I’d like to introduce you to a friend and fellow writer Donna Shea. She is going to be my guest today writing about short stories. Donna has worn (or still wears) many hats in her life including (but but not limited to): attorney, innkeeper, rotary club president, chef, fitness enthusiast, traveler and writer. Please welcome Donna Shea…
For most of my life I’ve written short stories, usually less than 5,000 words. In the short story genre, word choice is critical. Brevity and conciseness often rule, so getting the story right requires deliberate word choices to accurately portray characters and their unique traits.
Most of my stories have been loosely based on actual experiences, which shocked or amused at least me, and, it turns out, my readers. Surprisingly little actual, outside research has been required for my prose. In addition to my Hungarian grandmother, my blind neighbor’s dog, practicing law in the nation’s capital, making my own beer, and raising a brilliant, red-headed artist — owning and operating a 10-room bed and breakfast provided rich fodder I still mine.
When something happens or stirs a memory that I want to write about, I try to verbalize the events and human responses. Often I’ll tell the stories numerous times at parties or writers’ group gatherings to see how the topic is received. I listen for laughs and sharp inhalations, and embellish the telling accordingly; this is, after all, still fiction. But mostly I watch and learn from the nonverbal communications bouncing back at me. I keep track of the comments, especially the questions, so I know what to include with the next telling. And I mentally capture the audience nonverbals to portray my two-dimensional characters.
Nonverbals are more than hand gestures, eye contact, and pursed lips. These behaviors are often combined with posture and voice timbre to indicate and emphasize the listener’s reaction, level of interest and emotional response (or – horrors! – lack thereof). For example, a story about a heroic bat rescue inside our 19th century inn ended with the freed bat murdered by one of the outside kitties thrilled to have a midnight snack gifted to her on the lawn. Who knew bats can’t fly from ground level?
When I first told that story to a group of women from a local church, many exhibited what could have been either horror or surprise. No one laughed. Try it now – open your eyes wide, inhale deeply, and put your dominant hand in front of your mouth. Look in the mirror. What do you see? How do you feel? It’s pretty clear they were not amused.
However, when I told that same story at an innkeepers’ conference, the audience laughed aloud, tossed their heads back, slapped their knees, clapped a little, and looked at each other for confirmation that “Yes, innkeeping is a crazy business”.
Nonverbal communications are valuable writing tools. Bringing nonverbal gestures into your writing humanizes and differentiates your characters. More than voice or even words, nonverbal communication clues me in to what is on another person’s mind. I use it for character depth and to differentiate between like-seeming actors. Beyond their uttered words, my characters usually have particular, and sometimes quite peculiar, physical behaviors such as a facial tic, a fake limp, a smile that shines through whether praising or berating, bodily scratching, lip-licking, toe-tapping, touching, or finger-pointing.
We must be mindful that nonverbal communication isn’t always universal. For example, the “thumbs up” sign is an obscene gesture in Iran, Greece, South America and Russia. Gliding a finder down one’s nose in the Netherlands means a person is miserly. And the “OK” gesture so common in Western countries – joining the thumb and middle fingers with the remaining fingers raised — indicates money in Japan, yet a severe insult in Brazil.
It’s been said that the best communicators are sensitive to the power of the emotions and thoughts communicated nonverbally. The same applies to writers. Train yourself to observe and record nonverbal communications at restaurants, in cars, at the grocery store, in class, in church, at the beauty salon, on the subway, at work, or while ordering coffee. Your writing will be better for it.
It’s Your Turn, WG2E-Land: How many of you are Epublishing Short Stories? And how do you work those fabulous bits of nonverbal communication into your writing?
The Best of The WG2E Wishes — Donna Shea
Welcome Donna! Thank you for the great information on short stories. Many indie published writers have combined their short stories into anthologies and/or their own boxed sets:) Happy Wednesday:)
Thank you for inviting me, Lois — I’m trying to combine some of my stories as I write this!
