Short Stories and Magic Tricks by Savita Kalhan

I’ve been reading short stories for years. I fell in love with them when I discovered Italo Calvino when I was a student, but I think my love for short stories started much earlier, from when I was a child reading fairy tales, folk tales, and myths and legends from around the world.

I’ve been writing short stories for several years too. Aladdin’s Lamp is published in Stories from The Edge, a collection of short stories for teens.

Recently I decided to embark on a short story writing course. It’s something I’ve never done, but I’m hoping it will be fun as well as developing my writing, opening my mind to new ways of thinking and approaching short story writing.

Not every writer is interested in short story writing. Cormac McCarthy once said: “I’m not interested in writing short stories. Anything that doesn’t take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.” Not surprisingly, he only ever wrote two short stories, whilst at college, before turning to writing novels.

For Neil Gaiman, a “short story is the ultimate close-up magic trick – a couple of thousand words to take you around the universe or break your heart.” That’s how I feel about short stories too. They can be as poignant and resonate with a reader as much as a novel, and in a far more accessible form. The impact of a short story does not differ from that of a novel; its brevity is only in its length, not in the emotional response it might elicit from the reader. “Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.” – Kurt Vonnegut. It’s good advice when every word counts.

But a short story should be as long or as short as it needs to be. F Scott Fitzgerald refused to cut The Women in the House down to fit the remit of magazines and newspapers, and only very reluctantly revised it a little after it had been rejected many times. Most submissions for short story anthologies will specify a maximum word count, and keeping within it can be tough. When a story I’ve written just won’t fit the specs, I’ve often had to sit down and write another story instead. Easier said than done. 

Unlike a novel, where there is time and space to explore themes, short stories necessarily have a different arc. "All is based on the epiphanic moment, the sudden enlightenment, the concise, subtle, revelatory detail," in the words of Alice Munro.

Two of the short story anthologies I’m really looking forward to reading are – A Change is Gonna Come, written by a collection of BAME, teen, and YA authors, and published by Stripes on 10th August.

The second is A Spot of Folly by Ruth Rendell, which is a collection of nine short stories published in magazines dating back to the 1970s. (There may be a Barbara Vine story in there too). There is a page still missing from one of her short stories – Digby Lives – I really hope the editor manages to find it!

“Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row,” Ray Bradbury once said. I have never been brave enough to attempt to write one short story a week, but it does pose a real challenge! It may not have been possible for Rad Bradbury to write 52 bad short stories in a row, so it’s easy for him to say that it’s not possible for other people to achieve it! Still, it is a challenge...

Over the next month I hope to be working some magic with short stories and if I manage to write four, I'll be happy!

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The Randomness of Inspiration by Savita Kalhan

One of the most common questions a writer is asked is: where do you get your inspiration from? I would answer that, for me, it is completely random. Triggers have included flyers, little snippets of songs, newspaper reports, a book, a picture, a line from a film or an overheard conversation, not that I make too much of a habit of eavesdropping. It’s endless and it is random.

The inspiration for The Long Weekend was very direct. I had seen a flyer that was sent home from
local schools warning parents that a driver of a flashy car had been seen outside schools and had tried to snatch a child. It triggered an idea that became a story.

For other manuscripts the answer has not been so direct. It has been as mundane as watching a rerun of a Jason Bourne film, which made me wonder what it would be like to wake up with no memory and inspired my teen thriller, Memory Loss Boy. Or as heart-breaking as when I first saw the image of the toddler washed up on a beach on a Greek Island, which inspired my short story, The Death of Princess.

Recently I was asked to write a short story for an anthology with a particular theme. I didn’t have any ideas of how to begin it, but in the gym one morning with my headphones plugged in, listening to a random selection of music, I caught a single phrase from a rap song. The song has been around for over a decade, and I usually don’t listen to rap lyrics, but just at that moment the phrase caught my imagination. It was a great working title and with that I sat down and wrote the story. The finished short story bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to the rap song, by the way, and it’s quite likely the title will change too. My short story for teens and young adults, Aladdin's Lamp, was inspired by an article about the criminalisation of homosexuality in India. The story is published in Stories from The Edge. 

Walking along Dollis Brook

Just as the process of being inspired to write a story is pretty random, the absence of inspiration can be pretty disheartening. I’m sure most writers have their own ways of dealing with it. Setting the pen down, or closing the laptop is usually my starting point. From there it may involve going for a walk along Dollis Brook and reading, which soon moves onto spring-cleaning, hoovering, doing the washing and gardening. All these things can become convenient displacement activities when the words are not flowing the way they should. 

