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lionheart49er · 3 years

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My Thoughts on The Boys Season 2 Finale

*This Post Contains Spoilers for “The Boys” Season 2 Finale*

First off, before I get into spoilers, I just want to saw how much I love what “The Boys” have been doing. I loved Season 1 and I feel Season 2 is just as fun and crazy with more in-depth social commentary, especially with the character of Stormfront and her satirizing of alt-right conservative media. Overall, I love how the show combines dark humor with poignant satire of superhero media, celebrity culture, and large corporate conglomerates. And in many ways, the finale was just as good.

The show takes its imperfect social material and elevates it. Turning the macho grim-dark superhero parody that only barely deconstructs superheroes and never deconstructs the just-as-toxic macho characters like Billy Butcher into a show that is just as willing to deconstruct Billy’s toxic masculinity as Homelander’s fascist superhero antics. I think the show does a good handling these serious topics with sprinkles of anti-capitalist ideology. And yeah, the irony of an show with anti-capitalist themes being streamed on Amazon Prime does not escape me.

However, I read The AV Club’s review of the finale and it raised some points that I simply did not agree with. And I’m going to argue them here.

The AV Club had a big issue with the reveal that Victoria Neuman was the head-exploder who was working for Vought. They came out with it the belief that this was somehow the show attacking “both-sides” and conflating progressive politicians like AOC with literal nazis. To be frank, I am just not agree with this take.

First off, I don’t the show did a good job showing how wrong Nazism and fascism is through the characters of Homelander and especially Stormfront. In particular, Stormfront was a character I was initially worried about. There is a risk in portraying Nazi characters where they came off as likable enough to where they can appeal directly to white supremacist and real-life Nazis. And Stormfront’s goofy portrayal as a Tiktok-using millenial-type was certainly running that risk initially. But the show cleverly pulled the covers to show the dangerous ideology that was powering the seemingly innocent meme-exploiting superhero to show how real-life white supremacists and alt-right groups use playful memes and social media to spread hateful ideology. And the show never condones Stormfront’s hateful ideology and always portrays her as in the wrong. Hell, even Homelander is weirded out by her blatantly racist beliefs.

I say all of this to show how Stormfront is portrayed in the show is way different from how Neuman is and probably will be portrayed. Obviously the fact she is based on progressive AOC and Iihan Omar, so we immediately are on her side, especially when it comes to the matter of regulating superheroes since we’ve seen how messed-up superheroes like Homelander and A-Train abuse their powers without consequence. Then, it comes the twist that Neuman was secretly working with Vought the whole time. Now, the AV Club believes this means that Neuman is going to be presented as just as bad as Stormfront. Which I simply don’t agree. I don’t see this as the show implying that progressive politicians are worse or even just as bad as Nazis. And I believe the reveal makes sense when looking at Vought and how Stan Edgar runs his business.

I think the reason why Neuman works for Vought is explained in the dining scene between Billy Butcher and Stan Edgar. In that scene, Stan explains why he is willing to work with an awful white-supremacist like Stormfront. Obviously, Stan Edgar as a black man hates the living hell out of her but the man is business-minded as hell. He sees how useful Stormfront is in causing divisions in society. And those kind of divisions are profitable as hell as we know in real-life how much media can prey on said divisions. Even though Stan personally hates Stormfront’s blatant racism, he is willing to tolerate it because her endeavors ends up aligning directly with Vought’s goals to simply make as much money as possible. The scene really shows Edgar’s thinking and reasoning when it comes to how he runs Vought. And it’s a great scene in general especially when Edgar calls out Butcher for his own white privilege. But this scene also shows why Edgar would want someone like Neuman on his side.

