Revisiting Short Story Arcs

After that fugue of a week post-Japan, and the settling in week post-Labour Day, I’ve been thinking more about how I want the last four months to play out productivity wise. I think I want another three stories fully drafted. That’s the goal. And as I ease myself back into novels and reduce (very slowly and gradually) my weekly pulls to twenty-ish titles (mostly due to several miniseries ending), I’ve been thinking a lot about the original question I posed to myself earlier this year:

How can I systematize my story production so that I can write one story a month?

I don’t know how realistic this is because I also realized (or re-emphasized that I don’t want to pump out mediocre stories just to have stuff out there. This is all throat-clearing. Which is ironic given what I’m about to write.

ARC vs. PROG Structure (They don’t correlate!)

Because while in the shower this past weekend, it occured to me that maybe, with my understanding of emotional ARCs now, that maybe the whole STS-DSR-BWO-PNR-AIL-CMX-DNM PROG structure doesn’t map properly to the ARC version of it and furthermore, the seven points are all jumbled up when you think about it from an ARC perspective. Because in a lot of short stories, you have the in media res opening scene that’s dramatized, and only in scene two do you get the backstory (BKST, which gives you stakes), explanation of the MECH/SITCH. So in a way, with those short stories, you start with the DSR and then work backwards to show the STS. I also previously thought that BWO and PNR were jammed together. And I don’t think I’m wrong from a PROG perspective. BWO and PNR are often jammed together in a short story at the 50% mark. BUT BUT BUT – as we’ll soon see, if you look at the seven points from an ARC perspective… BWO is arguably, based on emotionality, based on their interiority and the “beginning of the end” for them to change… maps out to the math of 7-12% BWO, 50ish% for PNR, and 70-85% for AIL. What’s more, the shorter the story, the shorter the STS/DSR and CMX scenes. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In other words – in terms of EMOTIONALITY, the ARC that is, short stories follow the correct proportionality that we would expect the PROG to, but due to their compact economy, the PROG is all messed up (assuming you want the whole 10-12% to get to the DSR, 25% for BWO, 50% for PNR, 75% for AIL, and the rest for CMX). As we’ll see in a minute, PROG for short stories are messed up and this is definitely one of the MANY reasons why I think I couldn’t crack storytelling for the longest time.

As always, I go back to the stories that I’ve studied ad infinitum these past 24 months. Wiswell’s OHHH, Harrow’s WGE, Wong’s HDSM, Kowal’s MH, Kritzer’s LFL, Roanhorse’s WAIE, Bacigalupi’s PS, Kassel’s TDIS, Pinsker’s TCM. WIth this sample size of Hugo/Nebula winners, and because I’m so familiar with them now, I have a good foundation for figuring things out. I also feel like it’s a large enough sample size to give me some variety and similarities on the craft of it.

Short Stories <3500 Words

My first insight are on the really short ones: OHHH (3015 words), TDIS (3440), TCM (3160), and LFL (2508). In each of these stories, the STS/DSR is presented to you as quickly as possible within the first few paragraphs. About 216-360 words with TCM being the exception. I’ll talk more about the exception in a moment. First, with the other three, they present the premise, the stakes, and the MECH as quickly as possible so that they can get to the BNF PROG ASAP. The back-and-forth of the PROGs being “seduce and repel”, “exchange and interact”, “bargain and payment”. They want to get the reader to the meat of the story as quickly as possible. The AIL happens around the 73-85% mark (with LFL being the latest from an ARC perpsective, wherein the CMX is mostly an emotional acceptance in a transcended way… whereas the PROG CMX could arguably be right before the ALLY goes off to war and is more along the 75ish mark?). ULTIMATELY though, all three of those stories hit the PNR at the 50ish% mark. Again, need to emphasize and remind myself here (because this framework is so new and different), that we’re talking about the EMOTIONAL ARC here and not the PLOT/PROG in terms of the 7 points. (Which, again, thank you Scott Snyder for teaching me this… that chronologically, or scene-by-scene wise… the ARC can be divorced from the PROG i/r/t the seven points). TCM is weird because it’s four scenes with a brief DNM. It’s weird because it’s HIDING the BSKT from you until the end, or until the reader has their epiphany. I think if you were a smart, aware reader (which I’m not) you would’ve picked up on the fact that the moment the PROT casts their first real spell, you’d connect that the person they disappeared is the fate of the boy. So you could argue that the BKST is revealed (or at least teased) at the 50% mark. HOWEVER, I’m dumb and didn’t fully get hit with the… oh fuck, this kid’s doomed until Pinsker told me explicitly how fucked he is. And all that juicy BKST (which usually happens in the opening STS/DSR, but can’t be in this particular story) shows up in the horrifying moments leading to the AIL where PROT realizes how fucked they are. You could argue (if you’re dumb like me) that you don’t realize that either until the final final scene where the POV reveals that he’s not surprised the boy doesn’t become a protestor. Point is – TCM is weird in that BKST had to be hidden from the audience in order to create a horrifying CMX.

