Please welcome fellow SMFS list member and author January Bain to the blog today...
The
Art of the Short Story by January Bain
Good day to you,
By way of
introduction, I’m January Bain, a Canadian author obsessed with Story. Short
ones, long ones, and all lengths in between, whatever serves the purpose. I
have written so many books now, I’ve lost count. But I do have a special
fondness for the short story form and have been known to pen a few in my time.
What makes the
short story form so powerful? How can one hope to compare to someone like
Hemmingway with his powerful themes, his renowned use of economy of language
and understated intensity. His ability to convey deep emotion and complex human
experiences in a few pages can be said to be unparalleled. But no, the same
applies to other writers: Virginia Wolfe, Agatha Christie, Alice Monroe,
Margaret Atwood, Edgar Allen Poe, William Faulkner, too many to mention in a
short blog post.
What makes a story
memorable, at any length, in my opinion, is the execution of a powerful idea
drawing on human emotion, leading the reader through a labyrinth of a journey
filled with conflict toward a destination that reveals something of the human
experience. And hopefully the wisdom we discover as we read, we can draw on in
our own time of need, seeing how others dealt with adversity and triumph. But
it’s the powerful idea that first needs to be addressed.
Are there any
original ideas left? Probably not very many, if any, but that doesn’t mean you
can’t use your own unique viewpoint to craft stories. Each person who is
compelled to write and is willing to sit down for hours on end, alone, and does
so, has something to say, something to offer others.
I sometimes ask
myself this question: Why do we write, slave over each and every word,
paragraph and scene, not happy until we have come close as possible to getting
across our ideas to the world? At first light, it can be ego, thinking I can
write a story as least as good as the one I’m reading, then later, it’s more
focused as we mature, a celebration of all that is human.
The hero’s journey
speaks to all of us in story form, providing a road map in how to deal with
life’s inevitable difficulties. Whether you care most about injustice, truth,
expressing love, good versus evil, identity and coming of age, fighting for
human rights or the abuses of power and corruption, story can take you on an
illuminating journey of discovery and bring you closer to others in the
process. It helps one immensely to realize they are not alone in this world,
that others have followed similar paths many, many times before. That they have
lived to come out the other side, no doubt wiser and better able to cope after
being tested, showing all of us how they managed the feat. And if they didn’t
survive the journey, it also teaches us something. The short story does this so
well. A short, intense glimpse of another world, another time, but always
applicable to the present.
Of course, it’s
assumed that one learns the structure of a short story, scintillating prose,
making your characters as real as possible, with a plot and a hook that engages
readers, no different than the longer novel form, except in brevity. Celebrated
authors have taken all this onboard and more, to arrive at a diamond that
others can relate to. A worthwhile enterprise celebrating the art of the short
story.
I bid you adieu
and happy reading.
January
Bain/Storyteller
January Bain ©2024
January Bain
firmly believes that stories unite us, that good stories help us to discover
the commonality of the human experience by supporting values, empathy and
understanding. January writes with her heart, mind, and soul, hoping that her
novels will touch your life, giving you moments of freedom as you fly with her
to other worlds. January and her husband live in rural Canada on peaceful
acreage where a variety of wildlife comes to visit regularly and expects to be
fed and paid attention to.
