BEFORE THE PARTY

The Mehras, a  well-to-do  couple  in their thirties, are having their annual Diwali bash for about 60 people. It is a catered affair.  Poonam Mehra, the lady of the house, is house proud. She is aware of her reputation as a good hostess and has planned every detail carefully. Using  the third person single vision POV write a passage that describe the last minute preparations.  (40 words)

Shantamma is the 50-year-old domestic help  in the Mehra household. She has worked with them for  five years and shares a good relationship with the memsahib.  Describe the last minute preparations  using the first person (Shantamma’s) POV.( 40 words)

Using the third person objective POV, write a passage that describes the pre-party preparations involving these two characters, Poonam and Shantamma. (40 words)
Write all three in the present tense.
20 mins

POV CHECKLIST

POV CHECKLIST

• Does your story work best in first, second, or third person?
• Does it work best with single vision or multiple vision?
• Is there any reason why your story might work with the omniscient or objective POV?
• If you are using a third person narrator, how close emotionally is the narrator to the story and characters?
• Is your POV consistent?

Exercise- STYLE: POV, VOICE, TONE

Exercise: Whose story is it?

Cast of characters
Avinash:  30 yrs old, business executive, hardworking. Married, with a two-year-old son.
Tara:   Avinash’s wife, 28; ex-journalist now a full time home maker and mother.
Roopak: 24-yr-old law college dropout, wannabe song writer.
Dhruv : Avinash and Tara’s son

Set up  
Avinash and Tara’s marriage has been in trouble for a few months. He’s  doing well, but working very hard and keeps late hours, returns home dead tired. She feels neglected and misses the closeness and romance of the first six months of their marriage ( before she became pregnant).  She meets Roopak at the park where she takes her son every evening.  They become friendly. He is adrift in life and is looking for someone to tell him what to do. She wants attention and praise. They fall in love. One weekend, Avinash returns unexpectedly from a business trip to find that his wife has gone away for two days with her  boyfriend, leaving the child in the care of her aunt ( who doesn’t know what’s going on).

Choose any one of the three main characters and write a scene from that character’s POV. Use either first person or third person narration.
20 minutes.

Getting Started- part 3 (Character)

GETTING STARTED

Narrate an interesting anecdote about a person you know. Or it could be something that happened to you.  Give it a beginning, middle and end. Briefly describe the setting and the characters. Use dialogue to take the story forward.  Give it a memorable end.

Objective: To use anecdotal material as a seed for a story

Check: Ask yourself What is the point of this story?  For  instance, is it to illustrate the kindness of a stranger?

Describe a person you admire – a teacher, doctor, banker, shopkeeper.  Identify what makes the person unique.  Present the character in four different ways. First make a summary of what the character is like; then show him through his looks; through speech in a scene, and through his action.

Objective: To present the same person in different ways, because that is what you need to do in a story.

Check: Does the character appear consistent in each description?  

Describe somebody’s character by shape, posture and gait of his body. Don’t describe his face, don’t say he is lazy or happy. Show these traits through body language.

Objective: To look for  evidence of character in the whole body not just the face

Check: Do we see enough of the body’s shape and motion? For instance, if you are describing a an anxious father-to-be in the hospital, did you mention how he kept looking up every so often at the light above the OT door?

CHECKLIST FOR CHARACTER

CHECKLIST FOR CHARACTER

• Do your characters  have desires?
• Are your  characters distinctive enough not to types?  
• Do your characters have contrasting traits that make them complex?
• Are your characters consistent despite their contrasting traits?
• Do your characters have the ability to change?
• Do you know your characters well enough?
• Are the right characters ‘round’ and the right characters ‘flat’?
• Are you showing your characters more than telling about them?
• Are you utilizing all methods of showing – action, speech, appearance, thought?
• Have you given them the right names?

The Avinash,Tara,Dhruv exercise..

