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So the creative forge of last week has cooled somewhat but I’m trying to stoke, stoke, stoke it to keep things malleable.
A few weeks back Dave Schwartz elicited comments on the differences between the short story form and the novel with interesting results. This means a great deal more to me today since I’ve decided I’ve got two ideas that are incontrovertibly novel-length that I’ve started.
I thought one would be structured as a series of stand-alone episodes in the life of a modern-day hero loosely modeled after Theseus. Each episode could function as both a chapter and short story. The whole idea stems from a finished short story (patiently waiting to be shipped out) that I decided could be a lot more. I started working on the second chapter/story when I realized, rather rudely, that this scheme is not going to work. You can’t write eight or nine short stories dealing with a continuum of events and expect it to come out smelling like a novel, because it won’t. It will smell like a collection of short stories. And that would be unsatisfying if you thought you picked up a novel.
As I wrote the beginning to episode two, it occurred to me that I needed to elaborate on some things to further ground the world; they’ll be important soon, although not immediately. A reread told me that it wasn’t too bad for a first draft but a sucky start to a short story. I get the sense it’s okay for a novel as the reader understands that s/he will be settling in with these characters for several hundred pages, so it’s nice to get to know them early. Short stories offer no such luxury. There’s a lot left in the margins of short stories, so to speak, and stuff that isn’t part of the action usually does not belong.
I still believe the episodes can function as independently entertaining short stories but it’ll be far easier to go from chapter–>short story rather than short story–>chapter. To help get to the bottom of how this can be successfully done, I bought a copy of Charlie Finlay’s The Prodigal Troll to see the differences between the novel and his short stories in F&SF.
I also bought Mary Renault’s The King Must Die that recounts the life of Theseus and is written as a quasi-historical novel. I’m interested in how she does this; it was quite a popular book for awhile. So it links into the Theseus mythos is one reason I want to read but there’s another reason. The first time I ever sat down to start a novel was in 1996, right after graduating college. The story links a number of little-known episodes that happened in and around the Trojan War, told from the perspective of Thersites. I’ve often thought about starting it over because I like the general idea of the story but instinctively I knew the writing was dog shit and stopped before I wasted too much time.
All this reading and writing should keep me occupied until September when I start school and will likely drop it all, one-eigth finished. 
Current Mood: Bleck |
Currently Listening To – Liz Phair – “Exile in Guyville”
10 Comments
I don’t know whether you read Harry Potter, but the first novel is structured as a series of self-contained short stories. Each chapter introduces a new problem and finally solves it, but also advances the characters’ understanding of a larger problem that the novel as a whole solves. I admired the technique when I first read the book. The second HP novel is structured like a conventional novel, and that’s all the further I got with the series.
I haven’t read any HP mostly because I was told I had to. Your comments make me want to check out the first one though.
What I didn’t make clear in my post is that I expected short story-esque chapters to be saleable “as-is” in the current marketplace…but I don’t think they are. Rowling may have written self-contained episodes for chapters, but were they published as such in short fiction venues? That’s why I looked at CCF. The shorts “A Democracy of Trolls” and “Love and the Wayward Troll” appeared in F&SF before The Prodigal Troll novel was published.
Interestingly, Stephen King’s original The Gunslinger was five novellas that were published over the course of four years (1978-1981) in F&SF. Not sure that would work in today’s market, 25 years later.
See, I am not sure I agree with that John.
I think Rowling is a plotting genius. I like how she seems to take small insignificant elements that at first just seem there for color and transforms it into integral parts of the story or a clues needed to solve a mystery that has been in front of the reader’s faces this entire time.
I also never really thought of the chapters in the first book as self-contained short stories. I just might not have noticed. Still, the techniques she used in the latter books felt like the exact same techniques she used in the first book, if not a bit more refined.
::shrugs:: Could just be me.
Maybe this is a tomayto-tomahto thing, but I think HP chapters are more episodic. That is, each portion hangs on some kind of conflict-resolution structure, but I don’t think they’d be satisfying as individual stories–and certainly not saleable as such.
