Beauty and Short Stories - Writing 'Touching the Sky'

Rosanne Hawke

My work in progress is a middle-grade novel. I’ve had the idea for this story for a while and even wrote a short story about the character with a different name, Zander. That short story is called ‘Touching the Sky’ and will be published soon in Dust Makers, an anthology of climate-change stories from Rhiza Edge. This is not the first time I have written a short story, then written the novel. This time I started with the idea for the novel first but wrote the short story as I began the draft to get to know my character and his voice better. I find I can’t really start writing until I know a lot about my characters, e.g. what they are like, what they want, and especially how they sound.

I also wanted to see what would emerge as a most important time in my character’s life, for this is where stories and novels most differ, I think. A short story is a slice, a moment, exploring one main event and idea in a character’s life, whereas the novel can develop many such moments into a journey the character embarks upon for months or more. I started writing with short stories – we all do because at school that’s all there is time for. One of my stories was published in a high school magazine, but my writing career began with novels. That’s what my kids wanted to read. Once I’d discovered the full canvas of a novel, I decided short stories, though beautiful, were harder to write. Rather than fine miniature painting with water colour, I think I’d prefer slapping oils on a canvas. Guess that’s not the best analogy as novels also need to be polished and fine-tuned to be beautiful – but they do give room to move with all the ideas growing from a central one. 

So why can I write a short story about climate change? I grew up in a drought in Outback Central QLD. When I wasn’t at our one teacher school or on the hour-long bus run in a converted cattle truck, I walked with my kelpie-cross dog, climbed windmills, fell off horses and was last in the bath. I learned never to waste water. 

When writing ‘Touching the Sky’ I was rereading Frederick Buechner’s books and like his father, I realised that Zander’s dad had suicided. The death of Buechner’s father affected him all his life – it is present in most of his work. Mental health is a huge problem in our rural areas, especially with the effects of climate change where crops can’t be seeded since rain doesn’t come, bushfires occur and burned animals need to be shot, and now the effects of covid on the farm business. These events have affected the most resilient of farmers. 

When writing I always hope the story will be beautiful in some way, that it will touch a reader. But what could be beautiful when a dad dies in a story? We could think of the form, the words, the way the character heals, but I’m wondering if beauty has more to do with light. There is a story about the famous Dutch artist Vermeer where he was unhappy with a painting. The character was portrayed well, the composition correct, but he knew something vital was missing. He finally realised there was no light. He painted in a window so light could shine on the side of a face, on the folds of a dress – subtle use of colour to show beauty. In our writing where does the beauty originate? From the Light of the World. I’m learning that a thing is beautiful not because we deem it so, but because Christ Jesus has made it so.

In a story, this beauty and light will shine in the way the theme is treated, the form of the story, the setting, choice of words, images, that phrase which paints a picture without even using an adjective, the arresting verbs, the light shed on the face of the character and in his heart. May this Light in our stories become God’s way of wooing a reader into a loving relationship with him. 

The anthology Dust Makers will be released in October by Rhiza Press

Pre-order at http://wombatrhiza.com.au/Dust-makers 

Image credit: Ailsa Green, Dust Storm near Hawker, South Australia, used with permission.

Rosanne Hawke is an Australian author from Penola, South Australia who has written over 25 books for young adults and children. She teaches tertiary level Creative Writing at Tabor Adelaide. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide.

Exploring Genres - Short Fiction

by Jeanette O'Hagan

This year, the cross posts between Christian Writers Downunder and Australasian Christian Writers are focusing on genre. So far, we’ve had posts on meeting genre expectations, in Space Opera and Superheroes, Portal Fantasy and Secondary World Fantasy, Poetry, Free Verse and Verse Novels , Regency and Historical Romance, Rural and Medical Romance and Supernatural Fiction.

This month we are exploring 'short fiction'.

Short fiction can come in any genre - and a range of sizes, from six words up to 50,000 words. And while it may seem easier to write less, short fiction requires it's own set of skills to do it well. 

Types of short fiction: 

1. Mirco-Fiction - up to 100 words. 

Though hard to write well, these are becoming increasingly popular with mobile phones and texting and twitter (140 characters). Clearly, every word must count. 

Ernest Hemingway's famous example of a six word story is as follows 'For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.'

2. Flash Fiction - between 100-1000 words. 

These stories can be used as 'palate cleansers' between longer stories in magazines. 

The Faith Writers Challenge requires no more than 750 words on a weekly theme (and the best are collected and published by Breath of Fresh Air Press in the Mixed Blessing books). A number of members have appeared in the pages, including Nola Passmore, Simon Kennedy, Jo Wanmer, and myself. 

Writing flash fiction helps tighten one's prose. The focus is often one or two scenes or on the climax of the story.

3. Short Story  - between 1,000 - 7,500 words

This is often what we think of as a short story. Many competitions, periodical, 'zines and anthologies require this length - often around 2000 to 3000 words.  Speculative fiction (sci-fi and fantasy) have bigger words counts of between 7000-10,000 words. For instance, two spec anthologies that I had successful submission to - Tales from the Underground and Quantum Soul preferred stories around 10,000 words.

