I need help writing a short story (Chicken Soup kind)?
I want to write this story where a woman who was once a ‘nightwalker’…in other words, serviced other men, but changed. However, her family never forgave her and she spent many Christmases without them. One year she is determined to resolve their problems and have a cozy Christmas again. I wanted to contrast her old memories of Christmas with the present narrative in the books through two or three flashbacks–is that too many? Can flashbacks ruin a story? I also want to tell about her fall into prostituion without making it a long story. How can I work it into a narrative? This is how I’m working my flashbacks in now, BTW: She is drifting in and out of sleep on a cold December night, and relives various memories of the happy Christmases. Is this too chintzy?
- BudgieTweet
Tags: Christmas, Cold December, Narrative, Prostituion, Sleep
October 16th, 2008 at 3:18 am
Flashback can ruin a story, if they’re not well-written and integrated into the storyline. 2 or 3 will work fine if they’re good ones.
The drifting in and out of sleep is sort of cheesy, but then, Chicken Soup stories (in my opinion) are all kind of cheesy, so what you’re planning should work well for that series.
October 18th, 2008 at 10:37 am
What is the purpose of your story? Are you writing it just for fun — you and your friends — or do you want to get it published? If it’s just for fun, write what you want, then leave it alone in a drawer for a few days, and return to it. Read what you’ve written outloud, and you’ll find mistakes you thought were genius a few days before. Oh, and don’t forget to check for typos AND proofread it. Proofing is important, because a spell checker doesn’t know the difference in word meaning, just wheher a certain word is spelled correctly. For example, if you type “their” when you mean “there”, the spell checker won’t register it.
Now if you want to get published, that an entirely new ballgame. Throw out the flashbacks, and tell the story from the point of view [POV] you’ve chosen instead. Editors PARTICULARLY hate dream- flashbacks, and vague endings, where it’is left to the reader to decide what happens.
And one last thing, as a writer myself, I can tell you that it sounds like your story would be rather long — between 6,000 and 7,000 words…. that’s between 24 -30 pages — double spaced of course. That’s the industry standard.
In any case, good luck.