Garlic and Onions - enough for a year.

Four varieties of potatoes

My allotment has always been my go-to place when I’m stuck or in need of inspiration. I don’t always do writing related thinking there, but it’s a place where, while my hands are busy yanking out those weeds or digging over a plot in preparation for sowing, the mind wanders freely.

Strawberries - soon!

It’s important to remember that it’s not always about the daily word count, although it does lend focus to aim at a particular number much in the way a deadline might focus you. When I’m in the full flow of writing a book, I aim at a 1,000 words per day. At the end of the day I might have gone much further, or fallen short of the target, but that’s okay as there’s always tomorrow.

The other thing I do when inspiration has deserted me is to write something else. I have a whole collection of opening paragraphs, half-written stories in various genres, story ideas, and short stories. A cupboard full of manuscripts is better than one manuscript because there’s more chance that one of them might see the light of day. 

So where do you find your inspiration, and is it as random as mine?

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About 'Stories From The Edge' by Savita Kalhan

The first books I read as a child were collections and treasuries of fairy stories, folk tales, myths and legends from across the world. They were short stories, perfectly formed, each very different and enthralling, and I loved them. Somewhere along the line, I began reading chapter books, and then quickly moved onto novels. I think the same is true for lots of kids, but not all. 

There are lots of teenagers who only read what they have to read for English at school. They often don't have the time or the inclination to read novels for pleasure. I am aware of a few schools where kids are not allowed to bring in their own books to read in school. The school prescribes what they can read for pleasure - in one particular school books are pre-loaded onto kindles and those are the only books the kids are allowed to read. They don't have a choice. Part of the pleasure in reading is surely in being able to have some say over what you read for pleasure - even for kids!

I read lots of short stories - and I enjoy writing them too. Short stories are similar to novels in some ways, but they have their own identity. Edgar Allan Poe, in his essay "The Philosophy of Composition," said that a short story should be read in one sitting, anywhere from a half hour to two hours. Short stories developed from the traditional art of oral story-telling from fables and anecdotes, which are present in every culture, so by definition they have to be short. Modern short stories often focus on a pivotal moment or emotion or mood, whereas in the past they were more rooted in parables and ethics with the stories having a beginning, middle and end, but both usually focus on one main character with one central theme. There is also more experimentation in the prose and style of a short story, which may not work in a novel.

I have always read short stories, and I have wondered why there were so few anthologies for teenagers. Well, I have been involved in a project that brings a new anthology into schools.

Apart from being a member of the amazing Scattered Authors Society, I also belong to a small collective of teen writers. There are eight of us: me, Sara Grant, Dave Cousins, Miriam Halahmy, Keren David, Katie Dale, Paula Rawsthorne and Bryony Pearce, and we all write edgy fiction for teens and young adults. We call ourselves The Edge. We blog together, and often do school and library events together, and last year we decided to write an anthology together.

It has been an interesting process. Our only remits were that the stories should be up to five thousand words and be suitable for teens and young adults. Because we all write edgy fiction, we knew the stories would all have an edge to them - and they do. They range from stories about doping in sport, online grooming, racism, gender, terrorism, grief and loss, love and life, to name some of the themes in the stories.

What we're hoping for is that the stories inspire reading and discussion and debate amongst teens and young adults. To aid teachers and school librarians, we've also written discussion guides with suggested topics for discussion and creative writing exercises.

My short story for the anthology is called Aladdin's Lamp. It's a story about a sixteen year old Indian girl called Priti who doesn't want her best friend to leave India and doesn't want to be married and settled. Her parents have other ideas and so a suitor comes to the house. Priti wishes she had an Aladdin's lamp so that she could wish the suitors to go away, but in the story she finds out that you have to be careful what you wish for...

I will tell you no more so I don't spoil the story for you!

The stories in the anthology are accessible, diverse and thought-provoking, and that's the wonderful thing about an anthology - you can dip into it and find something different each time. I hope our teen readers will dip into the anthology and find something they like, a story, an author, or just some pleasure from reading something different.

“The short story is a very powerful weapon in the hands of a librarian or teacher . . . I guarantee that these stories will leave readers gasping for more. But most importantly they will get teen readers thinking and talking.” — Joy Court, Chair: CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Medals; Reviews Editor: The School Librarian 

Stories from The Edge is out on Kindle, Paperback, and here for Educational and Library sales.

 

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