IN SUMMARY: If it’s under 3,500, declare the premise, MECH and BKST (not that there’s room for a lot of it) in the first 360 words or so, and get into the BNF ASAP. Otherwise, save the BKST for the big reveal in AIL.

ULTIMATELY THOUGH – you’re basically not going to have a deep BKST and that’s OK. You’re more exploring a concept (MECH) or situation (SITCH) and you want to get into the play of it ASAP.

One more. Krtizer’s CPP. About 400 words to deliver premise and ARC’s DSR/STS (I’m sentient. What ought I do with myself?) That’s 12% ish. Then a bunch of rules/thinking gets us to 29% in a 3420 word story. Then three stories of PROT’s attempt to help and/or figure themselves out.

OK. Cool

Short Stories >4000 Words

Something happens at the 4000 words mark (based on my limited and small sample size). All these stories suddenly have just enough room to spend at least a scene, if not 2-3 in BKST. As much as 37% of the story, but still in a dramatized way of course. HDSM has three scenes at ~2400 words (Aiko, push Aiko away, Mom). WGE has four scenes at ~1800 (MECH-explain, PROT-BKST, TRGT-BKST, and 1st TEST… although the MECH-explain/PROT-BKST was more telling than showing). WAIE spent all of its first 31% doing BKST. I don’t know if it’s because the MECH required a lot of setting up, but once the ANTG comes in, it’s a flurry of action… so maybe that’s why setting up the foundation was necessary? Need to think on that more. (Talk about MECH, screwing up MECH, Character fallibility, show MECH, and then… ANTG breaks pattern). But MH is similar. 33% (2280 words) was all setup and BKST before Volis shows up, and then it speeds up and speeds up until the CMX. (Show curse in action, foreshadow Volis’s coming, rules of curse, cost of curse, then BAM). Finally PS. Arguably 20% DSR/STS and 32% in BWO (the moment he starts asking questions is when I put PROT emotionally as in BWO as this is a DOUBT-ARC). During the BWO, he talks to wife about the consequences of breaking MECH rules, then Bacigalupi shows the MECH working for the people who benefit from it, then PROT screw up at work because the doubt is too great. It’s similar to HDSM because once you seed the idea of it… BWO is the PROT exploring with different aspects of their life… “wait, is that true? Is that what I really want?” and emotionally, they’ve started going down the slide and can’t turn back now.

Put another way. You got about 500-600 words to dramatize that first scene (DSR and plant the seed). Then you backtrack PROG wise to show STS/BKST/MECH.

OR

If your PROG is a rush of activity careering towards the CMX… a HUNT/HUNTED PROG in all two cases above (MH, WAIE), then you lay it all out in the first 30% (2000 words).

Arguably, both HDSM and PS are also HUNT/HUNTED PROGs. WAIT. That’s a potential insight. In MH and WAIE, they’re being hunted and in HDSM and PS they are the hunters. So maybe in a defensive or passive PROG you need to show everything they can lose and where they’re at before you send in the ANTG-Hunter? And in one where they’re actively on the attack, looking for answers, you can do the former (quick set up, seed the ARC, and then adventure?)

Just looking at a few other THBs now.

Dickinson’s TBC is about 32% setup (PROT basks in glory, but thru lens of disability - the cost, then present day cost with the boy toy attempting to seduce her, then… we enter the BWO. Emperor’s rep gives her the “final test”). A little prep before PNR, and then the conversation between master/subject, lovers, betrayer/betrayed. That conversation is a 3pg BnF wherein power dynamics shift, PROT changes her mind multiple times, and the ANTG-LOVR guilts, reasons, and goads PROT. The relationship is the driving force here. The ARC ends inside that conversation as well, because the final scene is a DNM that shows PROT’s resolve. Similar to MH and WAIE, this was a passive PROT stays in one place and stuff comes to them. But once it’s there, it’s a flurry of stuff to the DNM. TBC is 5518 words, and it later becomes a novel.

Gilman’s CJB is 9031 words, is active in that the PROT has lost their memory, is released from “prison”, and then has to figure out what happened. So it follows that we got a fast premise setup (conditions of imprisonment, inexplicable release for the mystery, along with lack of memory). Then a little more BKST once he meets up with an new ALLY. But like TCM, this is a slow drip of BKST because the BKST needs to show up in the CMX for maximum emotional impact.