There is more room to manoeuvre, but focus and tight writing are still essential. It's important to streamline --- limit the story to a short period time, small cast of characters, with few if any subplots, and start the story close to the finish. 

4. Novellette - 7,500 - 20,000 words

A novellette falls in between a short story and a novella. Heart of the Mountain started life as a short story (my original attempt at the 7000 word limit for submissions for Glimpses of Light anthology) but blew out to over 11,000 words, so I wrote Ruhanna's Flight instead (7000 word exactly). Later, I expanded HOM to 15,500 words.

Yet, I think there is confusion with the term 'novellette'. For some, it means a novella. Many others have never heard of the term. So, I've called Heart of the Mountain 'short novella'.

5. Novella - 20,000 - 50,000 words

A novella (and to some extent a novellette) allows more complexity, with perhaps more characters and twists and  develops over a longer period of time. 

Some famous classical works are novellas - for instance Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), H. G. Well's The Time Machine (1895), Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol (1843),  Geroge Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) and many others.

Presentation

Periodicals, zines, collections and anthologies are usually the home of short fiction.  

However, short fiction can be published on it's own. For instance, I and others (like Aussie authors Adam Collings, Sue Jeffreys or Meredith Resce) have published short stories or novellas as stand alone e-books. Novellas, particularly, can be published on their own --- both as e-books and also as print books. 

When I decided to publish Heart of the Mountain, I planned on an additional three novellas with the intention of combing all four into a single print volume. I thought that each novella would be too small to publish on their own (especially in the case of HOM). However, I have now published both Heart of the Mountain and Blood Crystal as stand alone print books and am very happy with the result, especially as the books are aimed at the Young Adult market. I chose a smaller cover size (8x5 inches rather than 9x6). 

Short fiction can also be collected in boxed sets - as for instance An Aussie Summer Christmas Boxed set - which allows fans to sample fiction from a range of authors - in this case Andrea Grigg, Narelle Atkins, Rose Dee, Meredith Resce, Marion Ueckermann and Lacey Williams. 

Another innovative approach is publishing short fiction as a series (similar to TV series) in which 'episodes' within a 'season' are published with individual story arcs plus an over-arching series arc. Adam David Collings is taking this approach with his Jewel of the Star series, having so far published the 'pilot' Earth's Remnant which sets up the series, and a prequel episode.

Short fiction has advantages for both readers and writers. 

For readers:

• In a time-pressed word, short fiction can be enjoyed without a huge time investment - often over half an hour or a couple of hours. One can start and finish a story without having to worry about when one might get a chance to read again.
• It also gives the reader a chance to sample a range of unknown authors. This is especially true for anthologies or boxed sets, which include a range of authors, one or more of which may be already known to the reader. 
• At its best, short fiction can be thought-provoking, evocative, original, experimental.
• On the other hand, short fiction may leave a reader wanting more character development and/or world building or plot complexity. 

For writers:

• It's a great way to break into the market, as there are many opportunities for competitions or anthologies or to self-publish.
• While not easy to write, short fiction requires less investment of time and money (for editing etc) than a full length novel.
• Short fiction can help a writer to hone her (or his) skills - to write powerfully with less words, to set the scene or show character without the fluff, to better understand plot and story structure.
• Short fiction can be an opportunity to experiment with subject, genre, approach without a huge investment in time (so it's not so critical if it doesn't work out).
• Short fiction tied into the novel world can be a way of either introducing the novel, continuing momentum between novels (and keeping fans happy), filling out the story world,  and/or as a freebie in promotions. 
• It can be fun to write.

Perhaps short fiction are like an artist's sketch compared to a fully developed painting. Both can be beautiful, both have different functions, both tell a story.

Over the last four years, I've enjoyed playing with short stories at different lengths and have had several published in a range of anthologies. Generally, a story has it's own innate length. The trick is limiting the complexity or the number of needed scenes for the word count and then paring back the excess wordage. Sometimes this means sacrificing scenes or elements you like (or deciding to try again with another story).

Have you written (or read) short fiction? What do you like (or dislike) about this form? Who do you think does it well?

---------

Jeanette started spinning tales in the world of Nardva at the age of eight or nine. She enjoys writing secondary world fiction, poetry, blogging and editing. Her Nardvan stories span continents, time and cultures. They involve a mixture of courtly intrigue, adventure, romance and/or shapeshifters and magic users.

Recent publications include her novellas Heart of the Mountain and Blood Crystal and short stories The Herbalist's Daughter and Lakwi's Lament and her novel Akrad's Children. Other short stories and poems are published in a number of anthologies, including Glimpses of Light and Futurevision with three anthologies coming out this month - Redemption anthology, Tales From the Underground, and Quantum Soul.

Jeanette continues to write her Akrad’s Legacy Series—a Young Adult secondary world fantasy fiction with adventure, courtly intrigue and romantic elements.

Find her at her Facebook Page or at Goodreads or on Amazon or on her websitesJennysThread.com or Jeanette O'Hagan Writes . if you want to stay up-to-date with latest publications and developments, sign up to Jeanette O'Hagan Writes e-mail newsletter.