The speaker for the February meeting, Dan Scraper, spoke on the Nuts & Bolts of Short Story Writing. Mr. Scraper, a retired educator with a background in history, sociology and administration, explained that the short story is a relatively recent genre and, unlike novels, short stories have only a few characters.
He went on to say that short stories are impressionistic and should read like they grew on the page. Sharing a few of Kurt Vonnegut's rules for writing short stories, Mr. Scraper said that there should be no "throw-away" characters and the writer should be a sadist so the reader will love one of the characters.
He listed the 10 most important short stories, among them O. Henry's Gift of the Magi and the short stories of Edgar Allen Poe. A discussion of the hand-out, "The Elements of Short Story," followed.
--submitted by Virginia Hays
He went on to say that short stories are impressionistic and should read like they grew on the page. Sharing a few of Kurt Vonnegut's rules for writing short stories, Mr. Scraper said that there should be no "throw-away" characters and the writer should be a sadist so the reader will love one of the characters.
He listed the 10 most important short stories, among them O. Henry's Gift of the Magi and the short stories of Edgar Allen Poe. A discussion of the hand-out, "The Elements of Short Story," followed.
--submitted by Virginia Hays