Now, just a quickie, before I go.
For eight years, on and off (mostly off) I’ve edited the Futures series of SF shorts in Nature (and also Nature Physics). Quite a few examples of our past output have been collected in this handy anthology, and you can read a few examples for free here.
Writing a story in the compass of a single page of Nature is very difficult. A story, that is, in which there are characters, and a plot, and a narrative arc such that a character starts here and ends up there, a changed man zillog dalek person. This is why a lot of authors trying their hand at Futures (many first-timers, but sometimes even quite well-known writers, too) tend, when faced with the ultra-tiny format, to squeeze out all such dramatic necessities and write a scenario.
What’s one of these? Well, a scenario looks like a story (such that, when I started in this fiction game, I didn’t know the difference, and a lot of earlier Futures items take the scenario form) but it’s really only the germ of a tale that’s waiting for characters and plot and dramatic tension to come along and animate it.
Thi difference is currently sharp for me as I’m editing an enormous SF novel so that I won’t be embarrassed were other people to read it. That it’s sodden with sex and drenched in blood causes me no blushes whatsoever, but I’d hate to be told that it’s full of show-don’t-tells and point-of-view errors. This story tops out at more than a quarter of a million words and has a cast of thousands, so doesn’t suffer from the same constraints as a Futures piece, which should be between 750 and 950 words.
However, just to show that it’s possible to write a complete piece of fiction in fewer than 750 words, I’d encourage you to look at this, a perfectly delightful example from an author not unadjacent to the Nature Network. Read, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Learn.
If all the stories I received were as good as this, I’d be one happy sontaran cyberman wookiee.
What a lovely story. Thanks for highlighting it here. Well done to rpg, should he be visiting this blog.
I second your final sentence, Henry. We get a lot of fiction submitted to LabLit, and a lot of it good (with this as a fine example), but the art of brevity like this is quite remarkable. If I’m very, very nice to rpg, and don’t commit too many punctuation and grammatical violations in my NN posts, perhaps he’ll send me some more.
p.s. If you tootle through the LabLit archives, you’ll find a few more things by the same author.
a lot of it good (with this as a fine example)
Now I am blushing.
Tosh and piffle. Don’t be so modest.
Be careful what you wish for.
aw shucks guys.
Thanks.
Richard, this is a lovely story. And I can relate to it, as I met my wife during my postdoc.
Yes, nicely done! Reminds me of my PhD days and our lab’s love triangle that became a love square (I was not one of the 4 people involved I hasten to add, just an amused observer).
You lovers of brevity might also enjoy participating in the Waterstone’s What’s Your Story postcard contest.
However, reading through some of the WYS submissions makes me sympathize with both Henry and Jennifer.
Let me add my admiration to the chorus of praise for Richard’s story. I know from experience how difficult it is to pare something down to be that brief, and doubt I was as successful in the story-telling.
And good luck, Henry – sounds like a monster! You wrote I’d hate to be told that it’s full of show-don’t-tells and point-of-view errors. If you don’t find them all yourself, wouldn’t you rather be told one way or another?
When you get to the next level of edition, and you’re looking for an uninvolved person’s POV, you could add me to your list. I’m capable of saying no if I can’t do it, and it would be a great change from the umpteenth manuscript from my local colleagues for a “re-read by a native English speaker”. Although I suspect you have a surfeit of local editors willing to do the work. They just might be too nice to you, is what I’m saying.
By the way, re: short short sci-fi stories, John Scalzi might be an interesting person to invite for Futures. He conducted himself quite commendably with his How I Proposed to My Wife.
You lovers of brevity might also enjoy participating in the Waterstone’s What’s Your Story postcard contest.
Interestingly, the only short fiction of mine that anyone (else) has been good enough to publish was a postcard-sized story, in the Postcards from Hell series, run by Jeff Crook of this parish. The postcard format (in the genre we call it _flash_) seems to be getting quite popular.
You wrote I’d hate to be told that it’s full of show-don’t-tells and point-of-view errors. If you don’t find them all yourself, wouldn’t you rather be told one way or another?
Yes, well, of course I would. I was just trying to put some clear blue water between the execution of this … um … masterpiece, and its content. If Richard Curtis were turning it into a film script he’d call it Four Copulations and a Decapitation. But it could be more than four (I haven’t counted). Copulations, that is. Of decapitations, I have no idea.
And that’s just in the first volume.
Yes sigh, it’s going to be a trilogy, I’m afraid. Jennifer had suggested this format but I had resisted, for two reasons.
First, because I’ve read, so many times, on fiction chat sites, posts from people writing that they’ve got this multi-volume fantasy epic all ready to write, if only they could find the time.
Second, because people would call it Lick My Love Pump.
When you get to the next level of edition, and you’re looking for an uninvolved person’s POV, you could add me to your list.
Yes please, Heather! The more the merrier! I’ve written nearly all the words, now, though they’re not in the right order. A rough cut of book 1 is nearly ready, and when it is, I’ll post a link to it on my blog, and then anyone who feels sufficiently well-disposed towards my indulgent ravings might download it, read it and comment.
Scalzi.
Indeed…
Ah, yes, they don’t Mach them like they used to.
Maybe they would, if they chose a more cheerful key. D minor is, I think, the saddest of all keys.
So… The New Novel goes to 11 I take it?
(had to jump on the bandwagon somehow!)
Yes, but the problem I have when editing it is trying to find the fine line between stoopid and clever. The closer you get to it, the harder it is to see. I hope you’ll forgive the following (excusable only because, in my novel, concepts such as good taste have generally flown out of the window)
Q: Why is doing a PhD like an erection?
A: Because the more you think about it, the harder it gets.