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- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 200 words.
- Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
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- Reading responses are due by midnight on the night PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
When reading the section on writing short stories it was very clear on the differences that the four genres utilize fiction itself. Noting that the different genres styles use their unique strengths to shape the fiction, how its read, and taken at face value. But the reading also tells of the short comings of the genre of fiction when it comes to short stories, mainly that certain genres in storytelling don’t work well and other impossible due to requiring too much information. Too much backstory and disposition would elongate the story and thus it would no longer be a short story. Interestingly enough though in structure both the short and long novel versions of fictional stories make use of the same elements. Those being design, character, dialogue, setting, and point of view and other things. One section that really intrigued me was the section that discussed the topic of creating characters for short stories. I’m not one to write anything short, I tend to write quite a bit. I suppose I tend to ramble on in my writing like an avid talker does in conversation, so to read the section on characters for short stories was very interesting to me so I might start implementing this into my writings.
ReplyDeleteDavid Rodriguez
After reading the assigned material, I was able to understand the ground rules of writing short-short fiction as well as what makes a very short story. I think it’s rather challenging to be able to captivate and entertain a reader with a story that’s 2000 words or less. With this past assignment, I struggled to stay within the required page limit. The three short-short stories showcased within the chapter were interesting as the storytelling varied depending on the author/genre. In Isaac Babel’s “Crossing the River Zbrucz,” Babel is describing the bleak and grisly atmosphere of warfare. To really capture his warped perception of things that were once good, he compares the rising sun to a “severed head,” this comparison highlights his distorted way of seeing things as a result of the horrid scenes he might have witnessed. He is desensitized to the chaos around him. In contrast, Donald Barthelme’s “The Baby” utilizes humor to examine the extent some parents will go to discipline their children. When the narrator is discussing the baby’s lack of improvement, he states that the longest they’ve ever kept the baby in the room was eighty-eight hours, I found this over exaggeration funny and helpful in understanding the purpose of the story. The last story, “Marzipan” by Roberta Allen, left me puzzled. I think I was waiting for something deeper or dramatic towards the end. I believe the man had pushed the memory of his mother deep in the depths of his mind, that when he was digging up stories to tell the marzipan eating girl, he remembered his mother’s love for marzipan. The man was putting up a façade, when he ruined his performance by getting in touch with his personal reality.
ReplyDeleteKayla Garza
Starkey’s chapter, “Writing the Short-Short Story,” begins with a crucial point that allowed me to better distinguish the subgenre of literary fiction. “They value character over plot, and...authorial voice and style.” I think this is crucial in understanding the complexity of life. The interpretation of what is going on can be drawn in more ways than one. From the elements of fiction what stuck out to me was dialogue. This seems to be the component that I personally struggle with, however Starkey states that it is an essential skill. Isaac Babel masterfully utilizes the element of unease throughout the story of “Cross the River Zbrucz.” Donald Barthelme’s “The Baby” truly has the reading reading every single letter carefully trying to predict how twisted the ending will be. Finally, Roberta Allen’s “Marzipan” utilizes dialogue and the point of view to keep the reader guessing. Starkey discusses “denouement” which is a tool that I personally love in literature but never knew the term for up until now. Will definitely be using this in my writing. Another component that was highlighted continuously was the idea of “show don’t tell.” Starkey states, “it’s all the more important to dole out the information bit by bit.” For dialogue, “context dictates dialogue” is another powerful tool that is important to writing short-short stories. When discussing the points of view, I am deeply intrigued by utilizing second person in a work, the examples given really create a special mood that is brought by the closeness of the reader and narrator.
ReplyDeleteNick Torres
In Starkey’s “Writing A Short-Short Story,” it presents three examples of short fiction stories that I found intriguing as well as disturbing. The stories “Crossing the River Zbrucz,”” The Baby,” Marzipan” each present elements of short fiction story. In the “Crossing the River Zbrucz” I loved the way the imagery was displayed to create the setting of war. For example, Babel states “the orange sun is rolling across the sky like a severed head” which is interesting because it describes the environment but also keeps the dark tone of war by comparing it to a severed head. In “The baby” I found the relationship of the family completely disturbing. However, the character of the father was well developed because it helped me feel hatred towards the father because of the way he treated the baby. Also, the way it was put into first person helped to see the psychotic thoughts of the father and see that he is clearly not fit to be a parent. In “Marzipan” I like the way Allen hooked my attention in the beginning by staring in medias res by describing what is occurring like “At a crowded party, a pretty girl closes her eyes…” In addition, I found the dialogue usage interesting because I could picture the conversation between the girl and the young man. I learned good dialogue contributes to character, introduces backstory, and allows the story to move along as well which I would definitely contribute to my writing.
