salvatorefalco.com

My second Monday off was as successful as the first. I added nearly seven pages of new material and was pleased with what I wrote. That gave me momentum and this morning I wrote 600 words that guided the story back to an existing scene which I’ll modify tomorrow. If this experiment continues to be [...]

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I’ve been struggling with a short story for the past two weeks. Writing the first draft earlier this year was arduous. A plot that looked good in outline seemed improbable while I wrote, and led to an unsatisfying ending. I hoped that revision would be easier. It hasn’t been. How I’ve struggled with that plot! [...]

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At one time, I aspired to be a decent chess player and asked a friend who played well to help improve my game. We played a few games so he could judge my skill level. Then he made me play dozens of games without my rooks. In those diagnostic games he had noticed that, like [...]

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A commenter on one of my earlier posts asks, “Is there a protagonist in the modern short story?” My unqualified short answer is, “Yes, always.” Now I’ll qualify it: I can imagine an experimental, literary short story with no protagonist. Perhaps a tale told through multiple viewpoints, none of which dominates, might work. But I [...]

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“Getting an idea” is the first step in writing a short story, but the next stage is more  difficult: planning the story. Planning takes a lot of effort and time, but it’s worth it. Writing without a plan usually ends in, at best, a couple of pages that don’t go anywhere. At worst, I create [...]

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