Tfltasthcn apes cy cury lnge dn re atc pl vo hoping ee ease arene eee ied mpc ape A Pence pd ici a ee Gece emo eT ac oye nm hp Ie oi ay Ce ee eh hy soon Ort Ce ee ternetigaberi Te en cogemrytoneenae er mareerdcwr er Cee ic solnapet Beginnings Titricnosorscrne coonss Ia hol pti beled "The Art of Manipulation” since what the dent graded on a ‘the end ofthe semester isin large part, her sil as a manipulator. Is as, simple—and as diffcule—asthar There are countless specs of eral that sgointo the makingof piece offction, and yee mos of us. myselFinchaded, willlaunch into she writing of shor story without much though about hae the hell were doing, A sentence may come tous oat ofthe ae, maybe fllyformed characte, rain of dialogue nd of we go! Only later do we realize chat we've esablished the round rules forthe tryin ‘thos first fe sentences, and only then do we begin ro sc how wee lint ‘ted our opportunities or fee lacky, fred ours According to my Bt woking profesor in graduate whoo, the late Frank Coneoy, che beginningofa shore ry contains an ipl contract thar the author makes with the reader How ca el when an author has violated this contact? Is simple. One minute Im eading the next, im ticked of Fes a published sor, toss i aside. It 2 eudents ory Pl ec where Tbelieve the contact was broken and put my comments inthe margin. ‘The reader writer contract in anovel, as opposed t.ashor story. tends to be established atthe beginning ofeach chapter, which is why youe Tikely ro rad books that do in ft, change voice, le, or even poin of ‘veh throughout. Some longer short stories ar aovellas nay change voice, style, and point of view, too, but usally the author has broken the sory ino sections oreven micro chapeers. In such instances he author as care filly prepared the eadeto ead the sory acersin wa. The section breaks arelike ported warning sigs that the rules might change.“The conse vate from tory to tory. beton the fs page sometimes ven the fie sentence, the author establishes the story's tone voice Sys fd pone of view. The contract requees hat these elements remain con sien throughout he ory ‘Consider tone” Lets sayan author has writen ahumorous sory about anlealian Ametican family nwhich he vac majority ofthe humor grows ‘ut of honest. belivable situations, Therefore, the humors primal & tans is pat of the character Ives. Not le’sy on page leven chara fon and father get io an argument, nd the next morning the son finds ‘he head of «howe in his bed. The reader wonders, What the hel jas happened? "This san extreme example of violation af the storys contract, but T hope my point is obvious: the auhor parodied ascenefrom The Godfather, and the humor shifed abeupely For organic to authori By authori I mean that the authors and encred the story ro inser comic moment tha’ inconsistent withthe esto the humor. Hence, he volaton T due want to belabor the neces for ieernal consistency foreach story element, bt che sume i re for vice, syle, and point of view. AN ‘ezampleof violation of syle might hea story whose fs half ead ike Hemingway (pare prose chat employs simple yntat) and whose second, tual ead ike Faulkner sh prose wih synax cha bends and ewis) ‘Unles theres some logical reason Fr the switch in syle, readers at ikl to fel confused or, worse, angry ethaps the primary benef o teking with che contracts thar che reader wont be jared out ofthe toy, thatthe ory will maintain what John Gaedner called the vivid and continuous dream, Sure you an break all che cules you want butts the ste occasion, in my experience, that 3 broken ule resus in greater guns than loses. Such saries usally accom lish itl more than being showcase fora weiter to yel,"Look, I broke Ihe ules!” aif noone in chelonghisiry of writnghad ever thought co breakhe rule. Teuse me: hen’ nothing dle than reading. story that breaks sues forthe sake of breaking rls. {THE BEGINNING OF EACH story aso eseablhes payee distance, Pay: ‘hie distance —a concept brie incoduced in John Gardner's The eof Fation—may be defined as the distance that dhe reader ele rowatd the story's narrator. The read may fel very faraway very lose, somewhere in beeween, As Gardner notes, the ditfeence beeween the novice weiter snd the profesional wri is hv one contol paychiedistance Imagine cach seneence below as che opening of short sory, Sentence isan example ofthe greatest psychic distance the reder feels. Each subse: ‘quent sentence brings the rade closer co the point of view ofthe nate wr. As thepsyhic distance moves else, he narrar'sintenal thoughts ‘become more preven sleds Angust 41977. ‘Thissentence ispure exposition. Thete is no character no precise sectng only information. The ade ataches hero asen- tence suchas thisone almost entirely on an intellectual eve. IF ‘he eader happens 9 respond on an emoconal eel, is becuse ‘ofsome personal connection ro August 4.1977 sotbeesus of some emotionally resonant moment in the sory. 2. Teis August 4 1977 and t's snowing. Inthissentenc, whichis still mostly expository, we now have ‘concrete deal snow, Bur the sow is disconnected From chart: tec oc place. We havea est, avague image and perhaps a mood, alehough the mood we mperimpoe is st ky based on bow we eel about snow or some memory atached to snow. 4. flange man walks out of restaurant and into the snowy night. you think of chi sentence in terms of movie, iemight be the ‘opening shot, pechapsabiels-ee view ofthe scene lined fom» alicoper. Nether the man nor she estauran i speci. The detailsare vague, burt least we now have character and place, ven though, in terms of psychic distance, we fel quite diane from therm. 4. Joe Worthington steps out ofthe Sunset Barand Grilland shivers. . ‘Aha! Now we have specifics These specifies in turn, bein 0 siete reader a sense of personality and plae.The Sunset Bar sind Gilllhas more characer chan 2 “rescaurant.” Asa rest the reader arts feling loser tothe scene. Keepin mind: we are privy only to the external word ofthe story. ‘Joe Worthington, thinking about how hoeebly cold iis ‘outside, steps out of che Sunsee Bar and Geil For heist cime, the reader is pevy to Jo's internal choughes when he thinks about how horvbly col it is outside. Thsissig- cane because the reader can now hook into consciousness. “The ional world ino lange viewed objecively iis being Siered, a asin pre, ehrough Joe's point of view. 46. Joe Worthington stepping ou of he Sunset Bar and Geil, ‘thinks about how horribly oldies. (On the srface thie sentence does appear much different fom the sentence above, bur on closer inspection yout se that the inceenl thought now the main cause whereas the action the ‘extemal world of the sor) ia suboedinate lause. Therefore, we are now even deeper inside Joc: head chan we were in the previ ‘us example 7.Dam it's cold Joe Worthington thinks, sepping out ofthe ‘Sunset Barand Grill ‘The diffrence berwen sentence 7 and he preceding two en- tencesie thatthe reader fsnow privy Joe's direct iternl thoughe, We are more fly insdehishead, We are proba ounmenos - ‘mor ikely eo havea visceral esponse to what Joe thinks and ‘whathe doe, 8. Damn, ie cold! Inter of psychic distance, this iss close as we ean ge. We ae ect inside Joe's head. In sentence 7 above. we sl fel che Presence of the author who provides “Joe Worthington chinks” Noche. f the story were 9 contin inchs vei, we'd clit “ineemal monologue” The extemal world ofthe sory ha n- tirey vanished. The seh inter ache phic dans ete tan me Astaphan. These tld How wl doch cena his inpychis dence ans that g ph ns tothe ba antag Asfr satel John Gaon hat ou hala sand fom ysetece 0120719 andso on Theat weld eee pounded Furchmor, then othe sory wad be ll oh mp Inge: mains fem an inne cone wen abtdvge vans amet thc fornologialaton Yodel te don nes fhe makers eons he yd he if ying etn othe sores fing aching hen canes ‘Thesane ise for con, Caer nls