On a quiet street one morning. Can you tell the story?
John Clark, gearing up for the Maine Crime Wave. I’m part of two round tables (God forbid that they end up square!). One relates to short stories, the other to young adult mysteries. These are areas where I have some experience and plenty of interest. In preparation, I thought it would be useful to sift through the numerous caverns that comprise my brain and round up some coherent thoughts about why I write short stories, where the ideas come from, and what to do with them.
Some twenty years ago, sister Kate encouraged me to try my hand at short stories as she and others had launched the Level Best crime anthologies. I used a recurring nightmare in which I murdered a woman and hid her body, waiting for that knock on the door from the police as the subject of my first attempt. It was accepted and the dream went away. Subsequent short stories were inspired by a Tim Sample routine, the still unsolved theft of an entire stone wall at our late mom’s house, taillights reflecting off tombstones in a rural cemetery, Asian Lady Beetles, a vengeful ghost, and a lot more.
I’ve learned to be a careful observer of life around me as well as a very good listener. When my AA friend Massachusetts Jack qualified many years ago at a meeting, he began by saying “I liked being alone when I was a kid. It was the only time I understood all the rules.” After the meeting, I got his permission to use that as the opening for a short story, Tower Mountain, that was also published in a Level Best Anthology.
If you’re thinking about becoming a short story writer, or are already there and looking for encouragement and motivation, here are some thoughts.
1-Story ideas are all around you. Obituaries reveal interesting stuff almost daily, whether it be an unusual career, hobby, or a list of several ex-wives.
2-People say really interesting stuff if you encourage them to talk. It’s even better when they think they’re alone. I remember a most interesting conversation about what had to be a Bridezilla relative that took place between two women who were picking high bush blueberries up in Athens several years ago. I was a couple rows over and out of sight, but everything they said was clear as a bell. Likewise things kids shared with me when I was the librarian in Hartland made good story material. If some of the parents knew what those kids said, they would have died of mortification.
3-Things and people you see every day can be short story fodder. Stuff you see abandoned by the roadside, signs people put up for sales, or protests can be inspiring. I still marvel at the one a young woman held up at the No Kings protest here in Waterville. It said Support Whores, Not Wars. Along the same lines, you’re likely to see a most interesting person at least once a week. I used a very dignified man I saw walking on Route 27 in Pittston almost daily, as a character in a book. A person I saw at the Maine Mall who could only be described as 360 degrees ugly, became a blacksmith in another tale.
4-I guarantee you’ll have a random thought come through your mind at least once a week that has short story potential. This is also true if you read print newspapers on a regular basis, particularly those covering local news. If it sparks a question, it’s potential story material.
5-Read the work of other short story writers with a curious mind. There’s no reason you can’t come up with a better way, or new slant on a story someone else got published. It’s easy to forget that the New Story Idea Factory doesn’t run regular shifts. I can’t tell you how often I read a book that’s a rehash of a familiar plot. I’ve come to realize that this phenomenon, like recipes, can have uniqueness simply by how the ingredients and preparation are varied.
Now on to the benefits of short story writing.
1-When I’m ON, I can crank out one in a weekend, complete with it being revised and heard by my wife when I read it aloud.
2-There are plenty of short story markets you might not know about (More about that at the round table discussion at Maine Crime Wave)
3-Just because a story gets rejected in one venue, doesn’t mean it won’t be snapped up elsewhere. I had one I wrote for the Flash contest at the Crime Wave several years ago get picked up by an entity that published it on a subscription basis world wide a year later. Thus far I’ve gotten almost $350 in royalties from that one.
4-When you’ve written enough of them, you can put together an anthology. Stories already published elsewhere whose rights have reverted to you can be included. I’ve published Hardscrabble Kids and Dark Maine that way.
5-You can have tons of fun with oddball titles like I did with this blog.
Hope to see you at the Maine Crime Wave later this month.
Elopement gone awry…Or worse. What does your creative muse tell you?
Carolyn Marie Wilkins describes herself as “a multifaceted entrepreneur working at the intersection of spirituality and creativity.”
think that writer’s block is more of an excuse not to engage with the work, wrestle with the challenges, and find a way forward, than a genuine dilemma. But that’s for me. I understand that some people truly do get blocked. I do, however, believe in story block, in those stories that sometimes refuse to be written. Usually there’s a way around this. Taking a walk, baking, cleaning out a closet, setting myself a difficult task in the garden. Anything, in short, that creates a break from staring at the screen and agonizing over what comes next. Frequently, when I’m done and return to the desk, I’ve found my way forward.
Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson: Since I started Indie publishing my Kathy Lynn Emerson backlist titles in 2020, I’ve managed to make almost all of them available in both e-book and print-on-demand trade paperback formats, but there has been one big (and I do mean big) exception. Because it runs to 2556 pages, my A Who’s Who of Tudor Women (over 2300 mini-biographies of women who lived in England during the years 1485-1603) has only been available as an e-book. Early on, I started receiving requests for a print version, but not only would it have to be very expensive, it would also have to be in 2-3 parts because there is a limit on the number of pages in a POD paperback. I also hesitated because I knew I’d have to proofread the whole thing (again!) to catch any remaining typos in the current version and to make a couple of corrections—I have had some wonderful e-mail exchanges with people researching their family histories and/or writing their own books about the period, both fiction and nonfiction. Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter, my fall and winter project is a careful proofread of the current text, followed by a corrected e-book edition and a (probably) three-volume POD edition. It will still be expensive, at around $22 for each volume, but at least it will be available. Since the e-book version has been my Indie bestseller, I have hopes that at least a few will sell. This, by the way, is the upside of being semi-retired. I can take my time and do it right, and it won’t cost me anything except time because I self-publish through Draft2Digital and they don’t charge for set-up. Win-Win, right?
I have a goal to set up guest visits on at least two podcasts this year, and I bought a tripod for my phone and will be offering up short readings for my YouTube channel. I plan to do these readings in various outdoor locations that might be unusual: half buried in leaf pile for example. Am feeling like I have not been visible enough, hence this ambitious list.
a little cooler at night, a little darker in the morning. Those flashes of heat and humidity a little less fierce, a little more promise of fall.
after a lawn-mowing session, a cup of coffee on the sun porch before the neighbors wake up. These are small things to treasure against what we know is coming. August is about taking a breath.
and eat corn and peaches until I can’t. The upward climb starts again soon enough. I hope you have found your August and blessed yourself with it. We will need its memory soon enough.
andy’s second Mystery in Maine 