The fact is we don’t know yet how genuine Neuman is or was for her progressive superhero-reform goals before joining Vought. We don’t really have a handle on her backstory yet. So whether she is a genuine progressive who is forced to work for Vought or simply a Vought double-agent is not known. However, either way I don’t think it implies Neuman is worse than Stormfront. In fact, more so this is just a brilliant move on Stan Edgar and Vought’s part to curb the superhero narrative in their favor. Just like how Vought benefits from Stormfront’s racist beliefs, they could equally benefit from Neuman’s progressive beliefs. In fact, Vought has already been doing shady stuff under the guise of progressive ideology this entire seasoning (the blatantly pandering “Girls get it done” campaign, the co-opting of Queen Maeve’s gay status for LGBT+ brownie points, etc.) In many ways, it is a reflection of pink capitalism and how much corporations want to appear “woke” while still benefiting from a corrupt capitalist systematic status quo. Essentially, Edgar knows he’s going to get backlash for Vought’s attempts to take-over the world by distributing Compound V. So he wants to control the narrative by having someone on his side pretending to be working against the man but really working for it. This also parallels a lot of brands who claim to be fighting against a capitalist system but is merely paying lip-services to such changes and just another extension of a major corporation’s capitalist endeavors. Just look at all the Che Guevara and Karl Marx merchandise you can buy online. I believe Edgar is working that exact angle with Victoria Neuman.

And there was genuine foreshadowing for this too. This twist did not come out of nowhere despite what some people like the AV Club would have you believe. The fact that Stan Edgar is constantly watching news coverage of Victoria Neuman on TV. During the head-exploding courtroom scene, you can see every person Victoria stares at explodes soon after. After the first time we see someone’s head explode in the beginning of the season, it immediately cuts to Victoria Neuman. So this wasn’t just some twist the writers pulled out of their ass in the last minute. This was clearly planned. Besides, it is entirely possible that Neuman is or at least was a genuinely progressive before being forced to work for Vought against her will. She does mention her daughter multiple times in the season. It is almost a cliche how much sympathy the show pulls from its asshole characters by giving them a kid (just check the Honest Trailers video). But that could very well be the case. Regardless, I do think we will get some understanding as to why Neuman is working for Vought in the next season for whatever reason. And I am genuinely looking forward to it. Besides, this doesn’t even ruin her character and we could see her human side explored in the next season. One of the things I praise this show for is going in-depth into even its worst scumbaggy characters (Homelander, The Deep, A-Train, etc.) to explore their human sides while still presenting them as awful people.

Also, I think the reason why Neuman takes longer to explode the Scientology guy’s head in the last scene while she easily explodes heads quickly in the courtroom scene is just to show to the audience that Neuman is the head exploder. Besides, there is no reason Neuman has to be quick to explode his head since there is no threat that she’ll be exposed for it. I’m sure she can explode heads much quicker when Season 3 comes around.

So really that was all my thoughts on the whole Victoria Neuman reveal. I just wanted to give some more praise for The Boy’s awesome finale. The episode was full of fun, awesome moments that were super satisfying. The three female superheroes kicking the shit out of the Nazi, Homelander being rendered completely impotent by the end, Billy Butcher deciding to do the selfless thing to protect the child for once (right after nearly trying to murder him), Edgar pointing out as a black man how little he can lash out, The Deep getting cucked out of The Seven, etc. I loved what the Season 2 finale did. I am looking forward to Season 3. Let me know what you think. I would love to hear your thoughts.

#the boys #the boys season 2 #the boys season 2 finale #victoria neuman #the av club #stormfront #the boys theory #the boys spoilers #the boys season 2 spoilers

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battlestar-royco · 5 years

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Spill the tea on Westworld please!

I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for an ask about WW, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INDULGING ME, ANON. So first, I’ll say what I absolutely love about this show: the first season was such a pleasure to watch from start to finish. It gave me a lot of hope for sci-fi television. For me, all the plot twists were almost flawlessly executed and spaced out. I loved the character arcs and the worldbuilding about hosts and the park. As always with HBO the production value and acting were also amazing.