condensin eer Pets he chi fect pyc anc son yo nei tone Conse the difencs ween nes Hemingway nd Wills Falk Hemingeay won ered chic dere wh gs chee thee of prage ain of ej ph ese proachingsnowstorm. Theteaininghalf have couple, staking forchemsevesevry broom hllwayand close in che house Fre and the, men and women copulte—some, dirty othe if dining forthe lin aster flow pain then moans hen alighted gu ilove yao rch lngaea ‘Ded, Gary think, "do inode ny pc chante inh fe pap The polo intha gp come fom one sor ae se oveingfr sb any in charcer What wa yng dows croaked mtn ple ew onic emp, th hinge ws: fied ae ern edo Imo than ne carci inhi ae Gyn el he id pe tpt Gury pnt vew nce needed add Essa oan along singe word Ded. sce ‘ssn gin eon trv sel ra Garren main cuncs Heo , hoe peeve we vey py The pln a Gary te bg yah# ome wor from x oi he story had been writen fom an extremely close ‘hizdperson—thac ia pon view strictly inited o Gary’sinsights and, perspective —the sary woold probably lack a subtext. Forme, subtext i the deeper and murkir and mos interesting element ofa sory. Unfor rately Gar is unable ro understand the subtext or the greater meaning of dis if He has only surface understanding, Therefore, my fear was that, ‘withoue the omnicienc ofthe limited omniscient poin of view, the story ‘would not rise above the superficl, ‘Gary is both stoned and drunk. Lmagine how insufferable the story would be writen entirely from a limized tied person—er, worst, an im tense close psychic dance thar would read ike an ineenal monslogue. "The story would be wry incomprehensible (Se chapter“TheImitative Fallacy?) I eanesay if Tense accomplished thisin “The New Year” but carlyon Iwanted establish ameansofnarraingevents that would allow ‘eo tell Gury’ story with hci Finally, the fie paragraph sets the story’ tone —mildly ironic and deadpan wich I would have been unable co achieve in limited tied enon. ach try writer wstes teaches hie adiferenlesson about raf and cone thing learned while writing "The New Year" was how the contact crablished at che beginning ofa rtoryallected everything tha fllowed it, ‘whether or nor lasts writer, was conscious ofl. Thelassencence of The ‘New Yeas” moves from inside Gary'shead outward, ack wo the omniscient ‘oe that began the tory did plan eis Therein way Tcould have aed chi sory with es curene final seneencehad Lestblisheda diferent point of view a the beginning ofthe sory. But since That planned ro {nd the ory with an omnissiet voice the ory aparently eoakom ali ‘ofits own, The contact had eablished—and undeestanding cha was establishing contract withthe reader—opened upalrger word by the stony'send 1. Write the fs ewo pages ofa shore story witha removed pychic Aiseance and then slowly move closer so that, by the end ofthe see ‘ond page the psyche distance isas clase as canbe. Rewrite it by staring with» mclevel psychic distance that slowly moves close so that, by the end of che second page, the payehic discance is as close a ea be. Finally, rewsee those pages in a psychic distance that at clo a ic can be, or one level remoned, wichout moving ny further out. a. Takes sory youve alieady writen and rewrce the opening page from che penpective ofeach character in che story. IFthere are ten chuaritersin your stor, you should have ten diferent opening. Ie ‘may prove rae interesting to explore points of view you wouldnt ‘normally conser exploring, Inthe end, you may sick with your ‘original perspective but who knows—maybe you'll discorer2 new sory tha demands be weten 5. Remember how I mid hae the opening ofa sory isa contrat and howe chat conracesablihes the saryvarious ground rules? Use ‘these basic story premise, but open e wih three different con- ‘races [figs serious toy, ery openingieara comic tory. youre ‘singly long sentences, ry 0 wrieitin sentences that contain ‘no mare than five words, Be Bod in how radially diferent che coneract at thar you choose, Py