<![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Aboslutely perfect, bang-up job as always Charlie Jane. Posts like this make io9 one of my favorite stops on the web.

Maybe I'll put these tips to work this weekened :-)

itsburnsie

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> This is why I still read io9. Great list and some intelligent comments to boot!

Thank you thank you thank you.

futurpunk

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> @fartron: Wow, thanks, I'm really glad you liked it.

Charlie Jane Anders

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> @GalactiKat: We should definitely do drinks again sometime soon! Drinks are always a good idea.

Charlie Jane Anders

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Probably some of the best sci-fi stories are the ones that only allude to advanced technology, then use the setting to explore pretty real issues. Take for example Jennifer Government. What happens when corporations get their way eh? Use the setting to give you freedom to think of way-out-there ideas like transhumanism or whatever.

Mecharine

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Thanks Charlie Jane - I sure appreciate the good advice. Any plans yet for another IO9 Happy Hour?

@RRich: yes, I think that a good short story can both stand on it's own and be part of a greater whole.

GalactiKat

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> This is very good. Nice, Charlie.

A very smart editor told me a long time ago that the best stories have conflict, and are about someone who wants something.

Short stories are not easy to write.

Another editor critiqued something I wrote by saying that it didn't seem like a story, but a chapter of a novel.

Yeah, but I think a good short story can be both.

Am I wrong?

RRich

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> @Charlie Jane Anders: Excellent post. This is really great advice; I can't wait to apply some of this to my own writing.

@suprspi: I love Ficlets! I've been posting there for about a year. I write under the pen name "Crown Me Tarzan, King of Mars", if anyone is interested.

[ficlets.com]

KiddChaos

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> @Charlie Jane Anders: Oh wow, I read Horatius and Clodia last year and really liked it, but had completely forgotten about it. Glad to put two and two together, and I'll be a bit more conscious in watching for your name now.

fartron

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> I thought it was Samuel Delany who originally drew attention to Heinlein's dilating doors?

NelC

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Loved "Horatius and Clodia"! I love stories that start our with characters and settings that you dont understand (and arent explained outright) and only later it dawns on you what Horatius and Clodia are. A strangely sensual story considering the subject matter. And strangely current all of a sudden... Horatius could be the descendant of the "FinCEN" network that flagged Spitzer.

I havent got to the "A Serial Killer..." yet. Thanks for the links.

blorp

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> @foolish-rain: Yes good point! I meant to mention that... ppl will always take their technology for granted -- until it goes wrong. And then they obsess about it. Like with your car, where if it doesn't start you'll suddenly start talking about the transmission and the carburetor and all the other parts you normally would never mention in polite society.

Charlie Jane Anders

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> If I wrote as much as I read about writing...
Your list is excellent and right in line with my reading about writing.

mikeray

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Nice post! Short stories are my favorite genre and this is good advice for someone like myself who is just trepidly starting to write their own stories. Good job.

CarolynG

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Er, that is, "...suddenly the short fiction he or she wrote when starting out comes into the spotlight."

jcormier

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> @codydog: You're right about short fiction being read primarily by other writers of short fiction, especially these days. But short fiction is also important retroactively: if an author does end up becoming important or famous, suddenly his the short fiction her or she wrote when starting out suddenly comes into the spotlight.

Obviously a writer can't obsess over this and still retain their ability to write creatively, but it is an example of how modern short fiction still gets its due.

jcormier

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> AND--never, ever, ever explain the whiz bang technology. Consider how likely you are to get into your car and have a brief reverie about the "internal combustion engine that permitted the conquest of most the surface of our planet" or some such filler.

People in every time and place just use their stuff to do a job. Whether it's an "amazing flaked obsidean tool" or an "incredible quantum flux demolecularizer", it's probably just an ax in that society.

Tell by showing!

foolish-rain

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Big props for mentioning George Saunders!

tezby

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Something to check out in this vein is ficlets. Scalzi of "Old Man's War" used to blog for them.

I've published a few too, and really enjoyed the process.

It's a site where you write short pieces of fiction under 1024 characters - everything is released under Creative Commons. People can write prequels or sequels to your stories, and of course you can continue others stories - pretty neat little place to practice the micro-fiction.