As with any show, WW has its problematic elements too, namely the needless violence against women and the truly horrendous depiction of indigenous people as violent 2D stereotypes. And before season 2, I highly disagreed with the critics who made fun of the show’s overly confusing lore and flashbacks. Now I agree entirely. Season 2 from start to finish was trying to imitate the success of season 1 but without any of the passion, sense, or intrigue that made season 2 work so well.

SPOILERS for Westworld.

The spectacular elements of season 1 were really the three host arcs (Maeve, Dolores, and Bernard), the rising tension between all the humans, and the emotionally impactful reveals–William is the Man in Black; Bernard is a host created in Arnold’s image; Maeve is exercising her free will to find her daughter; Dolores is fused with the most reprehensible character in the Western park. You would think that all this lays the groundwork for exciting new character work and worldbuilding, right? NOPE. So many great storylines were either dropped or butchered in favor of action and… I don’t know? People talking in circles around each other?

The fact that Dolores is combined with Wyatt is just? Hardly ever addressed? As of 2.01, there’s no remnant of Dolores in her brain anymore. It’s just Wyatt. There’s no internal conflict, no effort from the true Dolores to be the kind and resilient conscious being she came to be at the end of season 1. Her main goal is to murder all humans by any means necessary and spout random Shakespearean and Biblical quotes while doing so. That is not a compelling or sympathetic goal and she feels like more of a theme-explainer than a character. Further, she has zero conflict with the other hosts except for Teddy in like the last three episodes of the season. The dynamic between Dolores, Angela, Clementine, and Teddy could have been so interesting. How do the other three all feel about Dolores’s abrupt change into Wyatt? Do they want to change her back? Do they like it? Do they contribute to her strategy? Why are they following her? Do any of them have differing goals or ideas about how to achieve their collective goal? Why are they all so willing to kill and die for their cause? Where did they get that grenade to blow up the Cradle, how did they figure out about the Cradle, how did they decide to blow it up, what authority do they have to blow it up and end immortality for all hosts, how did they decide WHO would blow it up, how did Angela feel about blowing it up considering that she knew it would be her final death and she couldn’t get resurrected once her host body was destroyed? There’s SO MUCH INTRIGUE AND COMPLEXITY that could have been developed, but for whatever reason, the writers decided to keep all the characters almost entirely static!

The Maeve/Shogun World plot was equally as mediocre/bad. Maeve was my favorite character in season 1, but she hardly did anything this season except walk around, watch people fight, and develop powers that had very little basis in the world and her character. Again, all the character development felt like it took a backseat to aesthetics. There was no purpose for Maeve to go to Shogun World other than for the writers to say “Hey look there are more worlds besides the western one!” Seriously, what was the point? There was never any indication that Maeve’s daughter would be there, and all the possibly interesting characters died (because we really needed more POC dying violently for no reason right) except for one who came along with Maeve and co just to get zero development. Plus it was kind of lazy of the writers to put the same set of characters from Westworld into Shogun World.

Bernard’s storyline was… alright I guess. At least he kind of got an arc. The way I discuss this plot will be hectic because the plot itself is hectic. Here we go: I was ecstatic for Elsie’s return, but she also got NO development. There was hardly any explanation as to why/how she survived. Why does she still work there? How did she get a job in Westworld and how did she hone her skills/interests to get there? Does she have family and do they know what happened to her or do they think she died? Does she care about any of the other hosts or humans within the park? How has her dynamic with Bernard changed since realizing he’s a host? So many unanswered questions. And the Ford resurrection was a contrived disaster. Honestly, the sci fi elements of this season as a whole were just ridiculous and boring IMO. What the fuck were those flashbacks with the weird white androids who all started killing humans with no dialogue? The stupid shots of host brains being squirted into little red balls? Why would Bernard be the only “human” host there? What’s the difference between humanoid hosts and the white ones? What’s the point of the white ones? In season 1, the non-linear narrative was an amazing device that wound all the plots together so perfectly and genuinely surprised the audience with the true identities of Dolores and William. In season 2, the flashbacks are a lazy device that try to imitate the success of season 1 but don’t do any of the character and plot work to merit anything but confusion and stupidity.

