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May. 18th, 2010 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deborahjrossI just sold a story, a novelette, "Fire and Fate," to SWORD & SORCERESS 25.
This story began with "Rite of Vengeance" in S & S V (1988). I was still reeling from my mother's murder, and struggling with themes of hatred and violence and, well, vengeance. "Rite" was a twist on the conventional smash-the-villain motif. The next year, Marion bought "Crooked Corn," another step toward healing with the same characters, but had too many stories for S & S VI, so it ended up in the overflow volume, SPELLS OF WONDER.
Eventually, I took the two episodes and tried to extend them into a novel, but it never quite worked. It retained the pacing of a string of individual story-lets. I stuck the manuscript in a drawer for lo, these many years, but something in it kept calling to me. When I was thinking about ideas for S & S 25, I took it out. Let me tell you how I winced at how clumsy and overwritten it was, and also rejoiced that I could actually see the difference.
I snatched scenes from the middle and end to see if I could massage them into some kind of shape. Soon I realized that in order for this story to stand on its own, to have story-shape-ness, I had to sever the umbilical cord to the previous work. I fleshed out cultures and characters in different ways, changed names and backstories and landscapes. And cut -- going from 27K to just under 8K words. I had to examine each element, each scene...each sentence to weed out everything not essential. It's said that novels teach us what to put in and short fiction teaches us what to take out. Yup.
In the end, the story achieved its own focus and rhythm, one I was pleased with. I'd taken the bit of wonder that I had loved and given it the setting it needed in order to shine.
This story began with "Rite of Vengeance" in S & S V (1988). I was still reeling from my mother's murder, and struggling with themes of hatred and violence and, well, vengeance. "Rite" was a twist on the conventional smash-the-villain motif. The next year, Marion bought "Crooked Corn," another step toward healing with the same characters, but had too many stories for S & S VI, so it ended up in the overflow volume, SPELLS OF WONDER.
Eventually, I took the two episodes and tried to extend them into a novel, but it never quite worked. It retained the pacing of a string of individual story-lets. I stuck the manuscript in a drawer for lo, these many years, but something in it kept calling to me. When I was thinking about ideas for S & S 25, I took it out. Let me tell you how I winced at how clumsy and overwritten it was, and also rejoiced that I could actually see the difference.
I snatched scenes from the middle and end to see if I could massage them into some kind of shape. Soon I realized that in order for this story to stand on its own, to have story-shape-ness, I had to sever the umbilical cord to the previous work. I fleshed out cultures and characters in different ways, changed names and backstories and landscapes. And cut -- going from 27K to just under 8K words. I had to examine each element, each scene...each sentence to weed out everything not essential. It's said that novels teach us what to put in and short fiction teaches us what to take out. Yup.
In the end, the story achieved its own focus and rhythm, one I was pleased with. I'd taken the bit of wonder that I had loved and given it the setting it needed in order to shine.
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Date: 2010-05-18 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-18 10:32 pm (UTC)Yes, short funny stories have a definite edge!
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Date: 2010-05-18 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-18 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-18 10:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-18 10:33 pm (UTC)