WRITING THE SHORT STORY
Almost always, I begin a short story by developing my characters. It is more purposeful for me to imagine and cultivate them than to try de novo to conceive of the plot. I let these people grow, slowly get to intimately know them. The more detailed they become—pieces of their history, experiences, relationships, ailments, sorrows, and complexities—the more remarkable the plot will be when I ultimately “see” it. If epiphanies and endings are hard to come by, I return again and again to my characters. Ultimately I find so many missing pieces to their puzzle that their completeness has them jumping from my pages. Epiphanies and endings will, by then, be hopefully sitting in my lap.
In the course of repeated editing, I try to avoid clutter. Extraneous words and sentences are always there. I peruse my drafts and find the clutter. It breaks the logjam and lets my story flow.
Collecting my best stories, I return the others to the rework pile. Some of my best are written in a few days, others take years. I cannot know up front which will come to fruition quickly and which will stubbornly refuse to do so.
I am always patient with my characters, hoping they will pay dividends.
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Spencer Nadler, M.D., has practiced surgical pathology for more than twenty-five years in Southern California. His essays have appeared in Harper’s, The Massachusetts Review, Cross Currents, The Missouri Review, The American Scholar, and Reader’s Digest. The Language of Cells is his first book.
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