Guest Post: UNDERCASE G by Stephen D. Rogers

Long time readers of this blog know that I have reviewed and enjoyed some of Mr. Stephen D. Rodgers work. He is another one of those authors that I like, but have a hard time keeping current reading wise, as he has so much going on at a variety of markets. I was thrilled when he recently reached out and asked to do a guest post on writing and his new short story in the Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties anthology. Without further ado, please welcome Stephen D. Rodgers to the blog today.

 

 

 

UNDERCASE G by Stephen D. Rogers

 

It's not uncommon to consider writers the gods of the stories they create, able to shape geographical features, control the weather, and fashion human beings out of nothing more than words.  For me, at least, that's not even close to true. 

When I'm writing a short story, I'm not God with a capital G, not god with a lowercase G, not even god with an undercase G, which I don't know how to represent.  Subscript? 

Instead, I'm a servant to story, character, and art.

 

First, story.  Yes, I can make things happen.  Lightning!  Plague!  Plot twist!  In rough draft, anyway.  Once editing begins, which starts while producing said rough draft, anything that doesn't serve the story goes.

 

(And that was a heck of a lightning bolt.  One of my best.)

 

Second, character.  A character is burning desire complicated by everything that keeps that desire from being appeased.  A writer can force a character do or say anything.  Anything that doesn't relate to desire or its frustration must then be cut.

 

(Novels are more tolerant of looser writing than short stories.  Or so some writers would like to believe.)

 

Finally, art, which is less pretentious than it could be.  In writing, art encompasses the sounds of the words, the flow of the sentences, the rhythm of the punctuation.  Clarity.  Truth.

 

(Maybe pretentious with a lowercase P.)

 

Sometimes, the situation is even less empowering.  Take "Ugly" (Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties), for example, a story which was born not out of muse-infused inspiration but assignment:  write a private eye story that takes place during the 1960s.

 

Honestly, if you need to believe you're the one in charge, stay as far away as you can from writing.  Maybe try children.

 

 

Stephen D. Rodgers ©2022

 

Stephen D. Rogers is a multi-published writer of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Over eight hundred of his stories and poems have been selected to appear in more than three hundred publications, earning among other honors two "Best of Soft SF" winners, two Derringers (with seven additional finalists), a Shamus Award nomination, a Black Orchid Novella finalist, a Rhysling nomination, two "Notable Online Stories" from storySouth's Million Writers Award, honorable mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, mention in The Best American Mystery Stories, and numerous Readers's Choice awards. Stephen is a proud member of the Mystery Writers of America, the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Learn more, including a list of current publications, at https://www.stephendrogers.com/index.html