The unheard words of new writers...

27^th August 2005

Forming the Tale

What's your preferred FORM ?
Poetry or prose or essay; article, novella, novel, short story, play, screen-play?

A lot of those who submit to the site are thankfully unconstrained by such boundaries – it’s like that when you just HAVE to write, it flows from somewhere inside of you, out -somehow- onto the page.

But, it matters when other people are trying to categorise or place your work; perhaps this sounds familiar to you...

'What do you do in your spare time?'

'Oh, I like to write.'

'Write? What sort of writing?'

'Er, creative. Yeah, creative writing?'

'Oh, that sounds really interesting. I’d love to be able to write. And, what are you working on at the moment?'

'It’s a short piece.'

'A poem?'

'Sort of. It looks like poetry, lots of sawn off sentences, arranged as short paragraphs down the page. But, as I go on it’s becoming a bit more like a story.'

'A story. What’s it about?'

'Oh.' Pause for reflection. 'It’s about this girl who’s pulled between what she knows and what she loves. Actually, I might turn it into a novel, as it’s getting a little too complicated to contain all of the threads in such a confined space.'

If writing could be published or sold by the word or sentence, perhaps its form wouldn’t be so important. But, as it is, people and publishers have discovered over time that in order to trade their wares, those wares need to be packaged in one or more known forms. These forms, as mentioned earlier, have emerged to be those we now know and love (or loath).

But, even this isn’t the end of the matter. Some forms in some parts of the world are more equal or acceptable than others. Jackie Gay, editor of at least three anthologies of short stories in the UK has said. ‘It's a vicious circle, publishers don't publish short stories because they don't sell but that's because publishers don't push them. There is a stronger tradition of short story writing elsewhere in Europe and in America, where it's an established form.’

Whilst, Prospect magazine recently launched a ‘major new annual award designed to honour Britain's finest short story writers and to re-establish the importance of the story as a central literary form.’
See bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/frontrow/short_story_prize

And, take the Tale, as told by telltales.co.uk. Rajeev Balasubramanyam, a principle author at telltales says, (UK) ‘publishers are saying short stories don’t sell, in Europe short-stories are treated as seriously as novels.’

Telltales, tag ‘live to tell the tale, tell the tale to live’, exists to promote and revive the tradition of short story telling. Earlier in August, Charing Cross Road in London’s West End, I attended a telltales.co.uk launch of the second anthology, Telltales volume 2. The event was hosted by Rajeev, editor of the new Anthology and Courttia Newland (author of The Scholar, Society Within and Snakeskin), who assisted with editing. Readings were suitably provided by a number of the young gifted contributing authors, among them, Sharmila Chauhan, Heather Imani and Lane Ashfeldt.

Perhaps form doesn’t matter or perhaps in certain circles it matters a great deal. Which ever way round it is, the crisp, fresh, vibrancy of these new tales and their talented writers, once again, renewed my faith in the power of the written and spoken word. telltales.co.uk

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