Rule Breaking

ADVENTURES IN CREATING NEW FICTION

What rules should be broken when creating the new short story?

The current literary story uses sparse dialogue.

The new story should use much dialogue.

The current story focuses on the personal.

The new story should emphasize the public.

The acceptable story uses much description.

The new story should give a minimum of it. (Less is more.)

The old story has minimal action.

The new story should embrace action when it makes the plot and theme exciting.

Plot? A lot of it.

Themes need to go deeper than the delicate points of lit stories.

Instead of a single viewpoint, the new story should give every viewpoint, and do so in a minimum of space.

Is all this impossible?

Not at all. It may, in fact, be ridiculously simple.

Coming Soon! New Release!

Yes, my first ever e-book, Ten Pop Stories, will be available for sale somewhere as early as the end of this week, with all luck. Why be interested? Because it's a first step toward a new populist way of viewing the contemporary American short story. Stay tuned.