HOW TO WRITE A FANTASY SHORT-SHORT – Ahmed A. Khan
Some years ago, in some obscure book, you had come across a mention of – if your memory serves you right – a meeting between a woman without a future and a man without a past. (Or was it the other way round?) Anyway, this concept pops up in your mind now while you are sitting at your writing table, sipping your tea.
Suppose you yourself were to write a story revolving around this idea of a woman without a future and a man without a past? It is an interesting challenge and you are not one to refuse challenges.
You put down your tea cup, rest your head on the back of your chair, close your eyes and start thinking.
First, in order to have a story, you must have characters. If you have too many of them, they become difficult to handle. If you have too few of them, then interesting interactions between them cannot be built up. The ideal range for a short story is between three to five major characters. Of course, in a short-short you can make do with just one character too. Your story is going to be a short-short, you decide, and it will have only one character.
What sort of a character? A woman, age around 35, single. Your character must have a name. If you do not want to show your character as belonging to a particular region of the world or to a particular religion, it is better to use as non-descriptive name as you can think of. How about calling your character Jayrus?
Next, you need to come up with some unique character traits for Jayrus. Here is one: she is a misandrist. She hates the male sex with a passion.
You now have your character. How does the story proceed?
It is good technique to let some of the happenings in your story parallel the happenings in the outside world.
Jayrus is a writer and one day, while reading an anthology of fantasy stories, she comes across a mention of a meeting between a woman without a future and a man without a past.
The idea fascinates Jay. Suppose she were to try and write a story around this idea – a story totally different from the one she had read? Why not? She will write such a story.
She starts thinking. No idea for a story comes.
She continues thinking. No story.
She goes on thinking. Blank.
She starts going wild. She must write a story. She must. She is now obsessed with the idea of writing the story.
Here is another detail to be added to the character sketch of Jayrus. She is an obsessive woman.
Very good. You are doing fine. That makes two kinks in your character. (The first kink, if you remember, is the fact that she is a man-hater). The more kinks in the psyche of your character, the better. This sort of thing is “in” these days.
Okay. Back to the story.
Jayrus is obsessed with the writing of a story on the aforementioned theme. It fills her thoughts. Her days are spent in brooding. Her nights are filled with vague nightmares.
Then one day, at the time when day meets night, she makes a fervent wish.
“I cannot stand it any longer,” she says. “I wish something would happen… anything… to give me an idea for my story.” And, thinking these thoughts, she goes to sleep.
And the Powers-that-be hear her wish and grant it. Something does happen that night.
The next morning, Jay’s horrified screams fill the house. Some time during the night, Jay has been turned into a man. Some time during the night, a woman without a future had become a man without a past.
Here then is an idea for the story, Jay’s and yours.