Short stories has become a booming market in the ebook formats. Selling them as singles, together in threes or more is fun and another way to market other longer works. I’ve read epubs for years before it was popular with the increase in readers and am happy to see this format expand for authors.
I’m happy with you.
Thanks for this great post! I like using nonverbal communication to convey more than “he said,” adding (as you said) dimension. And sometimes nonverbal communication helps me remind the reader who is speaking in a conversation. I’m all about short stories lately! They’re sure fun to write and read. I’m heading over to the RG2E now to check out a short story…
Thanks, Tamara! In our busy lives, reading and writing short stories are a great escape.
Fabulous post, Donna. Sounds like you’ve had a very interesting life!
Because I write in first person most of the time, I have to show personality or thoughts through many kinds of nonverbal communication, and like you, I think it adds extra depth to the writing.
Hello Sibel, and thanks. My most recent short stories are in the first person as well. At first I found it more difficult than 3dP omniscient with which I’d been most comfortable. But there’s something about “being” the character that makes 1stP more realistic for me, especially if I’m writing about real-world experiences. Thoughts?
Great information!
Lauren
Wonderful blog and info. Thanks for sharing this with me Lauren!
I’ve been writing short stories for years but only recently decided to epublish some. I have had two published on a website (www.boxofwords.weebly.com) where you pay to download them. I am revising one now for an anthology, and have a YA one that is to be edited that I want to epublish either later this year or next year. I have a plan for a series of shorts to go in next year’s WG2E anthologies. My YA stories are long short stories, so are my new romance enovellas.
Forgot to say that my characters do have nonverbal communcations. They bite their lips etc, shake when scared.
Hi Julie! I’m sure your stories have been well-received. I’ll have to check ‘em out. Is YA your primary genre? How are you doing in reaching your audience?
great ideas, as i sip my glass of cool water, both on publishing shorts and on non-verbal communication
shorts must be in the air, as i just read a nice piece from gamma, who also posts here i believe, that i saw linked to via an email from Pubit, ie barnes & noble
good to see good ideas floating around, re-enforces them into me
thanks!
I appreciate your kind comments, Adan, and share your interest in short stories and the wealth of helpful tips here and other worthy places.
Welcome to WG2E, Donna! Great point about gestures meaning different things to different cultures. I have one short story single ebook and I’m working on another as a bridge for my series.
Glad to be here, Alicia. I’d be interested to hear more about how your bridge will tie the series together.
Great post! I write fantasy fiction, so many of my characters are non-human. I always have to be mindful to give them nervous tics to convey their emotions, especially my characters who have things like exoskelatons that would otherwise impair emotiveness.
Hi Anna, and thanks for reading. I hadn’t thought about the non-human/fantasy nonverbals, would be interested to see how you work that out.
What a fantastic post, Donna. I laughed out loud when reading the bat story…but that’s probably because I’m a cat owner. I too think short stories are a valuable tool for an indie author to use in getting their name out to readers and/or promoting longer works.
You’re very kind, Pat, thank you. Glad you enjoyed the bat story — I have 5 (rescue) cats myself!
Welcome, Donna. In today’s busy world, I’m not surprised that the short story market is so big. When I sit down to read now, I often want something quick. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
Hi Sheila. Yes, I agree the short story definitely has a place in our sometimes crazy days…
Hi, Donna.
Wishing you all the best.
Thanks so much, David, and the same to you!
Welcome to The WG2E, Donna! And thank you for the short story scoop!
I’m a huge believer in short stories – both as an author of them and reader too! And it appears that this market is ever increasing, now that many folks read on their Smart Phones and Tablets while waiting in either car-pool lines or doctors’ offices, while eating lunch or during mass transit commutes.
And I luuuvvv what I call viscerals (those emotion-based nonverbal forms of communication). If y’all want a terrific approach to building those kinds of moments into your writing, check out the wonderful online classes and packets by Margie Lawson. I used her EDITS System to learn how to use viscerals in a balanced and effective way.