SAMUEL RATNAM

short stories 2

written edited

some ideas for sci fi short stories:

  • the tiktoks get banned cause they are too addictive - become like illegal drugs
  • liquid democracy - highly democratic but authoritarian state
  • the death of human - human social interaction?
  • many worlds style multiversal communication
  • the post agi revolutionary groups

short stories 1

written edited

who are the characters?

what is the main plot?

what is the form?

these are 3 questions i do not have the answer to. today, I discovered that i’m terrified of writing a short story. perhaps i’m going to regret yesterday’s commitment. perhaps i already am regretting it.

however I have read a few shorts stories today and tried to figure out what it’s all about. some thoughts:

  • good short stories are surprisingly similar to good poems. i’m not sure how.
  • the most compelling stories are probably grounded in real world experience - write what you know? it’s harder for me to imagine a scenario that is very alien from my daily life than one grounded in my experience. good short stories contain random details and descriptions that immerse you in another world.
  • somewhat relatedly, the most compelling characters and dialogue is also probably grounded in your experience
  • in order to be a good writer, you need to be good at noticing. describe the mundane with new eyes
  • because they are so short, a lot of short stories tend to begin in media res, what is going on in the story only unfolding as the story progresses

is this working

written edited

ok this will be the 20th writing.

I think this has been a somewhat productive exercise so far. My barrier to writing things that other people will see has reduced. I’m not sure my writing quality has necessarily gotten much better. These writings tend to be much too short and unstructured - which is well suited to my mind tends to function. But I think I would benefit from actually committing to something and editing it from start to finish.

I do think the commitment mechanism is probably quite useful though.

I’m going to start working on a short story here. I will not stop until it’s finished. The notes will be messy and perhaps not the most comprehensible. Sorry.

zone of chaosnormalcy