Structure analysis

After writing a few posts it became clear to me that, in fact, I have no natural born gift to immediately export the vibes and scattered ideas in my head into something another human would willing consume, I decided to take some creative writing classes. Specifically the Wesleyan Creative Writing Specialization course, you can some assignments from there under the process tag in the blog. As part of that I am thinking about story structure and enjoying analyzing some short cosmic horror stories I have been reading from "New Cthulhu the recent weird” (nice byline). Thought I would share some of the ones I liked here.

Fair Exchange by Michael Marshall Smith

Action: Thief breaks into a house with his partner and finds a strange rock

Background: We learn more about the setting, the thief, and those around him

Development (long middle): We find the stone is very valuable, the stone starts to be very valuable personally to the Thief creating tension, a bar conversation gets the Thief thinking about what he does and who he does it to, thief goes on his own to scope out the house gain, sees and meets the people in the house (they are weird), and eventually robs the same house again.

Climax: Thief is caught

Ending: (very short) Whole set up is twisted. Thief is consumed by the people in house? the owner? turns into devils bargain situation. Thief sacrifices those around him for more stones.

Comment: I really liked the ending of this story, just a 3 short and concrete sentences change the character, his impact on world, and how we view character.

turns the whole thing on its head and implies far more than it tells.