No one should feel any pressure to read something because “you should.” I’m through with that, too. I have limited time to read as it is: I have no intention of surrendering any of it to something that hurts me–although I must admit that I’m going to read the next Robert Jordan book because I’ve invested far too much time in it to stop now. I wish I could. [Cue quiet piano music and fade to black. Voiceover: If you know someone who can't help themselves with epic fantasies, please, get help for them. Call 1-800-EPIC-HELP.]
After book 10 of Wheel of Time I had enough.
It’s a shame because I honestly think that it could’ve been one of the best High Fantasy series ever written had Jordan kept it down to 6 books. Maybe 8.
I feel bad for the guy, though. He has some rare blood disease.
No, the HPatSS chapters couldn’t be independently published; except for the first, they depend on worldbuilding and character development that has come before, and until the end, they don’t address the overarching problem of the novel. However, each is self-contained, in that introduces a problem, puts the characters at risk, complicates the situation, then lets the characters solve the problem. Thus, each chapter ends on a sense of resolution, rather than a cliffhanger.
Another example of the novel-as-a-series-of-short-stories is Jack Vance’s Eyes of the Overworld. It’s composed of about a dozen novelettes. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect each was published in a magazine when it was first written, because each contains enough background and worldbuilding that it could stand on its own; and in fact, you occasionally find these individual stories in collections of Vance stories, or general SFF anthologies. The book is a sort of picaresque, in which the anti-hero/protagonist Cugel finds himself far from home, and has to make his way back, through various dangers and adventures. You guys may recall I’ve mentioned this novel before, as an example of the use of the hilarious/frustrating anti-hero, who is vastly entertaining, but whom the reader wants to strangle.
Thanks for the discussion on this. I just got CCF’s The Prodigal Troll yesterday and it looks as though he lifted chapter 2 almost verbatim from the book for the story “A Democracy of Trolls.” I think the story “Love and the Wayward Troll” is the same for either chapter 3 or 4. I’m mostly interested in comparing the opening 1K words from the novel to the short stories to see what’s added and what’s cut, especially for the second one.
Gordon’s header for the second story begins like this:
You might recall meeting Maggot in “A Democracy of Trolls” back in our Oct/ Nov. 2002 issue. He’s the human boy who was raised by a band of trolls.
That helps to put the story in perspective right off the bat.
My stubborness in refusing the Potter actually has to do with the over-the-top marketing of it, which seems to have cooled in recent years. And as a general rule I get annoyed when I’m told by acquaintances that “if you like to read, you absolute must read” John Grishom, Michael Crichton, JK Rowling, Dan Brown, and every other flash in the pan. I’ve read all of these authors except Rowling and rate them all “okay at best” and wish my time had been spent reading something else.
The Jack Vance sounds interesting too. That seems like a classic that has stood the test of time.
I want to read Jack Vance. I’ve only heard good things about him.
Strangely enough Michael Crichton made this best of Sci-fi list at spot #98: Phobos Top 100 Sci-fi Books you Must Read
I’m a sucker for English public school stories, so Harry Potter is a whomping good read for me. Having said that, I recently read a commentary which took apart the first seven pages or so of Book 1 and pointed out all the details which figured prominently in other later books — that is the kids all love the complicated details, without realizing that they’re being set up to swallow the plot developments later on. Even hack writers can be entertaining from time to time.
“Must” you read HP? Hell no. There are plenty of books I’m “supposed” to have read that I haven’t. Or refuse to like no matter how many people try explaining how “important” James Joyce is as a writer. Movies, too.
As for The Andromeda Strain — gotta love a novel whose opening is: (a) a one sentence paragraph and (b) that sentence is incomplete. “A man with binoculars.” Let’s break the rules so we can establish a hook… In 1969, millions of people wanted to know what than man saw – and why a book about a disease had binoculars… (grin)
Dr. Phil
Grudging admiration is how I would describe my feelings regarding those best sellers. Much of the writing is downright bad (some of the descriptions in The DaVinci Code were painful) but the authors do enough right with hooks, chapters, teasers, etc. to keep a majority of the public turning pages and popularizing the book through word of mouth.