What:
Like a lot of aspiring authors, I used to have that dream of one day sitting down, writing a novel, and becoming an instant success. But that’s not how it goes. You’ve got to work your way up to a novel, and I believe writing short fiction is the best way to do that. So many of the basics begin with the short story: Sense of place, tight dialogue, surprising twists, subtle yet poignant character development, carefully chosen prose… I could go on and on. Besides what it can teach you about the craft of writing, short fiction is so easy to devour and so enjoyable to read. The impact a good short story can have on a person is just as profound and indelible as one left by a great novel.
Another reason I love short fiction is that I tend to get distracted easily, skipping from one idea to the next. So I like being able to write a single piece, whether that’s 500 words of flash fiction or a 15-page story, and then move on to the next. It’s thrilling to meet all the characters who show up for the writing, each one different than the one before. I love how some of these stories come out soft like rain, and others explode on the page like shrapnel—it’s usually impossible to predict how it will go, and I adore that kind of surprise.
It really wasn’t until I sold my debut novel, The Road to Dalton, to Europa Editions, that I began to think of myself as more than just a short story writer. As we near the publication date, I dare call myself an author, maybe even a novelist…
I’m actually working on a second novel right now (a sequel to Dalton), and in an ironic twist, so much of my focus has been on that project that I’ve found it difficult to write standalone short stories or flash fiction. But I know there will come a moment when a great story title comes to mind, or a new character starts hammering away at my brain, and I’ll have to take a quick pause on the novel to get that short piece written down.
Whether it’s a story or a novel, I like to write about familiar places and familiar people. I love the beauty, grief, love, and loneliness of all the moments that make up ordinary lives. All I want to do is capture that human experience honestly on the page.
Why:
I was born with two life-threatening heart conditions and spent most of my first six years in and out of the hospital undergoing several procedures, including two open-heart surgeries. Luckily, I had a way to cope with the trauma of those experiences—books. All the credit goes to my parents for instilling a love of reading in me even before I could walk or talk. They read books to my sister and me every night, until we were old enough to read chapters out loud to them. I loved everything about books, particularly the ways which they allowed me to discover worlds that didn’t include operating rooms or anesthesia-laced apple juice.
Books were also an escape from my hometown, a tiny place in Aroostook County, Maine, where the most exciting thing going was the potato harvest each fall. It’s a beautiful place—think rolling fields, wide open skies, and thick green forests—but I never really fit in there. In books, though, I could travel to and find a home within worlds far different from my own.
When I began writing little stories in first or second grade, I discovered the addictive joy of creating my own new worlds. As I grew older, however, the setting I wrote about most often—Dalton, Maine—took on a very similar topography to my hometown, and the voices of my characters echoed with the language of my own neighbors, friends, and family. Writing those Dalton stories gave me a richer, more authentic way to understand and inhabit the placeI’d been born into. I haven’t lived in that Northern Maine town for years, but I don’t think I’ll ever stop writing about it. That little nowhere place is woven in my DNA.
Beyond Dalton, though, beyond my hometown and beyond my traumatic experiences as a young cardiac patient, there’s a shorter, simpler answer to this question of why: I write because something in the very core of me compels me to do so. It is an act as primal and essential as breathing.
How:
I have a fairly loose writing routine. I live with chronic pain, so it doesn’t always pan out to say, “I’m going to sit down at this specific time and write for two or three hours.” I write when I can, where I can, for as long as my body allows me.
When I’m not typing at my computer or scrawling ideas in one of my notebooks, I’m still always thinking about my characters, my plotlines, that section of dialogue I can’t get quite right… But I think that’s true of any writer, chronic pain or not—we never really stop writing, do we? I can’t count the number of times I’ve had a story epiphany in the dairy aisle or washing dishes at the kitchen sink.
As for the writing process itself: Though my current focus is on this second Dalton novel, I still resort to the lessons I learned through short fiction. I try to make each chapter as tight as possible, with all the elements of a solid standalone story: sense of place, concise dialogue, character development, subtle twists, and clear, clean prose. Once I have that chapter written as well as possible, I move on to the next. I edit while I go, which slows the process considerably—but I’ve never been able to create any other way, even in the short form.
A little trick I’ve found that worked for me in The Road to Dalton and continues to work in its sequel is to tell myself I’m only writing one story at a time. And then another, and another… until those stories undeniably become a couple dozen chapters of an undeniable book. It’s less pressure this way. To say I’m writing just one story, or just one chapter, is far less daunting than to say I’m writing a novel. Whatever method works, right?
Bio
Shannon Bowring’swork has appeared in numerous magazines, has been nominated for a Pushcart and a Best of the Net Award, and was selected for Best Small Fictions 2021. She holds an MFA from University of Southern Maine Stonecoast and currently resides in Maine. Her debut novel, The Road to Dalton, will be published by Europa Editions on June 6, 2023.
From debut author Shannon Bowring comes a novel of small town America that Pulitzer-winner Richard Russo calls, “measured, wise, and beautiful”.
“An impressive debut bursting with detail and love for the town it brings to life.” – Kirkus Reviews
Links:
Preorder links for The Road to Dalton:
europaeditions.com
Bookshop.org
Amazon.com
Shannan’s social media links:
Instagram
Facebook
Website
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Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a writer, poet, and artist.
Learn more about her multi-award winning novel, In the Context of Love.
Learn more about her picture book, Gordy and the Ghost Crab.
Learn more about her latest poetry chapbook, Sleepwalker
See LinkTree for Linda’s social media links