 Short Stories: April 21, 2010 Issue [#3688] |
  Short Stories
This week: Go Ahead, Put the Cart Before the Horse Edited by: Ben Langhinrichs  
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It is to be absolutely automatic, the slave of the mathematician carrying out his orders and relieving him from the drudgery of computing.
Major-General H. P. Babbage, 188, in a paper describing his father's Analytical Engine
Greetings! I am one of the editors for the Short Stories Newsletter, and I hope to share some of my thoughts on writing short stories, and perhaps about writing in general. I suggest you treat these not as pearls of wisdom dropped from on high, but rather musings of a fellow writer, written to inspire, provoke or stimulate your personal muse. I welcome your thoughts, feedback and suggestions. Ben Langhinrichs
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VIGOR'S HORSE-ACTION SADDLE
Which not only provides, as Dr. GEORGE FLEMING, C. C., writes, "A PERFECT SUBSTITUTE FOR THE LIVE HORSE" but acts so beneficially upon the system as to be of almost priceless value.
Advertisement, Country Life Illustrated, 8 Jan 1897
Research: Feel Free to Put the Cart Before the Horse
Too often, we all think of research as the dry, boring work which went into writing research papers in high school or college. Research often meant searching through lots of irrelevant material trying to find the facts to back up a thesis. To make matters worse, we had little control over the thesis, much less the sullen facts doing their best to blend in so as to be difficult to find.
But we are writers, not students (although some of you may be both). We are not simply in search of facts; we are in search of story!
With this in mind, think of research as the source of motivation and inspiration, rather than a tiresome chore. If you are researching when streetlamps became common on the streets of London, by all means find out, but don't miss the wonderful side material and stories which seek to obscure your facts. Besides providing color to your story, sometimes these can seize the story and shake it up.
I am working on a steampunk romance novella, and so am trawling through Wikipedia and other such reference material for information about Victorian England and Babbage's Difference Engine and Analytical Engine (look thgem up--fascinating stuff). But I am also scanning Twitter and blogs to find less official sources, such as Caroline Rance's marvelous The Quack Doctor . Ms. Rance is the author of [Order from Amazon.Com] , a novel set in an 18th century hospital with all the grim horrors that entails. The site, clearly a byproduct of her extensive research, is a wonderful, entertaining and eclectic collection of advertisements and commentary on medical and homeopathic devices, powders, and patent medicines.
Of course, this has little to do with my steampunk romance novel, or it would have had little to do with it if I hadn't found the site. Now, I am starting to look for ways to add a medical subplot to take advantage of the research, thus putting the cart before the horse.
I have no professor breathing down my neck and telling me to stay on-topic. I have no final research paper to be graded by gimlet eyed examiners. Instead, I have readers. If a branch of inquiry leads me astray because it is just so darn entertaining, it might entertain my readers as well. After all, have you ever read a story in which a horse-action saddle played a role? Yet that was the stuff people in Victorian England read about in their newspapers, so mightn't it make an interesting story.
Let your research drive your story once in a while. You might like the places it takes you.
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Motley selection of steampunk-related stories on WDC
| |  | Cast off [E] #1624351 The privateer airship Rogues Redemption prepares for battle... |
| | | Kthudagon [E] #1603766 a hybrid cthulhu/steampunk story |
| |  | Echo [13+] #1609595 Every thought you have leaves a trace, an echo of yourself. |
| | | Thief's IceCream [E] #1628183 An atmospheric and almost tangential solliloquey of a heist. |
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