Like an Onion

Like an Onion

Dialogue from the movie "Shrek".

Shrek: For your information, there's a lot more to ogres than people think.
Donkey: Example?
Shrek: Example? Okay, er... ogres... are... like onions.
Donkey: [sniffs onion] They stink?
Shrek: Yes... No!
Donkey: Or they make you cry.
Shrek: No!
Donkey: Oh, you leave them out in the sun and they turn brown and start sproutin' little white hairs.
Shrek: NO! Layers! Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers... you get it. We both have layers.
Donkey: Oh, you both have layers. [pause] You know, not everybody likes onions. [pause] Cakes! Everybody loves cakes! Cakes have layers!

Easter Egg number 88 for "Easter Egg Hunt" 




What a delightful scene to illustrate my point! Like a cake (or an onion), a short story has layers. Stack them however you wish, but these layers include plot, setting, characters, conflict—and the sweet, creamy icing which holds it all together—theme.

Sometimes we follow the recipe, only to end up with something that tastes, well...vanilla. I've actually had a few great ideas that came out onion-flavored. How do we fix it?

We can mix layers. Whip up the emotions and motivations of the characters in the conflict layer, or blend mood into the setting to foreshadow the plot. A great way to learn the intricacies of writing is to read your favorite authors and dissect their recipes. This site alone contains a million different flavors to test. Above all, keep experimenting.

While we work individually, we can share our successes, failures, and secret ingredients. How do you add spice to your story? Do you sprinkle on dialogue, or hide symbols inside? Maybe you decorate the top with rhetorical questions? In future newsletters, we'll explore the elements of short stories and our favorite literary devices.

Since I have a sweet tooth for metaphor and simile, we'll start there.

Simile

A simile compares two items, usually containing "like" or "as". (Usually. Similar to, in the same way that, etc.)

Your prose should be as fresh as new-fallen snow.

You can always start with cliché—then find a new way to show how one thing resembles another.

Your prose should be as fresh as new-fallen snow a ripe strawberry plucked from the vine.

In this original description, provide a specific attribute of the compared object. In the example, the word "ripe" suggests fall-apart-in-your-mouth freshness. The reader may get confused, like Donkey,

A stupid ass, unlike our reader.

if you fail to describe how at least one way the two items are similar.

In this short story, "S'more good, clean, harmless fun."   by SonofDrogo , the author works five words extra hard.

“No." I started to say. "Don't sha..." I was too late. Like an angler with palsy she shook the stick violently. The burning mass of double flaming marshmallow left the tip of the stick with surprising velocity. Like a meteor entering the earth's atmosphere, it whooshed through the night air, on a collision course with the cabin door.