Last fall I wrote a short story in five weeks in response to a call for submission for an upcoming anthology. It startled me to realize that I hadn’t written fiction in 16 years. Feature articles, narrative non-fiction, poetry, and an autobiographical novel are not the same as straight fiction. An autobiographical novel provides a framework as do all the rest.
Over the holidays, I started a new short story, “The Thrill of It,” which will be the third story out of the 10 I have planned for a collection that has been calling to me for 20 years. All stories are related to some quirky aspect of youth and young adult sports, a world I know well. A world that has changed so much since I was in high school—and not for the better in a number of ways.
I grew up devouring fiction. Especially series fiction. Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, and Agatha Christie, with some classics sprinkled in, such as Jane Austen. By junior high I had moved on to Tolstoy, Chekhov, Harlequin Romances, and more.
I use the same formula for assessing what books to read for fiction and nonfiction. Whenever there’s a list published of favorite books, I asterisk the ones that interest me and then go on Amazon’s “Look Inside” to read a page or so. Over the course of 2022, about 20 fiction books earned asterisks, but I was not able to get past “Look Inside” in most of them. Of the five I attempted to read, I did not get past three chapters in any of them.
What’s so strange about this is that 90% of nonfiction books I check out, I end up being able to read all the way through.
If I want to write fiction, I must read more fiction. Somehow!
Short Story Collections
Afterparties: Stories and Personal Velocity are two short story collections I have read that inspire and captivate me. Afterparties compelled me to blog about it… Afterparties—A Masterpiece.
Shelf Awareness’ review of Afterparties:
A cleverly wrought and sparkling debut story collection… [that is] at times numbingly sad, other times strikingly humorous, So’s nine stories of Cambodian Americans in California’s Central Valley are simultaneously a love letter, an indictment and a memoir… So was a talent–of that there can be no denial. And his presence is felt very much still, his complexities seeping onto every page of this soulful book. — Shelf Awareness (Starred Review) Shelf Awareness.com
Personal Velocity has mixed reviews on Amazon. What I liked about it was that all the stories were about turning points in women’s lives and the descriptions of the settings were so well crafted, I could picture them.
Sports Features
I have always loved reading sports features even though I don’t watch that many sports on television. Best American Sports Stories was replaced by Best American Sports Writing which was replaced by the current The Year’s Best Sports Stories. Every year, these anthologies published the best sports features published that year in the United States.
Former Sports Illustrated writer, Gary Smith, had a total of 13 features selected for these series. Fifteen of his most popular stories were published in Beyond the Game. The stories live up to the book’s title. They go beyond the sport and explore culture, business, mental health, family, and psyche.
The Cheerleader
The Cheerleader by Ruth Doan MacDougall was published in 1973. I came across it more than 20 years after it was published. How am I able to read this coming-of-age novel for a fourth time? The plot is mundane, but MacDougall expertly paces the story by summarizing some plot points while going into vibrant details with other scenes.
Its magic comes from its characterizations and its setting. It captures an era. It captures small-town life and a comfortable working-class lifestyle that has all but disappeared.
It captures what it feels like to be a teen and trying to figure out who you will become as an adult as well as the intensity of discovering and coming to terms with your sexuality.
MacDougall artfully creates suspense through the main character Snowy’s pursuit of her three goals. Snowy is intent on becoming a varsity cheerleader as well as going steady with the incredibly charming without trying Tom Forbes.
Her third goal is getting out of New Hampshire and into a college where she can come into her own as a poet.
My goal is to absorb some compelling fiction so that I can get a feel for creating compelling fiction that draws the reader into the different facets of youth and young adult sports.