Love this as always, Kathy. I often say with show vs tell that it comes down to how quickly / easily we want a reader to acquire knowledge (like "All day I’ve been angry in upstate New York" at the start of "Inheritance" by Grace Q. Song: https://www.smokelong.com/stories/inheritance-2/); and I love your seven-point checklist as something that sits alongside that. (Also, is it okay that I quietly dislike Betsy for writing a bestselling novel before the age of ten?)
Coincidence this shows up on my feed? Having posted a flash fiction piece this morning, I risk a wild guess it is not coincidence! Great post Kathy. I am pushing it with 1k words maybe. 1.5k seems to be the overall agreed max, still hardly enough for lenghty expositions, in Tuco’s words, it needs to be tight, tight, tight! Did I succeed with The Pawn? It certainly can improve. I try to squeeze in backstory and expo via dialogue mostly.
Thanks for reading, Alexander! One test I put my own work through is to read it aloud, imagining a stranger (not a friend) listening to the story. Are there points where they will surely lose interest? Or get anxious for you to "get to the point?" Read aloud, you'll likely be able to hear where the story begins to lag and the exposition or backstory goes on a beat or two too long.
I've not tried this! I imagine even when reading one's own work aloud we might sometimes inadvertently fill in gaps or self-correct. Will give this a try.
Excellent advice Kathy, the same I gave my translators whenever they worked on dialogue, before sending 1000s of strings off to be recorded, maybe act them out loud first, they were not fond of the idea at first but after while it became a thing, “rehearsal thursdays” and we got dialogue out of it, mostly. Still, easy to forget to do this! Read out loud. 👍
Very true. The idea is usually to move backstory...back. Start us with action, the inciting incident. Give us little bits of backstory/exposition in bits and spurts when necessary. Be brief. And especially with flash fiction, most of it can be cut. The first short story I ever had published in a magazine got cut from 29 pages to about 13. The editor said, This is a fantastic story, but the first half is all backstory, most of which is unnecessary. That was a lesson.
Love this as always, Kathy. I often say with show vs tell that it comes down to how quickly / easily we want a reader to acquire knowledge (like "All day I’ve been angry in upstate New York" at the start of "Inheritance" by Grace Q. Song: https://www.smokelong.com/stories/inheritance-2/); and I love your seven-point checklist as something that sits alongside that. (Also, is it okay that I quietly dislike Betsy for writing a bestselling novel before the age of ten?)
Oh Matt, I adore that Grace Song story! Thanks for reminding me of it. And thanks for stopping by. (Yes, you should hate that precocious Betsy, ha!)
Interesting and helpful tips, Kathy. Thank you!
Thanks for stopping by, Sabrina!
Even my backstory has backstory.
Haha!
😂😂
Loved this. I always pick something up, thank you
Thanks for reading, Jon!
Coincidence this shows up on my feed? Having posted a flash fiction piece this morning, I risk a wild guess it is not coincidence! Great post Kathy. I am pushing it with 1k words maybe. 1.5k seems to be the overall agreed max, still hardly enough for lenghty expositions, in Tuco’s words, it needs to be tight, tight, tight! Did I succeed with The Pawn? It certainly can improve. I try to squeeze in backstory and expo via dialogue mostly.
Thanks for reading, Alexander! One test I put my own work through is to read it aloud, imagining a stranger (not a friend) listening to the story. Are there points where they will surely lose interest? Or get anxious for you to "get to the point?" Read aloud, you'll likely be able to hear where the story begins to lag and the exposition or backstory goes on a beat or two too long.
Love this. I do this too: I listen to my work played back to me aloud via Microsoft Word
I've not tried this! I imagine even when reading one's own work aloud we might sometimes inadvertently fill in gaps or self-correct. Will give this a try.
Excellent advice Kathy, the same I gave my translators whenever they worked on dialogue, before sending 1000s of strings off to be recorded, maybe act them out loud first, they were not fond of the idea at first but after while it became a thing, “rehearsal thursdays” and we got dialogue out of it, mostly. Still, easy to forget to do this! Read out loud. 👍
Yes, absolutely! Thanks so much for stopping by, Alexander!
🔥👌
❤️❤️👌
https://substack.com/profile/130135699-boris-pichotka/note/c-14894265
Very true. The idea is usually to move backstory...back. Start us with action, the inciting incident. Give us little bits of backstory/exposition in bits and spurts when necessary. Be brief. And especially with flash fiction, most of it can be cut. The first short story I ever had published in a magazine got cut from 29 pages to about 13. The editor said, This is a fantastic story, but the first half is all backstory, most of which is unnecessary. That was a lesson.
This might help re editing: https://michaelmohr.substack.com/p/how-to-get-the-most-from-your-book-281
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
Thanks for stopping by, Michael! I'll check out your piece on editing. I appreciate the read and comment!
Love your posts 👍
Thanks for reading, Nadia!