My friend and fellow author Geoff Herbach was kind enough to ask me to be one of the judges for this cycle of the miniStories short-short fiction contest. Twenty-nine stories to read and assess and mull over equals long walks, lost sleep, the studied avoidance of shaving, more lost sleep, and still more mulling.
As to be expected, there was some good work, some not-so-good work and some work that barely meets the definition of work. Here are some notes for those of you who didn’t make the “maybe” pile:
1. ‘Tis true that you need to grab the reader’s attention in the first few lines, but you should not hurt the reader in the grabbing. Scream “look out for that falling piano!” in real life and you’re performing a public service. Do it on the page and you risk sounding melodramatic.
2. On a related note, while the beginning of a story needs to get the reader’s attention, your open also has to part of the whole. As a reader, I might forgive you for screaming about falling pianos in a story about large instruments and head trauma, but not in a story about the memories conjured by the site of your grandmother’s hands. No one likes to feel duped.
3. You can’t go wrong by opening with an interesting fact, such as “Albert had an unusually large head.” You can do even better by opening with an interesting fact filtered through the lens of belief. Write something like “Henrietta had never trusted men with unusually large heads” and I’ll be with you for at least another few lines.
4. Even in a short-short (I believe the limit was 500 words) the reader will regularly clear their cache of goodwill. In other words, while I appreciated the bit about Henrietta’s large-heads trust issues, you better have something as good or better in the next paragraph. No matter how good of a writer you are, there is always something better to read.
5. Finally, please go easy on your endings. Like beginnings, endings can be quiet, evasive, silly, odd, murky, jarring, etc. It’s nice when they’re sublime, but I can tell when you’re trying to make the angels sing, and believe you me, nothing shuts them up like too much effort.
Bonus thought for Minneapolis/St. Paul-area writers:
The miniStories contest is a regular program run by mnartists.org. The contest is a snap to enter, and the winners are celebrated at readings that are open to the public. It’s a great way to get out of the house, meet other writers and build your community. Do it.
Another thought: Just because you can’t get your poem published elsewhere doesn’t mean it’s fair to enter it in short fiction contests.
Excellent addition. Yes, if it says STORY contest, the people running the show probably mean it.
What made the good work good?
Hear, hear Dennis! And, for the record, it is stories we’re looking for, not poems. It’s deceptively simple to tell a strong story in so few words, for just the reasons you cite. But the really good ones really do pack a wallop.
“…when you’re trying to make the angels sing, and believe you me, nothing shuts them up like too much effort.”
Love this line. Thanks for the reminder.