After sending a message to Suzi in relation to my vignette posted last week, I wondered if blog readers might be interested in what I wrote on the Message Board over on Fictionmania in relation to what a writer proposed would be shorter fiction of 7500 words - a body swap story (MFC main female character becomes male and MMC female)? This is what I wrote:
"As a writer of short fiction (some might say way too short, or even too short to matter at all) I have an opinion on this.
Firstly, can I just say that for me it is easier to talk about word count rather than pages, that can be any size, paper or font. I am guessing your story is under 7500 words so less than a novelette.
I really enjoy the short story, writing them and reading them. Writing them suits my concise narrative style and reading them doesn't waste the time I value. I will take an anthology on a plane and read a few complete stories rather than take a novel and try to pick up where I left off.
The tradition of the American short story is very rich - Mark Twain, O Henry, Ernest Hemingway etc.
For TG short stories there are narratives (like your story) or "encounters" generally told as conversations. I always think that the best stories are ones that paint the characters by their words and actions within a short period. A description of the MC should not be necessary.
You don't always have to start at the beginning. You don't always have to tell from the MC POV. Mostly importantly, you don't have to have an ending. I often say that I like a short story that ends with a question mark.
I think a good example of my own is "Making a Scene" (link below) where the motives and the "what happens next" are both open to interpretation.
Your story ending is perfect. MFC is not necessarily happy for playing with the lives of others, and how MMC ended up pregnant we can only guess. Perhaps there is a loving baby-daddy out there?
For me literature is about evoking emotions. Words are powerful, and we can be touched by only a few. Hemingway was challenged and wrote a six word short story, so here it is: "For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn". We can only guess at the tragedy behind this story, but it moves us."
The link here on BCTS is: https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/84340/making-scene
Maryanne
Comments
I agree with you
I liked your response, Maryanne. I think the key to writing good short stories is knowing what you can leave out, and keeping it simple. When you try to squeeze in a lot of things, you are almost forced to rely on exposition, and “telling” is almost always less effective than “showing.”
— Emma
A subgenre with different rules
TG writing doesn't necessarily follow the same principles as other forms of short fiction. For example, many "stories" aren't actually stories in that they don't have a time dimension. Instead, they are perhaps better described as predicaments. (My sister came home and found me trying on her cheerleader uniform. Now Mom says I have to stay like this all summer. Oh noes; don't throw me in that there briar patch...) In such a piece, the initiating incident wasn't set out, there's no rising action, and no clear resolution: just the flashbulb description of things as they are. TG "characters" (to use the term loosely) in such shorts aren't really shown to have agency, which is normally another key feature of the thing we call a story. Conflict is another thing that can be entirely absent from a TG story. (Being forced into frillies isn't conflict, but acquiescence; the manifestation of kink.)
It's probably why Gillian Freeman was absolutely scathing about TG fiction in her study, 'The Undergrowth of Literature'... but it does seem to be what many of the readership want: something short, with descriptions of clothes, or humiliation, that brings them to climax. And why not? It makes people happy; it prompts gushing reviews. Go for it, if that's your goal.
In a readership community, perhaps it's inevitable that the 'rules' are determined by the majority, or at least that their evolution is shaped by that majority. Sexy predicaments will continue to proliferate.
Sugar and Spiiice – TG Fiction by Bryony Marsh
I Can't Agree
A TG short story can satisfactorily describe both its characters and a story line from beginning to conclusion. I write mainly short stories, with occasional ventures into longer ones.
I make no pretensions that my writing is 'literature' but I do feel that a proper depiction can be made in a few words if the author puts her mind to it. I have received comments both favourable and unfavourable on such stories, and I'm happy to have received them. They mean that people are reading them.
Very few of my stories deal in clothing (other than the minimum) or humiliation. Some deal with sexy predicaments. What would you expect on a TG fiction site?
Who the hell is Gillian Freeman, and what makes her an expert on TG fiction? I wonder if she has ever read any of the excellent stories on this site.
TG fiction
I am interested that Ms Freeman seems to classify all TG fiction under the same broad banner. Presumably she is looking at from the outside, and one imagines that, to her, it is all about titillation. Sure, a sizeable proportion of TG fiction falls into that category, although, I am proud to agree with you Joanne, that much of the work here at BC is far far more than that.
Take your wonderful story "Am Unexpected Christmas Gift". That is a hugely enjoyable "coming of age" story, on two levels, where the two protagonists help and support each other as they learn how to cope with being TG. No titillation, but a really really poignant piece of writing.
