SOUNDTRACK:
[READ: December 1, 2023] “Notes on the Craft of Fiction”
This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar. This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition! Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.
The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond. Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.
The author of this story was Sam Shelstad. Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.
It’s December 1. To officially kick off the 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar, here are some iron-clad rules for writing your own short story by the author of Cop House.
This story was really quite funny and was a great way to start the collection.
Shelstad explains
The story is excerpted from my novel The Cobra and the Key, which came out this October with Touchwood Editions. The novel takes the form of a creative-writing guide, where the guide’s fictional author can’t help but reference his personal life and autobiographical works while dispensing misguided writing advice, which is how the narrative breaks through. The excerpt takes sections from the first few chapters and, while these sections are more focused on the misguided writing advice side of things, a sense of the narrator and his various delusions begins to emerge.
In no way does it feel like it is excerpted from a novel–it is perfectly lifted from the story and exists on its own 24 point plan.
As it starts out you kind of think this writer doesn’t exactly know what he is talking about.
Don’t they say a picture is worth a thousand words? With a couple of mouse clicks, however, a writer can copy and paste an image of a painting right into their book. Checkmate.
As the sections progress, they get even more insane. If your protagonist is an anti-hero, they must earn sympathy.
If your character pets a stranger’s dog on the first page, you’ve bought yourself a nasty, insensitive comment on page two.
He says you want your protagonist’s name to be meaningful to them somehow, but don’t be too obvious about it. To avoid being obvious, make them Irish or Jewish:
- Strongstein
- O’Brave
- Basketballberg
It also turns out there’s some plot thrown into the tips–plot about his ex and about the publisher he is currently (harrassing) to get his book published.
I will definitely read this novel. It sounds great.
I Just Read About That... 