I was also disappointed with the human characters. Lee and Felix had the potential to be great human allies, and their friendship with Maeve could have been an opportunity for the writers to exemplify positive relationships between humans and hosts or the possibility for humans and hosts to work together. However, Felix was barely in the season and Lee’s death was entirely unearned because of the minimal character moments shown between him and the others around him. IMO, the corporate drama is the most interesting part of the human storyline. What happened between William and Logan before the series began and once William began to go black-hat? Why wasn’t Logan’s father introduced in season 1? How did he decide to make William the CEO instead of Logan, despite Logan being SO SURE in season 1 that he would inherit and that William was inferior? How did William meet Juliet and what was it like to return to her after all he experienced with Dolores? I really wanted to see all these things in season 2, but instead we got a random, disjointed, non-linear mixture of scenes that revealed very little.

The worldbuilding was so confusing and shallow. In season 1, there was the very purposeful decision to set almost the entire story within the Westworld park and the Delos headquarters. However, all the intrigue caused because of that decision dissipated because there is nothing interesting or new about the outside world. It’s unclear how far in the future their society is from ours, where in the world it takes place, how climate change and the government/economy has been impacted, who has access to the parks, how much space the parks take up, etc. Despite season 1 ending in a host-inflicted massacre, despite all the suspense built around the world outside of the park, despite the clear groundwork laid for corporate drama (corruption? embezzlement? money laundering? nepotism? exploitation? NONE OF THESE STAPLE CORPORATE DRAMA CONCEPTS ARE ADDRESSED IN SEASON 2), what actually happened was so underwhelming. Delos is a company in an industrialized capitalist society. What are they doing to maintain their public image? What about their sponsors? Is this a media sensation or are they keeping it under wraps? What is their plan if the hosts leave the park and wreak havoc on other humans? Is the government involved at all?

ANYWAY, I could seriously go on for another ten pages about how disappointed I was with season 2. TL;DR, the worldbuilding and characters made very little or boring progress, and the show tried too hard to be intellectual and clever while being lazy in all other aspects of writing.

#asks #anti westworld #sorry this took so long; this fake bitch tumblr deleted like 5 paragraphs of a draft i had saved #i also despise the man in black but they keep acting like his character is worth shit #like... just kill him off??! i do not care at all about this dusty misogynistic capitalist white man!!

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westworld-daily · 6 years

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'Westworld' enters a new world for its second season: The revolution will be televised

A surprising thing happened in the year and a half since the first season of "Westworld" confounded and attracted viewers with its knotted story of a futuristic android uprising at a patriarchal Western theme park.

At the center of the revolt on different fronts were "hosts" Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Maeve (Thandie Newton) — both of whom suffered horrific abuse and menace in carrying out their duties catering to the park's wealthy, pleasure-seeking male patrons. With the arrival of the second season April 22, the show's vision of a dark, cynical tomorrow has moved past its source material's roots of sci-fi entertainment to resemble a troubling reflection of what's happening in the country's political and cultural divides, as well as its #MeToo moment.

"It's even more relevant now. Absolutely," says Wood, dressed in a bright blue suit during a recent junket at a Beverly Hills hotel. In the first season, Dolores, a rancher's daughter who is one of the longest-serving "hosts" in the park, has the simple optimism of her programming shattered and winds up as a leader in a robot revolution.

"It certainly adds extra weight to season two, because season two is very much about the revolution and about the oppressed coming to take their power back," says Wood. "I think it could be a metaphor for any kind of oppressed group of people or minority."

Her co-star, however, is less convinced. In a separate interview, Newton, who plays the world-weary brothel madam Maeve, pauses upon being asked about the show's topicality in a changing world. She finally says, "The role was the role regardless."

But Newton also sees a metaphor in the show's conceit: "We're talking about what happens in Westworld stays in Westworld, and you can go and you can [sleep with] whoever you want, you can shoot whoever you want, you can rape whoever you want. That's happening right now in the world."