What about Bronwen Welsh"s masterwork, the "Harriett" trilogy. Again, not a touch of titillation, but the wonderful exploration of a character who grows from a sad and unfulfilled young boy, into a strong, confident and successful actress.
Whilst we are at it, let's think about comedy, such as Alyssia's wonderful "Fake it 'til you make it" or Maddy's classic "Gaby" saga. Both wonderful descriptions of the world through the eyes of a confused and conflicted teenager, rather like a TG "Adrian Mole".
Cyclist (Steph Calvert)'s magnificent writing, especially the "Border Tales" universe, and the subset which, I suspect, should now more correctly be called the "Smuggler's Stories" has created a cast of characters so real, so believable, and so intertwined, that rereading them reveals depths and subtleties I thought never to enjoy again. Emma's "Cami" story was the best novel of any genre I have read that explores the COVID pandemic and its aftermath.
I could go on and on (and according to my wife I frequently do) to quote works of high quality writing which I have read here, which have nothing whatsoever to do with the "archetype TG story".
To group TG writing as a genre is the same lazy and second rate academic standard as lumping all "romance" ( that "Pride and Prejudice", it's just chick lit ) "Science Fiction" or "Fantasy" together. A former colleague (and English graduate) refused to allow his daughter to read Terry Pratchett, as "fantasy writing is lazy and cliche riddled", until I read him "Weird Sisters" page by page until he was hooked.
Rant over now. To the wonderful writers on this site, please please hold your heads up high.
Lucy xx
"Lately it occurs to me..
what a long strange trip its been."
The Same Day
That I read the casual dismissal of all TG fiction there was a comment on 'Prodigal Son', a story by Steph/Cyclist which appeared here about 18 months ago, and it was the perfect rebuttal to Ms. Marsh and Ms. Freeman. I read the story again and it is a powerful tale of rejection and redemption, worthy of publication in an anthology of shorts.
I am happy that this site embraces open-minded people like you and does not rely on some close-minded interpretation of what should be acceptable here, and if you are going to dismiss the content published here, why are you here at all?
Lucy, you have mentioned just a few of our luminaries (my humble thanks for including one of my stories, really unexpected!) and they span a range of possible topics. Those critics are so far up themselves that they can open their mouths from the throat side.
Dismissing any genre on such a basis is ridiculous. There are good stories everywhere. I won't go into them as this comment would become a novel, but Science Fiction alone ranges from fantasy to hard science, from horror to space opera. You can like one end of the spectrum and hate the other. That is no reason to condemn the whole.
Not arguing with success
I'm only referring to those very short pieces, which really are situations rather than stories. Like we were probably all taught in school, a story is fundamentally a sequence of events (plot) involving characters with goals, facing conflicts, within a setting, all leading to change or transformation, and conveying a central idea (theme). It needs a beginning, middle, and end, creating a journey that engages an audience.
I'm merely observing that a piece that's designed for reading with one hand in your knickers - and quite possibly written by an author with one hand in their knickers - isn't really a story in the conventional sense. It can still be a highly popular piece of TG writing, of course. I'm not arguing with the evident success of such work, because clearly they get read, they sell and they get good reviews.
Sugar and Spiiice – TG Fiction by Bryony Marsh
I Do Not Write
With one hand in my knickers. My transgenderism is between my ears and in my soul and heart. If you do not understand that then I feel that we are not on the same wavelength.
Enough said.
If I may . . . .
I’ve hesitated to jump in on this, because it seems like a good way to cause offense. I am a huge fan of your stories and if, as you state on your bio page, you are on a “mission” to improve trans literature, your stories definitely raise the bar for all of us. As a literary critic, however, you fall into something of a trap by universalizing your own preferences.
All stories have a beginning, middle and end, but in short stories, some of those can be implied rather than expressed. To follow up on Astrid’s sardonic post, Hemingway’s iconic short story has a beginning, middle, and — tragic — end. As a reader, we see them all with aching, human clarity. But both the beginnings and the middle are left “outside the frame.” According to your strictures, however, it’s not even a story. Clearly an absurd result.
Honestly, it seems like your real complaint is with erotica as a whole. There are heaps and heaps and heaps of stories that are primarily exercises in sexual stimulation. It’s a massive industry, and trans erotica is barely a follicle on that hirsute body. You can define erotica out of fiction if you want, and plenty of people do, but it seems a bit silly. Sort of like people who dump on the artistic qualities of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I don’t care for the MCU myself, but pretending it somehow isn’t “art” reduces “art” to a province of the elites, rather than something that speaks to all of humanity.
