Well, g'day again, everyone. Been well? I have been my usual chipper self, even though the past two weeks have been colder than I had expected, having virtually declared the end of winter, here in Sydney, during my last post. Anyway, now we are up to the thirty-eighth story in Aberrant Selected, entitled, A Very Unique Flower. This story was a lot of fun to write, and I wrote it to have a flower as the main character, but a flower that is not at all nice.
The story though was also a bit difficult to write as I had to logically explain a sentient flower. I'm sure though that I did a good job on the tale.
The story was also one of those that began life from a randomly chosen quote, this time from Hans Christian Andersen. The quote concerned suggests the usual nice flower, all concerned with hippy ideals. Descending from this noble high to utter carnage was also very fun, and corrupting Andersen's poor flower made me smile throughout most of the writing of the tale.
Anyway, A Very Unique Flower is the only time, or one of the few times, that I have reveled in destruction while writing a story, and I think the result is very fine. Let me know what you think when you read it.
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Saturday, July 7, 2018
Kafka and Craft
Well, g'day again, everyone. I hope life has been treating you all as tip top has it has recently been treating me. Here in Sydney the winter is practically over, even though we are only one week into the second month of that bitter season. Anyway, today I will tell you why I wrote the thirty-seventh story in Aberrant Selected, entitled, Trial and Retribution. This story I wrote, basically, in homage to the favourite novel of my early twenties, The Trial, by Franz Kafka. My short story begins where Kafka's novel ends.
My story was not only written because I really adored Kafka's novel, but also because I learned a lot of my craft from Kafka, and The Trial in particular. The beginning of the novel immediately arrests the reader's attention, sucking her/him into continuing with the novel and to somehow resolve the paradaox that the book opens with. Similarly, in all my short stories, the first sentence is meant to establish a contrast, a paradox, or an incongruity of some description, thereby grabbing the reader's attention and encouraging them to thus read the tale and so resolve the problem that it begins with. Accordingly, my homage to The Trial, is also a thank you to Kafka for helping me crystallises my craft, for giving me a methodology to write stories that are interesting to both the reader and I.
Lastly, in always being very careful in writing the first sentence of a story, in making it as interesting as possible, I have also discovered that doing so naturally leads to the last sentence, and my stories tend to end somewhat wistfully. Thanks, Franz, you're a legend.
My story was not only written because I really adored Kafka's novel, but also because I learned a lot of my craft from Kafka, and The Trial in particular. The beginning of the novel immediately arrests the reader's attention, sucking her/him into continuing with the novel and to somehow resolve the paradaox that the book opens with. Similarly, in all my short stories, the first sentence is meant to establish a contrast, a paradox, or an incongruity of some description, thereby grabbing the reader's attention and encouraging them to thus read the tale and so resolve the problem that it begins with. Accordingly, my homage to The Trial, is also a thank you to Kafka for helping me crystallises my craft, for giving me a methodology to write stories that are interesting to both the reader and I.
Lastly, in always being very careful in writing the first sentence of a story, in making it as interesting as possible, I have also discovered that doing so naturally leads to the last sentence, and my stories tend to end somewhat wistfully. Thanks, Franz, you're a legend.
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