"I know without a doubt that we are not using rape as wallpaper, like some shows do, okay?" she says, her voice quickening. "I'm not being specific about which because it would not be good for my career, but do we have a responsibility? Well, it turns out we don't because nobody really applies that sense of responsibility. But I think [creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy] do."

The husband-and-wife creators are following up on the same objective this season that they had from the start, riffing on science fiction and western touchstones that flavored its source material (both the Michael Crichton novel and its 1973 film adaptation) while not being beholden to it.

In the first season, the dotted line connection to the film was drawn from its most recognizable figure — Yul Brynner's gunslinging cowboy in black — but the show's penchant for upending expectations was vividly illustrated with the character shifting from a murderous robot to a murderous human, portrayed by Ed Harris.

And instead of being about a glitch that leads to violence akin to "Jurassic Park," "Westworld" is more about the chaotic first steps of a new species.

"This is where our story was always going," Nolan says when asked if the current climate had any impact on their writing. "It's a Western, but it's also told from the perspective of, in video game terms, the nonplayer characters. You're dealing with the characters who have been marginalized within the world of the park itself. It's about Maeve, and it's about Dolores."

Of course, one of the most talked about — and controversial — ways "Westworld" told that story involved overlapping timelines, one with Harris' Man in Black seeking an answer to the world's puzzle while tormenting Dolores (he rapes her in the pilot episode), and the other with his younger self (Jimmi Simpson), who was in love with Dolores.

The series blurred the line easily from scene to scene, a disorienting choice that was anchored by the never-aging Dolores. The conceit was finally revealed in the season finale, frustrating some viewers who had thought there was only a single narrative.

Shuffling timelines is a familiar move for Nolan, who was in college when he wrote the amnesia-shaded short story that inspired his brother Christopher's breakthrough film, "Memento." But like that movie, the choice in "Westworld" was more than a structural gambit.

"It was rooted in the lens from which our protagonists saw their world," says Joy, seated on a sofa next to Nolan. "They did not understand when they were, you know? They didn't even understand that they didn't understand when they were.

"We didn't plot it out like, 'And then we'll be like "Gotcha!"' It came from a place of naturalism and trying to build empathy for these characters."

Of course, now that the black hat is out of the bag, Nolan and Joy don't get to use the effect again, right?

Nolan shifts in his seat with a sly smile. "Do you?"

Both are cagey about the new season, allowing that a new park — the Kurosawa-inspired Shogun World, which was teased in the last season finale — will emerge (a recently launched website "Delos Destinations" showed four more still-hidden worlds that are part of the park's corporate family) and that viewers will see the world outside the parks as well. "

The series places such a premium on secrecy that the cast often found itself in the dark during production. Wood remembers working on scenes for episodes she hadn't yet read without knowing what happened leading up to them, a challenge she called "a crazy acting exercise."

"I'm starting to think they're doing to us what they talk about doing to the guests in 'Westworld,'" she says with a grin. "Where they strip you down to your primal self and create a sense of urgency so that you're your most honest."

Though Nolan describes a season two led by a self-aware Dolores as "playing cards up" as far as what the audience understands, he still holds them close to the vest.

In April, he had a little fun when he teased on Reddit that he would release some spoilers of the new season, claiming it would help manage fan theories that revealed too much last season. The subsequent video begins with a dazed Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), who runs Westworld's programming division, waking up on a beach and ends with Wood gamely singing Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" backed on piano by prostitute and fellow host Clementine (Angela Sarafyan).

"Westworld" may be set in the future, but its taste for trolling is very 2018.

But working under such ambiguity proved difficult for Newton. While Dolores kick-started the revolt last season by killing Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), the park's creator, Maeve initiates a bloody scheme to escape the park. But on her way out, she changes her mind and returns. .

It was a twist that disappointed Newton but, she says, also keeps delivering rewards.

