{"id":28,"date":"2020-01-12T19:12:07","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T19:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/?p=28"},"modified":"2020-01-12T19:12:07","modified_gmt":"2020-01-12T19:12:07","slug":"stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Writers can learn a lot about writing stories by listening to jokes. A good joke well told has all the elements of a good short story. The writer, or teller, introduces the main characters and usually provides information about what kind of people they are with the fewest words possible and then sets up a situation readers can easily identify with and in the end renders whatever expectations you might have had like Inegio Montoya\u2019s famous line in <em>Princess Bride<\/em>, &#8220;I do not think it means what you think it means.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the essence of all of O\u2019Henry\u2019s stories.<\/p>\n<p>This one was posted on Facebook, shared by Scott Crawford and attributed to Zack Riley:<\/p>\n<p>My son asked me, &#8220;Where does poo come from?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I was a little uncomfortable but gave him an honest explanation. He looked a little perplexed and stared at me in stunned silence for a few seconds and asked, &#8220;And Tigger?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Writers can learn a lot about writing stories by listening to jokes. A good joke well told has all the elements of a good short story. The writer, or teller, introduces the main characters and usually provides information about what kind of people they are with the fewest words possible and then sets up a &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Stories\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/#more-28\" aria-label=\"Read more about Stories\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Stories - Alec Clayton - Writing etc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stories - Alec Clayton - Writing etc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Writers can learn a lot about writing stories by listening to jokes. A good joke well told has all the elements of a good short story. The writer, or teller, introduces the main characters and usually provides information about what kind of people they are with the fewest words possible and then sets up a ... Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Alec Clayton - Writing etc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-12T19:12:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alec Clayton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alec Clayton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alec Clayton\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/#\/schema\/person\/92241ec993cfed51e207de72a10bc70c\"},\"headline\":\"Stories\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-12T19:12:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/\"},\"wordCount\":160,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/#\/schema\/person\/92241ec993cfed51e207de72a10bc70c\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/\",\"name\":\"Stories - Alec Clayton - Writing etc.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-12T19:12:07+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Stories\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/\",\"name\":\"Alec Clayton - Writing etc.\",\"description\":\"Alec Clayton - Writing etc.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/#\/schema\/person\/92241ec993cfed51e207de72a10bc70c\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/#\/schema\/person\/92241ec993cfed51e207de72a10bc70c\",\"name\":\"Alec Clayton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/writingetc-top.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/writingetc-top.png\",\"width\":406,\"height\":89,\"caption\":\"Alec Clayton\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"description\":\"I am a novelist and theater and art critic. I write for OLY ARTS (Olympia). My novels, published with Mud Flat Press, are: \\\"Teacher; This is Me, Debbi, David;\\\" \\\"Tupelo;\\\" The Freedom Trilogy (a three-book series consisting of \\\"The Backside of Nowhere,\\\" \\\"Return to Freedom\\\" and \\\"Visual Liberties\\\"); \\\"Reunion at the Wetside;\\\" \\\"The Wives of Marty Winters;\\\" \\\"Imprudent Zeal;\\\" and \\\"Until the Dawn.\\\" I've also published two books on art, \\\"As If Art Matters\\\" and \\\"What is What the Heck is a Frame-Pedestal Aesthetic? 1960s Revolution in American Art Revisited.\\\" All are available on amazon.com or can be ordered from your local bookstore. I grew up in Tupelo and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and have been living in the Pacific Northwest since 1988.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.alecclayton.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/author\/alecclayton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Stories - Alec Clayton - Writing etc.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/stories\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Stories - Alec Clayton - Writing etc.","og_description":"Writers can learn a lot about writing stories by listening to jokes. A good joke well told has all the elements of a good short story. The writer, or teller, introduces the main characters and usually provides information about what kind of people they are with the fewest words possible and then sets up a ... 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I write for OLY ARTS (Olympia). My novels, published with Mud Flat Press, are: \"Teacher; This is Me, Debbi, David;\" \"Tupelo;\" The Freedom Trilogy (a three-book series consisting of \"The Backside of Nowhere,\" \"Return to Freedom\" and \"Visual Liberties\"); \"Reunion at the Wetside;\" \"The Wives of Marty Winters;\" \"Imprudent Zeal;\" and \"Until the Dawn.\" I've also published two books on art, \"As If Art Matters\" and \"What is What the Heck is a Frame-Pedestal Aesthetic? 1960s Revolution in American Art Revisited.\" All are available on amazon.com or can be ordered from your local bookstore. I grew up in Tupelo and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and have been living in the Pacific Northwest since 1988.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.alecclayton.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/author\/alecclayton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29,"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions\/29"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecclayton.com\/writingetc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}