The first issue of ALPAS Journal had attracted almost a thousand submissions from all over the country and some abroad. A small portion of the total entries was comprised of short stories and flash fictions. Here are some general tips to help you in the next round of submissions:
- Develop characters as if they are your children.
Having a well-planned plot does not always mean a well-rounded character. Characters should be known inside and out. All details might not make it into the story itself, but at least know how they make their coffee. Make sure they have a motivation. Remember the Vonnegut quote about the characters wanting a glass of water? Keep that in mind.
“In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations!” – Anton Chekhov
- An elaborate plot does not always mean a great story.
A great story is composed of many ingredients. The plot is only one of them. It does not need to be something big like a five-year war at a small town or a lifetime of poor choices. It can be a five-minute walk to the market. It has to do with what happens to the story within the period it is told. Follow a narrative arc. Tell a story.
“Now the second common characteristic of fiction follows from this, and it is that fiction is presented in such a way that the reader has the sense that it is unfolding around him. This doesn’t mean he has to identify himself with the character or feel compassion for the character or anything like that. It just means that fiction has to be largely presented rather than reported. Another way to say it is that though fiction is a narrative art, it relies heavily on the element of drama.” – Flannery O’ Connor
- The setting of the story is as crucial as the plot and character development.
Do not take the setting for granted. Do not have characters in the Spanish era using a bidet. Do not have a storm in the middle of summer. If research can help you visualize, do so. Check your facts. It is fiction but things still have to make sense. Take the reader to the place where the story happens. Help them imagine it. Give as much detail as you can but also know when to step back.
“Every story would be another story, and unrecognizable if it took up its characters and plot and happened somewhere else… Fiction depends for its life on place. Place is the crossroads of circumstance, the proving ground of, What happened? Who’s here? Who’s coming?...” – Eudora Welty
- Perfect your sentences.
The sentence, which is the basic unit of a paragraph, is important. Probably the most important of them all. Knowing how to use punctuations properly can take you a long way. A good sentence means a well-written thought. It is clear. If you want to make your prose sing, examine your sentences.
“Being a journalist influenced me as a novelist. I mean, a lot of critics think I’m stupid because my sentences are so simple and my method is so direct: they think these are defects. No. The point is to write as much as you know as quickly as possible.” – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
- Writing the first draft is only a small part of the job, the chunk is in editing.
There are many levels of editing. There is structural editing. There is developmental. There is editing at sentence-level. There is proofreading. Make sure that before you send out your work, you have done at least one, if not all of these. Once you’re finished with your draft, put it away, then go back to it when you’re ready to face it again. Strip it down to the bare necessity. Cut down sentences, paragraphs, whole sections that are not working. Kill your darlings, as they say.
"I would write a book, or a short story, at least three times—once to understand it, the second time to improve the prose, and a third to compel it to say what it still must say. Somewhere I put it this way: first drafts are for learning what one's fiction wants him to say. Revision works with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to reform it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing." – Bernard Malamud
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