Storyz.org

There are many short stories out there-many of which make absolutely no sense. It’s fine, if the author slips in an explanation towards the end, but some of them are ridiculous. When I was reading World War Z (which is an exceptional read), I searched for the author’s predecessor to that book, which is called the Zombie Survival Guide (I recommend both books, but that’s besides the point), when I stumbled across a (rather poorly designed) blog, about zombie apocalypse stories. I gave on a try. It made no sense, whatsoever, and what made it even worse? The author offered no explanation and left me completely confused. Upon further investigation the blogger of this unnamed blog was not getting too many hits. If your going to have a  blog based on stories, you do it write (haha, get it?).

It doesn’t matter how confusing of a story you have, as long as you provide an explanation so the  reader can look at it and say “Aaaaahh I get it”. Otherwise, nobody will read your work. Here are a few ways you can get your reader to understand what they’re reading.

You can subtly spoon feed the reader with an explanation along the course of the story, like so:

I was being chased by the Ravagers, and they were gaining. Their hideously thin dog-like legs moved back and forth at incredible speeds, as the burning human-like eyes (on a human head, whichs contrast to the feral dog-like added to the fear the beasts inflicted on their prey) followed me, burning holes into my back. I continued running through the streets of New York City, but realized that I had made a terrible mistake. By going to a heavily populated city and attracting one herd of Ravagers, more would come. As if to confirm this suspicion, another herd of Ravagers came barreling toward me. I felt the blood rush out of my face, as I realized I was trapped.

You can have the narrator/main character explain it in a monologue:

My names Jerald. From age eight i could pick up, and fire, a gun, and from age twenty, I could battle the Empire like my old man. Given my suicidal tendencies, this was a dream come true. Not only could I exact revenge on those who had taken my family away from me, but hopefully I would die shortly thereafter, and leave this hell behind. It was the perfect plan, until I realized that the Empire had ways of installing fear in those who welcomed death. I realized this as I stalked the streets of my home-town, Santee, to find a man dressed in Empire uniforms blocking my way. It was dad.

And you could explain the story at the end. Basically identical to the monologue technique, except it occurs after everything’s happened (so if it were after the Monologue’s techniques example, it would probably be a monologue as the main character slowly bled to death next to his dad.)

These are just a few ideas, but they help. It’s much better to use the spoon-fed method, but the other two work just as well.

Thank you for reading. Feel free to comment, I especially welcome suggestions on other techniques, and please subscribe