Short Story Dissection, Part 3.2
This is a continuation of Story Dissection Part 3.1 from January 24, 2024.
Here are the stories I broke down in this post:
- Törzs, Emma. “Like a River Loves the Sky.” Uncanny, Apr. 2018, http://uncannymagazine.com/article/like-river-loves-sky/
- Harrow, Alix. “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies.” Apex Magazine, 6 Feb. 2018, https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/a-witchs-guide-to-escape-a-practical-compendium-of-portal-fantasies/
- Roanhorse, Rebecca. “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience.” Apex Magazine, 8 Aug. 2017, https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/welcome-to-your-authentic-indian-experience/
- Wong, Alyssa. “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers.” Nightmare, Oct. 2015, https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/hungry-daughters-of-starving-mothers/
- Kowal, Mary Robinette. “Midnight Hour.” Uncanny, Jul. 2015, https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/midnight-hour/
And again, to help with the analysis, here are the acronym IDs I assigned to each one.
- Like a River Loves the Sky - LRLS
- A Witch’s Guide to Escape - WGE
- Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience - WAIE
- Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers - HDSM
- Midnight Hour - MH
Story Data Points
| Beats | LRLS | WGE | WAIE | HDSM | MH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Words | 3902 | 4885 | 5806 | 6567 | 6916 |
| Scenes | 6 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 6 |
| MID-s | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| MID-w | 2000 | 2325 | 3130 | 3300 | 4175 |
| MID-% | 51.3% | 47.6% | 53.9% | 50.3% | 60.4% |
| LOW-s | 5 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 5 |
| LOW-w | 2750 | 4185 | 4800 | 5075 | 4600 |
| LOW-% | 70.5% | 85.7% | 82.7% | 77.3% | 66.5% |
| CMX-s | 6 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 6 |
| CMX-w | 3600 | 4835 | 5806 | 5970 | 6916 |
| CMX-% | 92.3% | 98.9% | 100% | 90.9% | 100% |
| END | 2^nd 1/2 | Last | N/A | Last | Last |
So from the “shorter” short stories from Part 3.1, I think my dissection that the first half is mostly establishing scenes, dramatizing the MECH still applies… except you have more room here. Four to five scenes, 2000-3500 words. LRLS seems to be the outlier, where the MID is a mirror moment and nothing else plotwise, but the rest are MIDs where stakes are raised. WGE reveals the secret stash (which is a new bit of info for the MECH), WAIE has the PROT meeting the DYNA outside VR (raises stakes), HDSM has PROT rejecting her past and jumping on Tindr to meet Seo-Yun, MH has Volis playing his trick on the King… all of these which sets off an event that barrels towards the end.