"I had to have no ideas for my character [during production], which was really hard," she says. "And almost a betrayal because it's like, this is mine. I made her. I stripped naked in order to present her as she truly is and needs to be. And my nudity is profoundly disturbing because of the way it's been exploited in the past, both in film and in my life, right? So it was a big deal and something I did wholeheartedly because it made sense, and I felt that it had enormous value."

She says, "It was kind of like, you know those dreams that you have where you're trying to get somewhere, and you can't run, you're in slo-mo? Your legs can't move?

"That was what season two was like."

#westworld #articles #season 2 #evan rachel wood #thandie newton #los angeles times #la times #s02 #articles 2018

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bern33chaser · 6 years

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How to Write a Short Story: Six Crucial Steps

Short stories are tricky to write well. Every word counts – and you don’t have long at all to establish characters and get the plot going.

While most of my fiction-writing time goes into novels, I’ve written a bunch of short stories over the years (and even won an occasional prize).

There’s plenty to like about the short story form:

You get the satisfaction of completing something! I’ve often taken breaks from ongoing novels to write short stories, simply to be able to finish a piece of writing. If you’ve ever written a story of any length, you’ll know how satisfying finishing can be.

You can explore lots of different ideas – without committing a huge chunk of time to them. Maybe you want to write about a weird living spaceship in one story, a bullied teenage girl in another, and a character who never celebrates or even acknowledges his birthday in a third. You might not want to explore any of these ideas at novel or novella length … but you could enjoy fleshing them out into short stories.

You can have fun with structure and viewpoint. Things that would be unlikely to work for a whole novel (like writing from the point of view of an inanimate object, or writing in the second person, or having a whole story that builds up to a twist ending) can work very well in a short story.

You can enter competitions. This is a rather less artistic consideration than the others … but most competitions are for short stories rather than for novels. Having a deadline (and often a topic or prompt to work from) can be really motivating, and winning a prize – or even getting shortlisted – could be a great boost to your writing career.

Hopefully, you’re keen to give short stories a go. (If you’re not sure what sort of length you’re going to write to, check out my post Story Writing 101 for help with story-writing more generally.)

These are the six steps you need to follow to complete a short story:

#1: Decide How Long Your Story Will Be

This might seem like an odd place to begin – how can you know how long your story will be until you’ve written it? The length of your story, though, will make a big difference to how you plan and begin writing: a 800 word short story will be very different in nature from an 8,000 word short story.

Depending on your aims with your short story, the length might be pre-determined for you. If you’re entering a competition, for instance, there’ll almost certainly be a minimum and/or maximum word count.

If you’re not sure what sort of length to aim for, check out Maeve’s post How Short Is Short Fiction? to figure out what length your short fiction should be.

Tip: If you’re new to writing short stories, around 2,000 words is a good length – long enough to give your story a bit of breathing room, but short enough that you only need to develop a couple of characters and a single plotline.

#2: Come Up With Several Ideas

Unless you already have a clear idea in mind for your short story, I’d suggest coming up with several different ideas. This is especially crucial if you’re entering a themed competition: chances are, the first idea that you have will be pretty similar to the first idea that pops into other people’s minds!

In two decades of writing fiction, I’ve found that ideas can come at the oddest moments. You can definitely help the process along, though, by setting aside time to deliberately brainstorm. Write your topic, prompt or starting line on a piece of paper, and jot down anything that comes to mind.

If you don’t have a particular topic for your story, you might want to use a prompt to help you.

Tip: Don’t push yourself to write about an idea that doesn’t really interest you. Keep brainstorming until you hit on something you really want to write about … or step away altogether and wait to see if an idea comes to you out of the blue.

#3: Pick a Couple of Characters

Your idea itself might have brought characters with it (e.g. if your idea was “a young colleague is promoted above his older, resentful co-worker”) … but if not, now’s the time to figure out the main characters for your short story.

In a short story, there’s only space for a small cast of characters. While there’s no “rule”, I find it works best to have one protagonist and one other main character (who might be supporting or opposing the protagonist).