Wil Wheaton's dropped a few good stories there too actually.

[www.ficlets.com]

suprspi

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> @blorp: Wow I'm flattered! Here are the two that seem to be the best received: [www.mcsweeneys.net] and [www.strangehorizons.com]

Charlie Jane Anders

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> This is so good, thanks. If my arms were long enough I'd pat you on the back, Charlie Jane.

gods-n-clods

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Any chance you could post links to any of your shorts? Please?

blorp

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> @zeppelined:
[Begin shameless plug]
Tales of the Talisman
[End shameless plug]

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> I think Harlan Ellison made the original observation about "the door dilated."

xtopher

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Now that I think of it, "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" could be said to follow several of these rules. That's pretty cool.

Rasselas

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Thanks, Charlie jane. These are nice.

Poormojo

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Meh, the market seems to be saturated with mediocre (at best) supernatural fiction right now, and science (or quality) plays little part in it.

All_Thumbs

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Great advice--thanks for posting.

scbelle

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> One thing I find annoying in futuristic short stories is when the main character expresses nothing but irritation with every technological marvel his age presents. You never see the character use something and say, "Well, these are handy, a darn sight easier than how we used to do it."

Jim_in_Buffalo

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> "I thought it was a gun pushed into the back of my head. I was wrong." (opening line from a short of mine.)

As far as I know, there is a huge bottel neck caused by too many writers and not enough editors or outlets for the material. The publishers validate the material, but the market validates the publishers. The market is demanding less in the way of short fiction. The market is smaller for books too. Where'd the midlist go? Where are the pocket books with two stories? Less market for a world that reads less. How sad.

Jeff-Minor

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> @NefariousNewt: Any examples off the top of your head?

(not doubting you, just looking for more info!) :-)

Ed Grabianowski

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Great advice, thanks! I've been thinking of writing some short stories and whatnot, its good to get some experience.

Also, awesome Frazetta painting (Though I don't see how it relates to the article). Gotta love John Carter and Dejah Thoris

Bob_of_Mars

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Nice write-up. It'll come in handy when I start working on my abbreviated Great American Science-Fiction novella. Can we get a similar style book for how to write killer comments? I'm just asking as a public service to the great unwashed masses...

Citizen Kang

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> @Charlie Jane Anders: As a guy who worked on an SF/Fantasy magazine with an open submission policy for several years, I've gotta say that if half those submissions followed half your guidelines, there would've been much less pain involved in reading the manuscripts and more pain in picking which ones to publish. As it should be.

Though I will say a first-line grabber is always important, and I'd amend one of your guidelines to read "Fuck up your characters A LOT," just because the deeper the shit, the more fun it is to see them crawl out.

Rus

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> @zeppelined: Yes there are. But you're not going to find them with the big publishing houses or the mainstream magazines.

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> @zeppelined: There is a lot of on line stuff, some of them even pay.

Good list, of things to do. The flaw is that short stories are like poems or singer/songwriter songs.. The audience is made out of other poets, songwriters or short story writers.

It might be crooked, but it's the only game in town..

And no, i never sold a short story. Sold a poem once though. And a few songs.

codydog

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> @extracrispy: Wow, thanks! I think a lot about this sort of stuff. I'm really glad you liked it -- I was bracing myself for comments like, "bah, your rules are dumb!"

Charlie Jane Anders

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Nice article, plus, Deja Thoris.

Seth L

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> It all boils down to getting the interest of the editor and keeping it. Read what they publish and you'll get a feel for what they buy. Maybe. You know how editors like to find "crazy, hot, new, edgy talent.

Jeff-Minor

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Are there even any paying markets for sci-fi short stories these days, other than Asimov's?

Ed Grabianowski

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> This is really, really good advice. Quite an interesting post to see on io9. Kudos.

extracrispy

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> Thanks, Charlie. These are really great, and much appreciated.

moff

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> "Fuck your characters up a little"

Good rule that. Of course, the only short story I ever wrote (Ignoring grade-school butchery) was about a man arguing with a hallucination and losing.

Ghede

]]> <![CDATA[8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories]]> I like to avoid the character/plot dichotomy by fucking up my gimmick with experimental forms of the genre so it mercilessly thinks its surrounds make it the plot.

Otto-Reimer

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