How to [begin] to write a short story
Recently, I read John Truby's book about writing a good script, The Anatomy of the Story. I also read Juan Martinez's article about how to restart writing when you are stuck. Both resonated with how I begin the process of writing. We often don't think about our process but I wanted to lay it out in this video.
https://youtu.be/mJMA3yym0GM?si=69-4qovwIwfab1pC
For me a story begins with a premise, perhaps a sharp image,an anecdote, a memory from life. One of the many stories I want to write is about this premise: a woman in college visits her brother in Paris, her first time seeing the city. But what is the story about? What is at its heart? Tryby calls it the design principle, e.g. a story about toxic maculinity, a story about the inner child in all of ys. But for me this part is much more personal. I think all the time about the world, about politics, about history, so my story is always about something that I am thinking about deeply. I was thinking about policy schools and how they produce politicians and world leaders, teaching the most amoral principles. So now my character is a student escaping a horrid semester of classes in realpolitik, hegemony, visits by statesmen, and kowtowing carreerist students. Perhaps the student is suffering, failing, and doesn't know why she is such a failure. Now Paris acts as an escape. The escape to Paris gives her an opportunity to reflect on this,bit necessarily by sharing or talking about it, but simply by being moved by images in Paris to think about amoral politics. I already know the ending, that the character will finish out the semester-she has to retun!- but after that she will leave it all behind, and she won't aspire to work in this field. Here is my first video.