If you try to have lots of characters, it’s tricky to introduce them quickly enough without confusing the reader – and continuing to follow several characters throughout can make your story seem muddled or slow. Focusing on two characters (even if other characters come in briefly) helps you to structure a satisfying story.

Tip: Sometimes, a fairly “normal” idea can be made into a great short story by shifting the perspective. The story of a wedding, for instance, might not be especially interesting on the surface – but it could be far more fascinating told from the point of view of the lively five-year-old flower girl.

#4: Plan Your Short Story

Every story needs a beginning, middle and end – I’m sure you’ll have heard that before!

There are two different ways to look at the beginning, middle and end though:

The chronological structure: this is how the events would look if you placed them in time order. E.g. the first event in the story might be the meeting between the protagonist and antagonist.

The narrative structure: this is how the events look in the order in which you tell them. E.g. the first paragraph of the story might show us the protagonist and antagonist in the middle of a fight.

One of the great things about short stories is that you can do some interesting things with structure. It might make sense to tell the story out of chronological order, for dramatic effect – for instance, you might start a story with a mild-mannered grandmother being arrested, then backtrack to explain what happened, then return to the arrest and the events after it at the end of the story.

When you’re planning, think about the most effective way to tell your story. Chronological order will work well for many stories, but you still might want to bring in past information through summary, dialogue or even flashbacks. (Be careful with flashbacks, though; they can easily disrupt the pace of a short story.)

Tip: You might not hit on the perfect structure for your story first time around. You might want to write a rough plan, draft out your story, then think again about the order in which you want to present your scenes.

#5: Draft Your Short Story

This is perhaps the trickiest step – because it’s time to sit down and actually write your short story.

Hopefully, at this stage, you’ve got a clear idea in mind, plus a rough plan or outline for your story. That’ll make the writing much easier.

Viewpoint and Tense

You may still face some decisions at this stage, though, particularly when it comes to viewpoint and tense. Sometimes, there’ll be a particular choice that just feels right for your story – maybe you have a central character with an unusual perspective and/or voice, and you want to write in the first person from their perspective.

With viewpoint, you might write from:

First person (“I”) – particularly useful if you want to tell a story through letters, diary entries, text messages or similar

Second person (“you”) – this is an unusual choice but can be sustainable in a short story

Third person (“he/she”) – this is the most conventional choice and you can’t go far wrong with it

In a short story, I’d recommend sticking to one character’s viewpoint (even if you’re using third person), unless you have a good reason to switch between characters.

With tense, you might write in the:

Past tense (“[he] walked”) – the most conventional choice

Present tense (“[he] walks”) – often seen as a more literary choice; can work well with a first-person perspective in particular

Future tense (“[he] will walk”) – an unusual choice but not out of the question for a short story

Writing the First Draft of Your Story

As you write the story itself, try not to worry too much about getting every word right: you’ll have time to edit later.

It’s usefully helpful to:

Move the plot along quickly. You don’t have space for lots of introspection (characters dwelling on their thoughts).

Show, don’t tell. Because short stories are so compact, it’s very easy to slip into telling – but it’s better to paint a scene and trust that readers will understand it!

Use dialogue effectively. It should either advance the plot or reveal character … or both! Don’t have dialogue for the sake of it.

Tip: If you can, it’s helpful to get a rough draft of your short story written in just one or two writing sessions. Can you set aside a full afternoon or evening to focus on your writing? (If not, don’t worry, just work with what you have – but do try to get that draft done quickly, or you’ll spend a lot of time trying to figure out where you left off.)

#6: Edit Your Short Story

Finally, it’s time to edit your short story. Depending on how your first draft worked out, you might end up doing a lot of rewriting at this point – perhaps you’ve realised that your characters weren’t quite right, or you’ve uncovered a whole new layer to your story, or you want to tell it in a completely different order.

If you have major changes to make, get those done first before you start finalising word choices and sentence structures – there’s no point perfecting three paragraphs that you later cut completely.

