Thank you for sharing this. I love Bradbury's books. I wrote my first "novela" one summer between school terms and got the attention of my English teacher, who helped me with it. Short stories followed without success in my favorite magazine. Because every word I wrote was produced in anguish and therefore sacred, it took a stint at a newspaper to rid me of that silliness and learn to write often and without fear of what the editors would do with it. A newspaper or similar writing establishment is wonderful training for a beginning writer. And it follows Bradbury's ideas here of daily practice and short-term results. None of my many articles will ever win a prize, but they are a record of my schooling in writing. These days, I've connected with writers of flash fiction or 50- and 100-word stories. Now that, Alvaro, really hones one's writing efficiency.
Wow, that's really interesting. It's quite normal; rejection is actually the most common thing. Ray himself says in this same talk where he gives this advice that it took him several years to be able to write a short story that was at least "acceptable." Even so, he wrote every day and tried to write short stories because they're the complete practice of what a story is, but without having to embark on writing a novel. It's great that you've been working on it, really.
I don't know much about microfiction, to be honest, I've never read it. How popular is it?
I don't know how popular microfiction is, but it is a great exercise for writers to learn economy and precision of word choice, tension, and story arc. All in 50 or 100 words. I guess one would call them vignettes.
That's interesting. Even though I write in a genre as different as newsletter articles, I've always been concerned with optimizing my vocabulary to say more with fewer words, since I write for online readers who often read me on their phones and find it difficult to read long texts.
I think I practice that economy of language quite a bit as well.
Long, verbose tomes are a thing of the past when reading books and newspapers were about the only way people could get news or literature. Now that we have so many tech formats and are so busy with all our distractions, we writers need to get our points across quickly and with clear, simple language. Rite tite, as my old city editor used to write.
I'm glad it helped you, David! Ray's talk offers some key insights that have been fundamental in my writing learning process. I hope they help you too!
Thank you for sharing this. I love Bradbury's books. I wrote my first "novela" one summer between school terms and got the attention of my English teacher, who helped me with it. Short stories followed without success in my favorite magazine. Because every word I wrote was produced in anguish and therefore sacred, it took a stint at a newspaper to rid me of that silliness and learn to write often and without fear of what the editors would do with it. A newspaper or similar writing establishment is wonderful training for a beginning writer. And it follows Bradbury's ideas here of daily practice and short-term results. None of my many articles will ever win a prize, but they are a record of my schooling in writing. These days, I've connected with writers of flash fiction or 50- and 100-word stories. Now that, Alvaro, really hones one's writing efficiency.
Wow, that's really interesting. It's quite normal; rejection is actually the most common thing. Ray himself says in this same talk where he gives this advice that it took him several years to be able to write a short story that was at least "acceptable." Even so, he wrote every day and tried to write short stories because they're the complete practice of what a story is, but without having to embark on writing a novel. It's great that you've been working on it, really.
I don't know much about microfiction, to be honest, I've never read it. How popular is it?
I don't know how popular microfiction is, but it is a great exercise for writers to learn economy and precision of word choice, tension, and story arc. All in 50 or 100 words. I guess one would call them vignettes.
That's interesting. Even though I write in a genre as different as newsletter articles, I've always been concerned with optimizing my vocabulary to say more with fewer words, since I write for online readers who often read me on their phones and find it difficult to read long texts.
I think I practice that economy of language quite a bit as well.
Long, verbose tomes are a thing of the past when reading books and newspapers were about the only way people could get news or literature. Now that we have so many tech formats and are so busy with all our distractions, we writers need to get our points across quickly and with clear, simple language. Rite tite, as my old city editor used to write.
Excellent post! I'm keeping this one handy for future reference. Thanks~!
I'm glad it helped you, David! Ray's talk offers some key insights that have been fundamental in my writing learning process. I hope they help you too!