February’s zalon celebrated the brilliance of the short story. We were joined by guest, Tom Conaghan, publisher of Scratch Books, a new publishing house dedicated to championing short fiction. “There’s something powerful, magical and unknowable about the best short stories,’ said Tom while admitting it’s a challenge to define what makes a good short story. It’s not easy to make generalisations about such an elastic and vibrant form but it was an interesting discussion, raising as many questions and ideas as it had answers, and if you’d like to watch it on demand click here.
Tom Conaghan
Tom spoke about the origins of Scratch Books which grew out of the short story organisation, The Word Factory (do check out their excellent events, link below). The Reverse Engineering Series published by Scratch, features stories by a variety of celebrated and emerging writers. Each of the stories is accompanied by the author’s take on the mysteries and mechanics of their individual process - I particularly loved, All Will Be Well by Yiyun Li and Tom’s follow up interview with her. We also dipped into matters of craft and technique and the role of intuition and the subconscious in the creative process. For those interested in sending out new work we learnt something about current publishing landscape (see below).
I asked what makes an effective beginning? “It’s got to have energy…and the opening has to speak to the rest of the story.” And as for endings - Tom quoted Robert Louis Stevenson on what constitutes a well-formed story, "The body and end of a short story is bone of the bone and blood of the blood of the beginning.” While it always helps if the writing is brilliant, said Tom, story is paramount and needs to grab and keep the attention of the reader, or indeed literary agent.
In terms of inspiration, ideas and craft- every writer is different but there’s value, Tom suggested, in giving yourself the freedom to not know particularly what you’re doing! Write about what comes from your very quick - try writing in the mornings, like Kevin Barry, when you’re in touch with your dreaminess. It can be exciting to approach your writing as an act of discovery and exploration. Keep in mind you have the safety net of an infinite number of drafts to prune, rewrite or even find you’ve written four or five different story ideas. The beauty of the short story is it gives you more allowance to free yourself to that process whereas if you did the same in a novel it might be too much. With thanks to Tom for a great discussion!
Coming up next at Words Away I’m excited to be hosting a special Four Elements workshop on Saturday 11th March, led by Words Away friend Andrew Wille at our new favourite venue, The Phoenix Garden. As many of you know Andrew runs amazing creative writing classes - you’ll come away feeling inspired, energised and full of ideas. The focus this time is on Nature Matters: writing in nature and nature in writing - we’ll seek out inspiration, form and purpose in the natural world. Our workshops are fun, welcoming and suitable for all writers, from beginners to published professionals and there’s always delicious home cooked cake and plenty of it. Come join us for an afternoon of creative writing and good company in this incredible green space nestled in the heart of Central London.
The next Zalon is on Monday 27th March: Publishing and Editing: what every writer needs to know with guest Federico Andornio, Executive Publisher at Sceptre, the literary imprint of Hodder & Stoughton. He’s published many bestselling and prize-listed books including Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers, Murder Before Evensong by the Reverend Richard Coles, Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason and (my absolute favourite) The Weekend by Charlotte Wood.
This April I’m taking a break to travel to Australia to catch up with family. I’ll be back later in the spring for a Zalon on 15th May with Claire Fuller: Imagining & Writing Literary Dystopias and then another fab Four Elements, in-person, workshop on 20th May: Fragrant Matters: Scent, Perfume and Writing with Andrew Wille. Lots to look forward to!
Thanks for reading,
Kellie
Some Links & References:
Tom Conaghan, Reverse Engineering Series -Scratch Books, The Scratch A4 Competition, The Word Factory, All Will Be Well by Yiyun Li via The New Yorker,
Anton Chekhov, Raymond Carver, Alice Munro, Tessa Hadley, Irenosen Okojie, Chris Power, Jessie Greengrass, Sarah Hall, Jon McGregor, Mahren Sohail, Ben Okri, Wendy Erskine, Tom Drury, Ronan Hessian - Blue Moose Books, A Swim In the Pond In The Rain & Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders, Dan Brown, Homesickness by Colin Barrett
Where to submit stories: Lunate, Bandit Fiction, Neon Literary Magazine, Mechanics Institute Review, Stinging Fly, The Moth Magazine, Gorse, The Tangerine Magazine, Tears in the Fence, Milk Candy Review, The Atlantic, Granta (good luck), Also check out US universities which often have their own reviews and journals.