Further Thoughts on what makes a good story

Cher'ley pointed out that the standard approach to stories is 'Beginning ' Middle ' End'�.

How does that fit in with 'S = C + A + R'�?

Well, as Jerry Cleaver asks, 'Where does a story begin?'�

His view (and I more or less agree) is that the story REALLY begins when the reader knows what the Conflict is. It can't start any earlier, and it sure doesn't start any later.

Some stories are rather 'encapsulated'�'�

For example, think about the shortest story (ascribed to Hemmingway):

'For sale: Baby shoes. Never used.'�

It's funny to analyse this one ' any analysis is longer than the story!

Yet, we have a conflict (want, plus obstacle). Or, if you prefer, the definition of a problem. We have action ' something to solve the problem/conflict. We have a resolution.

The beginning, middle and end are contained in the six words. The C+A+R are all contained in those six words. The story doesn't begin until we're read the whole, and we can't see the C+A+R until we've read the whole thing.

Technically, there are no identifiable characters in the story, but we, as readers, do identify with the emotions involved ' unless we're totally non-empathic, which would imply we have no feelings whatever. So, we do identify with whoever placed the advert as completely as possible ' the want has a very high emotional content.

It makes a kind of mockery of what so many editors ask for (character-driven stories) in practically every genre, from mainstream to SF.

Yet this combination of six words has everything we aim for, whatever length of story we are trying to write ' flash, short-short, short, novella, novel or decalogy or longer. We would do well to keep it in mind whenever we sit down to write. Just to get us focussed on the idea that we are writing to achieve an effect, not just tell a story. The closer we get to the effect of these six words, the better our story is.
In the last entry, I talked about hiding the props, as stage magicians do. Hemmingway (or whoever wrote the six-word story) manages it here to the point that we can't even see where the props MIGHT be. Everything unessential has been stripped away.

Of course, we would never get away with putting a six word story before a publisher or editor. They want more substance ' words ' to the stories they buy, because there is a lack of satisfaction in just six words. But it does tell us that we should strip out anything that doesn't matter to the story, until we have something equivalent to the shortest story we can tell.

Good writing!

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