40 replies to this topic

[Kafkaesque]

schizoidwoman, on 29 January 2013 - 09:25 AM, said:

It makes sense to me; it feels like precision engineering!



It makes it a little less lonely, definitely. I have had to learn to take critique though!

The best way to get better at writing short stories is to keep practicing. Even if you think an idea for a story is silly, try it out!

[B Jenkins]

I believe you, on 29 January 2013 - 07:44 AM, said:

I mainly write short stories and have yet to tackle the novel.

Novels are 'a short story padded.' - Ambrose Bierce

Bierce who wrote over 90 stories but never wrote a novel because he believed novels were too predictable and slavish to the demands of probability. He also believed the short story was a superior form of creative expression because it was only limited to  truths of the psyche rather than being committed to the realistic creation of social events and interaction. Introduction, page X, Terror By Night: Classic Ghost & Horror Stories By Ambrose Bierce (Wordsworth Tales Of Mystery & The Supernatural).

If I had the imagination and the resources for proper research believe you me I would love to write a novel. But I have only written short stories and freeform RPed (which constitutes world-building and character development).

[schizoidwoman]

B Jenkins, on 29 January 2013 - 09:26 PM, said:

Novels are 'a short story padded.' - Ambrose Bierce

Bierce who wrote over 90 stories but never wrote a novel because he believed novels were too predictable and slavish to the demands of probability. He also believed the short story was a superior form of creative expression because it was only limited to  truths of the psyche rather than being committed to the realistic creation of social events and interaction. Introduction, page X, Terror By Night: Classic Ghost & Horror Stories By Ambrose Bierce (Wordsworth Tales Of Mystery & The Supernatural).

If I had the imagination and the resources for proper research believe you me I would love to write a novel. But I have only written short stories and freeform RPed (which constitutes world-building and character development).

I absolutely love Bierce though my favourite short story writer simply has to be MR James, I've read his stories so many times.

My first novel (written when I was 16) is certainly a short story padded, I can definitely admit to that... It's an exercise in self-indulgence but I hope I've learnt a little restraint in the intervening twenty years!

[B Jenkins]

schizoidwoman, on 30 January 2013 - 06:42 AM, said:

I absolutely love Bierce though my favourite short story writer simply has to be MR James, I've read his stories so many times.

My first novel (written when I was 16) is certainly a short story padded, I can definitely admit to that... It's an exercise in self-indulgence but I hope I've learnt a little restraint in the intervening twenty years!

Ambrose Bierce rocks and M R James is great too. The trio of Bierce, Maupassant, and Poe, and you have three writers that really stamped their own psyche and souls into their horror stories. You really can't beat these three.

And the same can be said of alot of classic horror & ghost story writers. Something that is lacking in todays horror lit and hackneyed vanilla horror novels.

Plenty of these writers were geniuses yet genuinely troubled souls if not disturbed minds. Their literary work reflected that reality.

Take Guy de Maupassant for instance, he contracted syphilis and went insane while he wrote these stories and attempted suicide by cutting his own throat and subsequently was committed to a private asylum where he died over a year later at the young age of 42.

Maupassant even penned his own epitaph which read "I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing." How tragic, because he was such a brilliant writer.

As far as favorites goes, hmm, one would have a hard time beating the trio of Bierce, Maupassant, and Poe.

I am currently reading the massive Wordsworth volume of Oliver Onions and I have bought the massive Wordsworth volume of E.F. Benson (whom was the greatest ghost story writer between the Benson brothers trio, which included A.C. Benson & R.H. Benson). I plan on my next check to buying the massive Wordsworth volume of Henry S Whitehead (a long neglected shamefully forgotten master of the weird tales, a contemporary and friend of HPL). Plus, I will probably buy the Rudyard Kipling and Lafcadio Hearn volumes too.

The great thing about Wordsworth is they welcome recommendations and suggestions for future volumes and here are some of my suggestions: Robert Aickman, Robert Bloch, Joseph Payne Brennan, A.M. Burrage, Erckmann-Chatrian, L.P. Hartley, R Chetwynd-Hayes, Frank Belknap Long, Walter de la Mare, John Metcalfe, L.T.C. Rolt, Karl Edward Wagner, H Russell Wakefield, Dennis Wheatley, etc.

Here are the two people and email addresses to contact:

DerekATwordsworth-editions.com

Or the series editor

dsdATdavidstuartdavies.com

Edited by B Jenkins, 31 January 2013 - 07:27 AM.

[schizoidwoman]

B Jenkins, on 31 January 2013 - 07:25 AM, said:

Maupassant even penned his own epitaph which read "I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing." How tragic, because he was such a brilliant writer.

That's a heck of an epitaph.

[B Jenkins]

schizoidwoman, on 01 February 2013 - 10:50 AM, said:

That's a heck of an epitaph.

Isnt it? Considering Maupassant died insane while committed to a private asylum.

When one reads biographies on these writers of the macabre and weird fiction, you encounter artists that poured their fears and their lives including personal tragedies into their work.

Poe became an alcoholic upon losing his beloved wife Virginian (his cousin) due to tuberculosis. Several years later, he was found wandering the streets of Baltimore in a delirious state and died himself a few days later, the cause remains unknown today and is only speculated upon. The death of beauty and loss of spouse would be a recurring theme in his writings.

H P Lovecraft suffered night terrors as a child that would inspire the horrors evident later in his writing. He was devastated by the loss of his grandfather who advocated literature and encouraged Howard to read. Both of his parents were hospitalized, his father became acutely psychotic and his mother suffered severe bouts of depression and hysteria. He was very close to his mother and was devastated once again by her death due to complications with gall bladder surgery. HPL was a bitter man because he felt a failure for never having found work and lived many years with his aunts. His marriage failed. He lived alone while diagnosed with intestinal cancer in his final years, and he also suffered malnutrition and had Bright's disease. But it was during this period he wrote some of his most brilliant pieces such as The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward and At The Mountains Of Madness. His final years were pain-riddled.

Ambrose Bierce, Robert E Howard, etc. Brilliant people with extraordinary lives and imagination.

Edited by B Jenkins, 01 February 2013 - 08:05 PM.

[schizoidwoman]

I am utterly chuffed to report I have finally completed the first draft of my current WIP, having started it in November. Writing about the French Revolution has been a fun challenge, but it's always nice to reach the end of the first draft!

[B Jenkins]

schizoidwoman, on 02 February 2013 - 09:05 PM, said:

I am utterly chuffed to report I have finally completed the first draft of my current WIP, having started it in November. Writing about the French Revolution has been a fun challenge, but it's always nice to reach the end of the first draft!

History is always fascinating subject. Congratulations!

[schizoidwoman]

B Jenkins, on 04 February 2013 - 05:38 AM, said:

History is always fascinating subject. Congratulations!

Thank you so much; after a couple of contemporaries and something set in the 50s I now stick exclusively to the 18th/19th century, it's where I am happiest!

[Still Waters]

schizoidwoman, on 02 February 2013 - 09:05 PM, said:

I am utterly chuffed to report I have finally completed the first draft of my current WIP, having started it in November. Writing about the French Revolution has been a fun challenge, but it's always nice to reach the end of the first draft!

You're quite right to be utterly chuffed!   Many congratulations SW

[schizoidwoman]

Still Waters, on 04 February 2013 - 02:04 PM, said:

You're quite right to be utterly chuffed!   Many congratulations SW

Thank you, it's nice to not have to be plotting and thinking abuot French Revolution timelines for a bit!