She fiddled with Jojo...the teddy bear had been a gift from Avinash on their first anniversary.It was a plush vintage teddy with soft brown fur-the most delicate kind.tara had treasured it all along.But today she was in no mood to treat it kindly.She lay there,listlessly,plucking at its fur,which had now lost most of its lusture and had gone rough,as she pondered over how the years had passed by and with them how drastically her life had changed.Hers was an early marriage.She had thought marrying Avinash,her college sweetheart,also a Wharton grad,working with MerryLynch would be the answer to all her dreams.If only,there was a dime for everytime her hopes had crashed down !And now after Dhruv,it seemed like romance had flown out of the window.The night before was her last desperate attempt to keep her married life from being sabotaged.She had put on the black lacy gown,which had been again a gift from Avinash and one of his personal favorites and prepared all of his favorites-dhokla,kheer,rajma chawal and shrikhand for dinner.But he didn't even look at her twice.He ranted on about how stressful his office hours were.He had already had his dinner with one of his clients.That night she went to bed on an empty stomach,having lost her appetite for dinner.She suddenly felt sorry for herself.The mirror showed the wrinkles around the corners of her eyes.Her dresses weren't that perfect fit anymore.Impulsively,she scratched at the left eye of Jojo and managed to tear it off.She knew what she had done but what shocked her more was the lack of remorse or feeling of any kind for that matter.She threw it away ,in a fit of anger and started packing.She had made up her mind.She was going away for the weekend.She was still in her early thirties and she intended to make the most of it-with Roopak.

A few more short stories

The Bet by Anton Chekov

The Sniper by Liam O' Flaherty

Dusk by Saki

God Sees the Truth, But Waits by Leo Tolstoy

Link for some great short stories

Rain by Somerset Maugham

http://maugham.classicauthors.net/Rain/

'Lottery' by Shirley Jackson

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html

The 'Open Window' by H.H. Munro

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/openwin.html

Getting Started.. Part-2

Getting Started

Open the kitchen cupboard and sniff at a few spices or essences. Write down what images come to mind. Use these images to build a scene which involves more than one sensory image ( an intermingling of senses). Eg: You could write about a family sitting down to a meal/ picnic/ feast. Describe the appearance of food, its smell, taste and texture ( 100 words)

Objective : To evoke memory through the sense of smell.
Check: Have you mentioned enough real details to create a visual impression? To  engage the senses?

Describe three indoor settings  you have been. ( Eg: a  dental clinic, a hospital ward, a  coffee shop, beauty salon etc)
Objective:  To pick and choose details that convey the atmosphere at a specific time.
Check: Have you been specific enough. For instance, instead of a receptionist, did you  say that it was a  twenty-something woman with a neat blunt cut and French-polished nails ? Was it just  music playing on the speakers or was it a specific song?

Describe a train ride  as a setting for a horror/ ghost story making good use  of the sounds: the rhythmic click of rails, the  booming through a tunnel, the wind rushing past etc.  in combination with other senses, such as smell and touch.
Objective: To build  a mood in an ordinary setting
Check: Have you evoked the mood with a combination of standard and fresh images ( new things you’ve not noticed before).

Use  sight in coordination with another sense ( example below)  50 words
Mohini would plunge the rooms into semidarkness by drawing the linen  blinds. All colours immediately fell an octave lower; the room filled with shadows, as if it had sunk to the bottom of the sea and the light was filtered in mirrors of green water.
Objective: To use synesthesia  as a form of imagery

Checklist for "Setting"

Is the setting appropriate? Authentic?
Does it work in synergy with character and plot?
Have you given the setting gradually, together with the characters and action? Or have you dumped it in one chunk in the beginning or middle? If the latter, is it slowing down the pace.
Have you used  setting imaginatively  for special effects: foreshadowing, mood expression,  good imagery, change of pace?
Have you chosen the right place to expand and compress time?
Are your descriptions showing rather than telling ie, using all five senses?
Are your descriptions specific?  
Are  you using telling details?
Do the  descriptions reflect the consciousness of your POV character/ characters?
Are you using figurative language  such as metaphors, similies, alliteration, synesthesia, onomatopoeia  etc,  well?

