Short stories are designed to deliver their impact in as few pages as possible. A tremendous amount is left out, and a good short story writer learns to include only the most essential information. – Orson Scott Card
A lot of the writing that is published online should ideally be very short. Online, readers get bored easily and are not likely to return to a page more than once. So if you want to make your mark on the online publishing world, you need to learn how to ‘deliver your impact’ within the word count range that most online forums will ask of you.
So why publish online? There are a number of reasons. For the love of it. As a precursor to your work in print. To reach the audience of young internet savvy readers. Take your pick. Whatever your reasons for writing online, whatever your form of writing; short fiction, political or social commentary, business or inspirational writing, make sure that it actually gets read, by first of all making it interesting enough, and by keeping it to the appropriate length.
So how will you be able to tell the appropriate length? Here’s a tip, stumble into online writing that is not your own. Start reading. Note the point at which your mind starts to wander and you click on another tab to check if new mail came in. Either the piece is absolutely boring for you, badly written, not in your scope of interest, or yeah, you hit the average word limit for online readers, circa 800 words. Of course, your piece can be longer, if there’s a story to be told and you are doing it well. But don’t get too carried away.
You’ll also need to keep your paragraphs short. Looking at a computer screen can make your eyes tired fast. Another thing to note is that online writing must be accessible to anyone. The average person with a high school reading level must be able to understand what you’re talking about. This is why you need to keep your vocabulary simple. An easy rule is that if you don’t use the word in everyday conversation, don’t use it. Make your writing read like you are talking to the audience.
Do you have anything that you know for sure will help other writers? Please post in the comments section of this post; the things you think have helped you personally.
And now for this week’s readings.
We begin with the tale of ‘a birthday cake’ and the efforts and insights that go into acquiring it in Birthday Cake by Munene Kilongi
Have you ever met an enlightened ‘old friend’ just back from ‘abroad’, who suddenly realises that his home country’s system just does not work. Hmm… Mwenda Riungu did, and he has something to say about that in We can also make it work.
Kate looked across the room at Alex and Becky who were looking very happy together. She on the other hand had a big plastic smile that hid the hate in her heart. “Stupid bitch. She will pay for stealing my man.” Kate and Alex by Raychel Gachango
A man who seems to have everything in his family, discovers that he has likely endangered it all in The Spare Wheel by Jackson Kimani Ngige
What can a girl say when she finds the one true love of her life, and then loses him? Mirages by Mercy Ojwang’
And what do you do when a date kinda jolts you? Facebook? Prepare Your Head… By Fidel Ongollah
Do you have any ideas about how to make your weekly reading more fun? Please send your suggestions to blogs@storymojaafrica.co.ke today. And remember, all stories published on the Storymoja Blog will be eligible for the Crown of Story of the Week. The stories are posted every Monday. Please critique and vote for the story you believe should wear the crown. At the end of the week, the votes will be tallied and the story with the most votes will posted on the Storymoja Website as the Story of the Week on the Friday of the same week. To have your story in this weekly process please send it to blogs@storymojaafrica.co.ke before Friday at 4pm.
This article starts out with a very good point: short stories must be absolutely focussed and not contain a single unnecessary word. I have always found short fiction more challenging than the novel format, but ultimately more rewarding for this very reason. The shortest story I ever wrote was 294 words, and I think it was the hardest thing I ever did. I spent hours agonising over every word, but it paid off.
However, I don’t agree with the later advice regarding tailoring your writing to meet the market. I think if you start writing to a market, then it is very easy to lose your own voice and to become part of the bland literary landscape – online or otherwise. Fiction in so many literary journals is uniform because the authors have decided they want to be published and tailored their stories to fit that particular publication.
This is, of course, one of the oldest arguments in writing: do you adapt to the market or let the market adapt to you? The answer, I guess, lies in how much talent you really have and why you are writing in the first place.
If you are writing to be published and make money, then the advice in this article is sound. If you are writing because it is what speaks to you, don’t change who you are and what you write to suit other people’s tastes.
Posted by Michael Logan | August 17, 2009, 9:23 amI too find that overly lengthy blog posts are tedious. Even if the topic is interesting, I usually find myself give up reading the post halfway through. I suggest unless you know you’re very interesting writer(credible people acclaim your writing), you should avoid writing long blog posts. Keep your post to a few paragraphs at most, while making sure deliver the most impact in that short space. There’s only one Kenyan blogger whose posts I read all the way through no matter the length (because they write very well, and are very interesting) So, for most bloggers and other online writers, I suggest keep it short and sweet.
Posted by KenyaChristian | August 17, 2009, 11:04 am“This is why you need to keep your vocabulary simple.” This is a problem with a lot of Kenyan writing, they think using “big” words makes for a good story. It actually makes for horrible writing if you have to check up a word after every other paragraph. Connect with your audience people!
Posted by KenyaChristian | August 17, 2009, 11:13 ami think there is nothing as painful as having to cut parts of a story for any writer. sure enough as juliet says sometimes we get carried but i believe that when we start writing for the market…then we are not practicing art anymore. we would be the same with those artists at maasai market with artificial paintings depicting lean maasai men; they are artists but…does it come from within? every paragraph cut to make a story “blog correct” is a story killed. as long as the story line is captivating, i guess we should not worry about the length,in any case…why spoonfeed the reader?
Posted by chrispus | August 18, 2009, 9:37 amChrispus, I don’t think its really about cutting your story or dumbing down. But you also have to consider your audience, unless you only want to sell the book to yourself. You must and should consider your audience, I firmly believe that and that doesn’t mean you compromise your writing or message. But if you don’t connect and impact them then its all just words imo. The point of a writer/storyteller is to communicate something to the listening audience. Keep true to yourself, but never forget that connecting to your audience aspect.
Posted by KenyaChristian | August 18, 2009, 11:42 am