"How best to answer this but with a number of pretentious quotes?" Indeed, sir. Indeed.
Isn't there a someone or other's law that ninety percent of everything is crap? I try to keep that in mind when considering this kind of thing. For some people, of course, even Woolf is part of that ninety percent. I like Woolf, but I don't like James Joyce's DUBLINERS, which, according to a lot of people, is just as good. (Admittedly, maybe I would like different James Joyce better. I've never tried.)
The balance is definitely delicate between truth and Truth, and yes, I'd agree that it changes with every story. Quote from somebody, somewhere: "You don't learn to write a novel, you learn to write this novel." It's probably just as true for short stories.
I think I have a story inside of me in which one plot is in the foreground, but in the background, a lot of other things are gradually accumulating, as you say, discrete change particles. (I love that phrase.) At some point, that story will emerge.
RE: side side note: It needed more monster trucks. On the other hand, everything needs more monster trucks.
(You vanish for six months and then reappear with a page-and-a-half long comment on my LJ. How am I not surprised?)
Re: How best to answer this but with a number of pretentious quotes?
Isn't there a someone or other's law that ninety percent of everything is crap? I try to keep that in mind when considering this kind of thing. For some people, of course, even Woolf is part of that ninety percent. I like Woolf, but I don't like James Joyce's DUBLINERS, which, according to a lot of people, is just as good. (Admittedly, maybe I would like different James Joyce better. I've never tried.)
The balance is definitely delicate between truth and Truth, and yes, I'd agree that it changes with every story. Quote from somebody, somewhere: "You don't learn to write a novel, you learn to write this novel." It's probably just as true for short stories.
I think I have a story inside of me in which one plot is in the foreground, but in the background, a lot of other things are gradually accumulating, as you say, discrete change particles. (I love that phrase.) At some point, that story will emerge.
RE: side side note: It needed more monster trucks. On the other hand, everything needs more monster trucks.
(You vanish for six months and then reappear with a page-and-a-half long comment on my LJ. How am I not surprised?)