ConFusion 2018: A Novel Look at the Short Story

(These are my lightly edited notes for a panel I attended at the ConFusion Fantasy and Science Fiction Convention in January of 2018)

THE PANEL: A Novel Look at the Short Story (21 January 2018 14:00)

DESCRIPTION: “Short stories require a different approach to pacing, character, world-building, exposition, and plot than longer works. Let’s explore the tools we use to convey important information to the reader when we have a lot fewer words to do it with.”

PANELISTS: Scott H. Andrews, Amal El-Mohtar, Lucy Snyder, Jessi Cole Jackson

NOTES:

• • Interests from the Audience
    • Distilling vast research down to a coherent short story
    • Contrast between short story structure vs. novel structure
    • Writing short stories for specific markets vs. writing short stories, then searching for a venue
    • How do you keep a short story short?
  • Novel structure vs. short story structure
  • Alan Moore’s Jerusalem
  • 3-act structure, 5-act structure, etc
  • PLOT DOES NOT JUST HAPPEN
  • There is not 100% consensus over what a short story *should* be.
  • The defining quality of a short story is that it is short
  • Difficulty writing short stories of short story length can be mitigated by reading more short fiction, e.g. GET IN THE HABIT OF READING SHORT STORIES
  • Jo Walton – defining element of a genre is PACE – Western page, romance pace, fantasy pace, etc.
  • Lackington’s – really big on prose style, even over plot
  • A truism about academic research – you should get three books out of the same research: your thesis, a monograph, and a popular book.
  • Make words and phrases do double duty
  • Make sure everything in a short story is load-bearing
  • The Pink Institution by Selah Saterstrom – structure is linked (or not) short stories which make up a novel

 

 

My thoughts: I didn’t learn much that was new to me here. I did enjoy the conversation between the panelists, and I picked up a few new books for Mount Tsundoku.