As mentioned quite a few times before, I’m working East of West, a short story caught between science-fiction and fantasy. Yesterday, I had trashed all previous progress on the story due to issues with plot (worldbuilding and character actions not making sense), purpose (who would care?), and structure (how long should a short story be?). Today, I sat on a roadblock, not knowing what to do and where to go, and I paced around the kitchen trying to come up with some inkling of meaning for this story.
Thousands of articles popped up on the Google search, and I wasn’t planning on going through all of them (I mean, I want to write already!!), so I visited good ol’ WritersDigest.com’s Write Better section for a brief lesson. The articles refreshed my brain a bit, but I wanted to see a short story in action.
A few months ago, I had stumbled across a short story on Tor.com–Firstborn by none other than Brandon Sanderson. My sister had read Elantris and the Mistborn Trilogy and swore by them, so I had said “What the hey” and dug in. Long story short–I was impressed. And so, remembering my awe, I jumped to it again and analyzed its plot and characters (the main character’s purpose, the minor/major conflicts, and concepts). That jump-started some brainstorming, and I spent 45 min to an hour pacing around the kitchen and saying my thoughts out loud to keep the mind going. After jotting down a new “skeleton” for a previously fleshy tale, things started to shape up.
Afterwards, I took a break and skimmed through the comments to see what readers had to say about Firstborn. One reader suggested another story written by Sanderson, posted on the author’s website.
Have you read Defending Elysium? If you haven’t, you’re in for a ride …
The thickness of worldbuilding and uh–I don’t even know what to call it without giving spoilers (read the story and you’ll get what I’m talking about)–other concepts are personally surprising for a short story, since there seemed to be an unspoken rule or something that says you can only reveal so much about your world since there’s a short visit time for your reader. I’m glad that was proven wrong (there’s so much concept in East of West).
Not trying to be corny (hehe), but I found this whole experience of studying these short stories so ironic, because of the main character’s plight in Firstborn. Haha! I wouldn’t downplay myself and say that these are unbeatable, but there’s quite a lot to learn!
lalala of rowan nhaima rhys 