For what it’s worth, my impression is that erotica does less well here on BC than other types of stories. But there are people who enjoy writing it, and reading it, too. Dismissing these stories as an “undergrowth” of literature feels disrespectful to a part of our community, and there’s no need for that. It’s a big closet, after all.
— Emma
Just being silly
Joanebarbarella wrote: "Very few of my stories deal in clothing (other than the minimum)"
Short shorts?
Daisy Maes?
I think you'd like them, Bru!
Hemingway failed the challenge.
“For Sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.” isn’t a “story” at all, since it lacks a time dimension. It’s better described as a “predicament.” A baby died stillborn, after someone bought things for it. Now they’re stuck with shoes they can’t use.
Maybe if Hemingway had read more Gillian Freeman he would have learned something about writing.
Astrid Eriksson
6000 words on what I wore on my summer vacation
Certainly we all will have our own conceptual models to describe what we do and how we approach it. There's no right way; there aren't any hard and fast rules. For every rule and convention, you can find a great story that doesn't fit.
When I was in college studying English, there was a lot of talk about Joseph Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Facelifts, and if you don't know it, the basic idea is that EVERY STORY, every single one is about the same thing: a boy falls into a well, a dog leads the townfolk to the well, and town outcast figures out how to get the kid out of there. Everyone is happy; they all get married to each other; and the picket fence runs away with the spoon.
Two of our teachers loved that model, and had a grand time forcing stories into it.
We had another teacher who was a card-carrying Marxist, and for him *every* story was about class conflict.
Yet another teacher was a Jungian, and she saw archetypes hiding behind every rose bush, along with the rest of the Jungian zoo.
I'm not kidding. These were real people, acting like stereotypes, teaching us stereotypical ways of looking at literature.
Of course, none of their interpretive styles added anything whatsoever to anyone's enjoyment or understanding. After all, art is more of an art than a science.
In any case, the way I write is roughly like this:
I consider about a thousand words as equal to a "picture" or a scene. It's not hard to write a thousand words. It isn't hard to think about six pictures that make a chapter.
So: 6000 words amount to a chapter or episode. I don't aim for the word counts; I just check them every so often when word count need a breather, just to see where I am.
What I've found is that when I stray over those limits, the story begins to drag. It gets heavy. It seems overlong; bigger than my head can conveniently contain. In fact, it usually happens that when I begin to feel that a chapter is getting overgrown and awkward to handle, I check the length, and sure enough, it's gone over 6000 words. I find that point in the story (where it exceeds 6000 words) and usually it's an excellent place to stop. I use the remaining chunk to start the next chapter.
For short stories, on the other hand, I don't like to go too far beyond the 6000-word line, although I will, if the end is in view, or if stopping will lose the momentum.
- iolanthe
English Profs
OMG, Iolanthe! Your tales from the academy remind me why I changed majors after a year of college. I love literature, but God, did I loathe LitCrit!
I also find my sweet spot for short stories is in the 4-6k range, and I shoot for the same with chapter postings. It seems to work for me.
— Emma
Morning blur
For a few seconds, I thought I stumbled into a Monty Python sketch because I read English Profs as English Poofs. Very well... Carry on... Nothing to see here... I'll move along!
Love, Andrea Lena
Returning from a brief absence...
I opened up the blog item I posted and I was greeted with a highly intellectual exchange which I think establishes that a "hand down the knickers" is not what drives us to write, or to read. I just wanted to add something about Gillian Freeman, although I really know very little about her. I understand that 'The Undergrowth of Literature' was supposed to be a serious study of "pornographic literature" which sounds like an oxymoron to me. But what trouble me was that Gillian Freeman also wrote the screenplay to the transgender film "I Want what I Want" which was supposed to be a serious look at gender dysphoria but I understand has been panned by everyone who has seen it - I never have.
Presumably in bundling TG fiction into the pornography bag Ms. Freeman assumes its purpose is to help the reader spill a secretion? Can I just say, I don't write my stories with that in mind. Does that make me weird?
Then again, I avoid describing clothes ... or anything much except the characters and what they do or say. If my readers are those one handed folk some describe then I can enjoy that, but my purpose has always been to allow those who share my condition, to enjoy the thought of successful transition, as often as my efforts allow.
Maryanne