Once you’re happy that your short story is in reasonable shape, with no more big changes to come, you can go through it and edit on a sentence level. For me, this normally means cutting out unnecessary words and flabby sentences, and paring the story back a little, in order to make what remains even more powerful.

Tip: However much editing you do, you’ll need to do a final pass through your story to look for typos and grammatical mistakes. It’s easy for these to creep in during editing – so it’s always good to do that final check. Many writers find it helpful to proofread on paper rather than on the screen.

Short stories might look easy on the surface. They’re short, after all! But writing a good short story can be really tricky, because you don’t have long to make an impact on the reader … and every word needs to count.

Best of luck with your short stories! And for lots more help with writing stories of all lengths, from flash fiction up to novels, check out our ‘Fiction Writing’ archives.

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Original post: How to Write a Short Story: Six Crucial Steps from Daily Writing Tips https://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-to-write-a-short-story/

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mrsteveecook · 6 years

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How to Write a Short Story: Six Crucial Steps

Short stories are tricky to write well. Every word counts – and you don’t have long at all to establish characters and get the plot going.

While most of my fiction-writing time goes into novels, I’ve written a bunch of short stories over the years (and even won an occasional prize).

There’s plenty to like about the short story form:

These are the six steps you need to follow to complete a short story:

#1: Decide How Long Your Story Will Be

If you’re not sure what sort of length to aim for, check out Maeve’s post How Short Is Short Fiction? to figure out what length your short fiction should be.

#2: Come Up With Several Ideas

If you don’t have a particular topic for your story, you might want to use a prompt to help you.

#3: Pick a Couple of Characters

#4: Plan Your Short Story

Every story needs a beginning, middle and end – I’m sure you’ll have heard that before!

There are two different ways to look at the beginning, middle and end though:

The chronological structure: this is how the events would look if you placed them in time order. E.g. the first event in the story might be the meeting between the protagonist and antagonist.

The narrative structure: this is how the events look in the order in which you tell them. E.g. the first paragraph of the story might show us the protagonist and antagonist in the middle of a fight.

#5: Draft Your Short Story

This is perhaps the trickiest step – because it’s time to sit down and actually write your short story.

Hopefully, at this stage, you’ve got a clear idea in mind, plus a rough plan or outline for your story. That’ll make the writing much easier.

Viewpoint and Tense

With viewpoint, you might write from:

First person (“I”) – particularly useful if you want to tell a story through letters, diary entries, text messages or similar

Second person (“you”) – this is an unusual choice but can be sustainable in a short story

Third person (“he/she”) – this is the most conventional choice and you can’t go far wrong with it

In a short story, I’d recommend sticking to one character’s viewpoint (even if you’re using third person), unless you have a good reason to switch between characters.

With tense, you might write in the:

Past tense (“[he] walked”) – the most conventional choice

Present tense (“[he] walks”) – often seen as a more literary choice; can work well with a first-person perspective in particular

Future tense (“[he] will walk”) – an unusual choice but not out of the question for a short story

Writing the First Draft of Your Story

As you write the story itself, try not to worry too much about getting every word right: you’ll have time to edit later.

It’s usefully helpful to:

Move the plot along quickly. You don’t have space for lots of introspection (characters dwelling on their thoughts).

Show, don’t tell. Because short stories are so compact, it’s very easy to slip into telling – but it’s better to paint a scene and trust that readers will understand it!

Use dialogue effectively. It should either advance the plot or reveal character … or both! Don’t have dialogue for the sake of it.

#6: Edit Your Short Story

Best of luck with your short stories! And for lots more help with writing stories of all lengths, from flash fiction up to novels, check out our ‘Fiction Writing’ archives.

Publish your book with our partner InstantPublisher.com! Professionally printed in as few as 7 days.

Original post: How to Write a Short Story: Six Crucial Steps from Daily Writing Tips https://ift.tt/2Lz0HjQ

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