[B5JMS] ATTN: JMS - Short Stories

[b5jms at mail.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu]

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From: "John Jr" <johnnjr at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 03:45:45 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 33

Hi!

I wonder if you (or anyone here) could give me some insight to SF short
story writing.  I have read Analog and Asimov's for a while now and
find that the short stories that are published there as well as short
stories by other authors and I find that I seem unable to come up with
an idea that is short story-ish.  Do you think that the short story has
a different purpose than the novel or are they similar but of different
lengths.

It seems to me that if you read a novel you will read a story that is
very fleshed out with character development and weaving plotlines, etc
and the thing the story is about below the plot is able to come out
gradually and almost subconciously.  The short story seems to hit the
reader in the face with the thesis behind the story.  In other words
the short story subjugates characters and complicated plot to the
blatant "meaning" of the story?

To be blunt and give an unrefined explanation of what I mean, the short
story seems more likely to be disturbing or extremely moving or
extremely thought provoking.  Where as a novel length story does the
same thing more subtley.

Is it possible for someone to be able to write novels and pruduce
viable ideas for a novel but not a short story?  I hear it very often
that short stories are the way to start but my ideas seems too big.

Any insight would be MUCH appreciated,

John




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From: Rob Perkins <rperkins at usa.net>
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 06:16:53 +0000 (UTC)
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John Jr wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I wonder if you (or anyone here) could give me some insight to SF short
> story writing.

I'm relatively sure JMS has a book out on that sort of thing. Am I 
wrong? Amy?

Come to think of it, I think Harlan Ellison, Orson Scott Card, David 
Brin, and David Gerrold have all also written on that subject, and three 
of them at least have published books about it.

Rob


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From: Jan <janmschroeder at aol.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 10:35:10 +0000 (UTC)
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In article <3m2t6eF151ru8U2 at individual.net>, Rob Perkins says...
>
>John Jr wrote:
>> Hi!
>> 
>> I wonder if you (or anyone here) could give me some insight to SF short
>> story writing.
>
>I'm relatively sure JMS has a book out on that sort of thing. Am I 
>wrong? Amy?

I'm not Amy, but...JMS's writing book is "The Complete Book of Scriptwriting"
and doesn't touch on other forms.  He did, however, write a bit about how he
came to write each of the episodes of Twilight Zone in his anthology. 
Essentially, he took those scripts and made them into short stories.  I highly
recommend it.

Now that the DVDs are out, it's interesting to watch the episodes and read the
book.  JMS, if you're still reading, was there a reason why "What Are Frends
For" didn't make it into the anthology>

Thanks,
Jan

Jan


-- 
Please consider yourself, now and henceforth, and no matter what anyone else
ever asks of you, free to do any damned thing you want that doesn't hurt someone
else unnecessarily.  --Lady Sally McGee (Spider Robinson)


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 22:38:31 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 35


Jan wrote:
> JMS's writing book is "The Complete Book of Scriptwriting"
> and doesn't touch on other forms.  He did, however, write a bit about how he
> came to write each of the episodes of Twilight Zone in his anthology.
> Essentially, he took those scripts and made them into short stories.  I highly
> recommend it.
>
> Now that the DVDs are out, it's interesting to watch the episodes and read the
> book.  JMS, if you're still reading, was there a reason why "What Are Frends
> For" didn't make it into the anthology>
>

Yeah...basically, I wrote that episode as a freelancer for the CBS
iteration, and I'd written it in the Zone tradition of a morality
fable, so that we learn, by the end, that the father is doing to his
son what his own dad did to him...that is the whole POINT of the
episode.

Well, when I turned it in, they said that they didn't want to do
morality tales, that that was the OLD zone and this was the NEW zone
and they didn't DO that.  Which seemed to me rather a violation of the
whole premise of what the Twilight Zone is.  So they took out that
aspect...and of course the script no longer worked.  It's like taking
the whale out of Moby Dick, the whole thing collapses of its own
weight.

They passed it from hand to hand, they mucked it up, then finally
reverted to my draft again...but still took out the whole point of the
thing, and produced it.  So that story that aired isn't the story I
wanted to tell...which is why it wasn't in the anthology.

jms