The Short Story
Kate Chopin's Portraits
Wiser than a God
Two Portraits
Old Aunt Peggy
Kate Chopin's short stories are written in a different style than the modern short stories we are surrounded with today, but her character descriptions and development were incredibly inspirational.
It was from her story, Wiser than a God, that I realized the power of leaving a story hanging and hinting rather than showing. She is able to develop characters and plot so three-dimensionally through her descriptions that she really does embody the "Show don't tell" philosophy.
George Saunders' Tenth of December
Tenth of December
This story was such an interesting combination of adolescent awkwardness and old-age despair. Saunders develops both a very young character and a very old character, with different problems, at the same time. It was incredibly insightful to see how Saunders created and merged these two separate plotlines.
As an amateur short story writer, I found his story an interesting model on developing separate narratives and having them gradually intersect towards the end.
Yiyun Li's
A Thousand Year's of Good Prayers
After a Life
Immortality
The Princess of Nebraska
Son
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
Yiyun Li has a much more pensive tone with a subtlety in the telling that shocks readers when we get to the depth of emotion and conflict presented in her stories.
Her stories explore complicated relationships between people that challenge the status quo and thrust the characters into uncomfortable and, often, culturally unacceptable situations where we are able to see true human nature.
Her character development was another strong model for me and her ability to face these turmoils head on showed me the depth and complexity that short stories could tackle.
Jennifer Egan's
A Visit from the Goon Squad
While not a short story, Jennifer Egan's A Visit to the Goon Squad was the perfect meshing of multiple narratives that I was struggling to capture in my own pieces.
She introduces and twines the narratives together flawlessly, developing each character separately while still maintaing a complex and multi-dimensional background with each.
I was struggling for the same effect with my characters and stories, and found her work thought-provoking. I wanted each character to be individual, and I wanted each character to bring a different perspective to the table. But I also wanted to give the reader a delightful surprise at the end, showing the separate characters were, in fact, connected.
Wells Tower's
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
The Brown Coast
Retreat
Down Through the Valley
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
A much more masculine narrative, Tower creates stories that dig deep into the emotions of each of his characters. They're neither lovable nor detestable. They're a little bit of both.
Often working with broken characters, the power in each person comes out from the details. His characters have a certain feeling at seeing an object and a certain way of doing the same task that helps to draw a fuller picture of them as a whole.
As I developed my own characters, I tried to deploy the same technique. Sometimes, it's through the details that the characters come alive.