ReplyDeleteKevin Esparza
In this chapter we are being introduced to the elements of the short short story in fiction. What I enjoyed the most is how Starkey goes in depth about using our imagination to create something real even when its been tweaked or entirely made up. Character, dialogue, setting, style, point of view and tone are all important aspect when trying to engage the audience. Each story that was given sent off a different vibe than the other. In “Crossing the River Zbrucz” the reader gets a sad and dark feeling over the story. In “The baby” its about a father who fails to discipline his little girl and at the end, he gives up trying and joins her as they tear pages out if books together. Finally, in “Marzipan,” there are no named characters. At first, it didn’t make sense to me at first but then I was able to understand that maybe that’s the point. To get straight to the point before you’re able to lose your audience. This story ended in a different way than I expected it would. I enjoyed the dialogue throughout the story. Personally, I enjoyed each short story, I prefer when they are not predictable, and these were not.
ReplyDeleteMarissa Sanchez
I was very surprised to learn about fiction, and especially about short-short stories. I believe that when we think of fiction, we immediately think of novels and really long books, but we often forget that fiction can also be a short narrative. I learned that short-short stories require a lot of detail. In order to bring the picture alive in the reader’s mind in such a short amount of words, writers need to be very particular about his word-choice. I also learned that dialogue does not need to be included in order to make the story alive, yet it is highly encouraged since it does bring a more vivid image. However, I feel that the characters are what play the most important role in the story. They are what encompass the whole of the story and bring it to life. Reading the short-short stories that were given as examples, I was deeply intrigued by the style that each of the writers chose to use. But, I was especially fascinated by how every ending to each of the stories contained a greater message, something completely unexpected and mystifying that made the short story completely worth the read. I believe this is the main purpose of such a short story, to give the reader something to remember and to keep him/her on their toes.
ReplyDeleteAna T. Flores
I much rather prefer writing fiction than nonfiction because you can make believe stories as to being supernatural and being able to just imagine a different world than your own, but in certain circumstances it is hard to think of a climax for stories in my opinion. Starkey discussions the elements structure and design, point of view and tone. Varies of short stories such as “crossing the river” shows conflict with the protagonist. In times it was rather confusing but Isaac portrays good imagery on setting and with the Jews and Germans. In another example of “The Baby” it was kind of confusing to figure whether that can be as fiction when sometimes in real life parents can seem to leave their child behind as you hear them in the new so I didn’t really get the concept of that story. As for “Marzipan “had a shift of mood changes in the story. Starkey shows techniques that helps the audience understand to develop critical thinking in future stories and use Freytag’s pyramid. I remember when I was trying to write my first story it was hard to come up with a conflict for my characters that would try to keep the readers intrigued but somehow always failed at the end because my mind was all over the place. Overall, in this chapter it was well written and had a lot of concepts that can help writers with writing Fiction and develop a story from the elements he talks about because fiction even though may seem easier to make up stories still follows guidelines.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa Duque
Pages 98-141 were very insightful. Throughout the reading, I learned about the difference between fiction and creative nonfiction. Writers of creative nonfiction are always accountable to the evidence. As opposed to literary fiction, in creative nonfiction the author has to get straight to the point. However, just because creative nonfiction is straight to the point, it doesn’t mean that it is not worth reading or meaningful. In this chapter, we are introduced to three stories that provide material for a discussion of the elements of fiction. The stories are: “Crossing the river Zbrucz” by Isaac Babel, “The Baby” by Donald Barthelme, and “Marzipan” by Roberta Allen. After reading all three stories, Starkey stresses the importance of structure and design, character, dialogue, setting, point of view, tone, and style when writing the short-short story. Alex Turner, a former editor at “The New Yorker,” believes that “pacing has everything to do with it – and the snap at the end.” Starkey suggests to avoid a convoluted plot, and to keep flashbacks and flash forwards to a minimum. Starkey also recommends to begin where the intriguing conflict is at, rather than at the very beginning. Finally, Starkey also proposes not to make a character too perfect because memorable characters are often based on people the writer knows who don’t always do the right thing and suffer the consequences as a result.
ReplyDeleteJulissa Balderas
This chapter focuses on the process of writing a short-short fiction story. Starkey uses very clear ways of explaining this. He gives examples that did work and other that didn’t work for writing short stories. Starkey includes elements like dialogue, characters , setting and point of view. It is important to understand that the purpose of a short-short fiction story is to engage the reader in your writing. It is something that is not true therefore your imagination can flow and create its own ideas. Personally I do think that this is more difficult for me. Compared to the work we did last week in which we had to write about a time we traveled which was a specific moment which had already happened. All I had to do was put it in words and remember which was easier. A short-short fiction story has to be interesting and at the same time the reader has to enjoy what they are reading. As I was reading the short story “Baby” although it is obvious fiction because the father was leaving a baby alone in a room it was entertaining thinking about what would happen next. Finally having a very unexpected ending because although he spends time punishing the baby he eventually does the same thing. The overall concept of writing a short-short story was very clear in these stories because they all portrayed different elements creatively attracting the reader.
ReplyDeleteMarlen Garcia