List from class

This is a list of books & short stories that were referred to in class (Also available on my blog):

List of short Stories referred to at the workshop

This is compilation of short stories (even novels) referred to at the workshop, either in conversation or during to a specific discussion about writing.  This list edited or corrected by anyone from the workshop, it is just a 'starter' list to get things going:


 Novels, Books people like or ones that were read recently:

1. Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
2. Two States - Chetan Bhagat
3. Life of Pi -Yann Martel
4. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
5. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
6. Perfume - Patrick Suskind
7. How Green Was My Valley - Richard Llewelly
8. Open - Andre Agassi
9.  -------
10.  -------
11.  -------
12.  -------

Short Stories:

1. Henry James - Beast in the Jungle
2. Jamaica Kincaid - Girl
3. Kate Braverman - Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta
4. Margaret Atwood - Death by Landscape
5. Anton Chekov - Heartache
6. John Updike - A & P
7. Frank O' Connor - First Confession
8. Guy de Maupassant - The Necklace
9. Anton Chekov - The Lady With A Dog

Short Stories, Books

1. The Ledge
2. Saraswathi Park
3. ---------------
4. ---------------

Getting Started.. GET SET GO.

Getting Started  

Three paragraphs. When you go to  restaurant or bar, jot down your observations in a notebook. In one paragraph, describe a loner’s looks and behaviour. In  another, a couple’s looks and interaction. In the third paragraph, describe how a waiter or bartender communicates with the customers.  Observations such as these are handy when you need to augment a scene in a story. You could do this exercise almost anywhere: in a doctor’s waiting room, in a grocery store, at an airport.

Objective: Using your observations of the world to kick start your story.

Check: Have you found something intriguing in your notes?  Something that raises questions that beg to be answered? Suggests a story?

Two-three pages. Write down your first three memories. It could also be about your first day somewhere: at school, in a new neighbourhood/ city.  Or your first meeting with someone… Can you make a story out of them? If the details are unclear, imagine them. Expand and rewrite in the third person ( forget it’s you).

Objective: To use strong first impressions as story triggers.

Check: While using childhood memories, have you  hooked your imagination to a child’s way of looking at things, childhood logic? If your draft sounds grave and psychological, go back to it and lighten it by inserting  funny insights. Remember that this is not a children’s story but a story about childhood.

One page: Recall a verbal or physical fight, and construct it as one scene

Objective:  Energising a  story by introducing conflict into  it.

Check: Is the writing dynamic? Are the words quick and strong? Remove excess adjectives, adverbs, long words. Use short, crisp words.

Two-three pages. Write  My mother never… at the top of the page, then complete the sentence and keep going.  Read  the draft only after you’ve written the requisite number of pages. As you write, begin to fictionalize.  Construct scenes. Take out sentimentality. Forget the subject is your real mother. Forget yourself, too.  Graft new attributes, attitudes, habits, experiences on the character .  Give her a dream or a secret.

Objective: To prove your background beyond the usual limits.

Check:   Is there something surprising, even outrageous in what you’ve written. If not, maybe you haven’t loosened  up  enough.

Two-three pages . Take  your favourite story from the Mahabharat, Ramayan, Panchtantra.  Rewrite its opening line in your words. Give it a different ending.  Now re write the story in simple dynamic language.

Objective: To learn how to play with variations on a theme.

Check: Do the characters in your story come alive? Have you given some details about the setting? Does the ending work well with the rest of the story?

One page Write an autobiographical fragment in which you use alternating objective and personal sentences. One sentence should set down relatively objective factual details, without bias or interpretation. The next sentence should be a personal opinion; it should reveal a feeling – deep or shallow; it should respond to the factual sentence but not directly. Alternate like this. Write a total of 10 sentences: 5 objective, 5 personal.

Objective: To practice sentence rhythm

Check: Are you exploiting the jagged and irregular relationships between two paired sentences. Does it bring out tangential connections rather than point-counterpoint?

Example

Sentence 1: I was born in a gutter

Sentence 2: The geometry and engineering of urban sewage systems  has always fascinated me.