I saw a piece of short story writing advice recently that stuck out to me because I knew how to implement it and try it out immediately. The idea is simple and so I apologize in advance if you’ve heard it before and put it to use. I needed to hear it this week, and so I say it out again for the people in the back, who may not have heard it before: If your story follows one POV, try writing it from another after you’re done.
Its so simple that I feel like I’ve been told it at least a hundred times before in various books and essays and videos on writing, but last week was the first time I actually listened and today was the first time I tried it out.
For full clarity, here is the video that I most recently heard the advice in and implemented it:
You read the story that came out of this last week. The hard thing I’m going to do now is show you the rough draft that happened before Raygun Meeting hit your inbox. I don’t love ranking my stories, but it does happen. Raygun meeting is a favorite idea of mine, though I wonder if there’s another perspective I could try out to make it even more interesting? See here for the draft I considered publishable:
Below this essay is a link to the first (well… third, you know how writing goes) draft of Raygun Meeting from a unique perspective. I’d love it if y’all let me know your thoughts between the two. Did I hit the nail on the head with the change up or did I throw away a potentially interesting story?
Alright, semi-schilling over, back to the essay on why I liked this technique so much and why I’m telling you about it now.
My first draft of the story Raygun Meeting was an extrapolation of the world of A Tale of Two Cocktails (story here). I’d been told by some friends that of all my stories, that was the one where people wanted to see more of the world. This is as flattering as it is daunting. I’d written that original story as a reaction to finishing up my first draft of a cozy fantasy novel. I wanted something bombastic and violent and with a main character I hated. Someone I could sink my teeth into and have fun writing. The story took a few days to complete a first draft of and it was fun the whole time. I did some cleanup in revisions, but really didn’t have to change too much between the first draft and the version you see on my substack now. Take a moment and read the story if you want. I’m not going to spoil much here, but I may kill some of the fun of it when I break down my thoughts behind it.
Basically, I didn’t put any thought into the world building. I said: “Companies and rich folks = bad. What if there was a resort in space that held a purge at random intervals to spice things up?” I wanted to write a chase story and I did, but outside the barest of settings, I did little worldbuilding other than a few references and twists on science fiction tropes from a while back. Maybe that is enough, and there is probably a lesson in there (there definitely is. Good stories don’t require worldbuilding or lore). But I was left with a bit of a vacant hole to fill when I wanted to write another story in that world.
What I ended up with was the first draft of Raygun Meeting. A story following a character named Jack Bester (more classic science fiction references there) and his bright red ray gun. One that looks like a toy but is quite deadly. There were ideas in the story as it came out that I liked. I pantsed it with an idea of the arc. I won’t spoil what’s to come if you haven’t read the story, but on my outset, all the rough ideas of the story were in place.
What I didn’t like was Jack. He was a thinly veiled copy of Dak from “Two Cocktails,” and literally, as I write this now, I realize their names rhyme. A part of the point in my story is that these men should be copies. They should be similar. They grew up in the same world and the same class and were even involved with the same fictional corporations. But it was boring for me. Maybe it won’t be to a reader, but to this writer, it was too much the same shoes to fill. I was writing the same perspective in a different event.
I didn’t think I’d even publish the story. Then I threw on the video linked above in the background while I was working on something else and caught the piece about throwing out your initial short story draft and writing from another perspective. I rewound the video back to that spot and rewatched the section. I knew immediately that’d work for Raygun Meeting.
I sat down and wrote the draft from a second perspective. I don’t know if it made for a better story, but I cannot tell you how much more fun it was for me to write. I think that may come through as you read it. In fact, I hope it does.
I want to take this lesson forward and apply it to other stories. I tend to fall into comfort zones with my writing. A lot of my main characters start around the same and I have to tweak and revise them through drafts. But my secondary characters, they start in the wildest places, and I hope, don’t appear as repetitive. Seeing the story from their perspective sounds much more fun than tweaking another main character ad nauseum. This exercise was fun and I will be doing it more as I go forward. What’s the point of this whole writing thing anyway if it isn’t fun? I hope as you dive into the stories, you have as much fun seeing the different outlooks as I did writing them. And if you’re a writer, I hope you try out this technique. I know exactly what drafts I have sitting in my desk that I’m going to try it on next.
Seems whose shoes you walk in really do make a difference.
The story: Raygun Meeting
The first draft: Raygun Meeting (The first draft)
Thanks for giving this a read! I love diving deeper into the why and how of writing. If you liked this essay or want to hear more of the “behind the scenes” stuff, let me know! I’m looking forward to hearing from folks on their preferences between drafts of the story as well.
Love y’all!
Max