The Lab: Articles: Jazz Solo

LIKE A JAZZ SOLO: SHORT FICTION A Writing Tips article
By Roger Angle

Writing short fiction, to me, is like playing a jazz improvisation. You get the first line, which is like the key and the chord progression. (Whatever that is. I don’t really know much about music.) Then you build on that, you let everything come to you that relates to that small foundation. You make rapid choices as lines and phrases pour out of your head, out of your creative unconscious, and then you play it out and make sure you pay it off.

Partly, you do it for yourself, and partly you do it to fulfill the creative demands of the tradition and the form, and partly you do it to compete with those who have written before. You blast it out, or you let it play out like a ballad. You follow the melody. Like Flannery O’Connor said, it’s like a dog following a scent. You know there’s a story there, and you follow it until you find it. And then when it’s over, it’s over. You let it sit awhile and then you read it over and see what it is. If it’s any good, you don’t change a word, or not more than a few words. Like Fitzgerald said, "The bad stories have to be written, and the good stories write themselves."

So it’s almost like a performance, something you take seriously and then it’s out there and done and you can’t change it. Now, the question is, how do you set that up? How do you encourage that creative process?

I think it’s good to read a lot and read your favorite stories and poems and parts of novels aloud. Then I think it’s good to do a lot of writing where you don’t criticize what you write. Perhaps you don’t even re-read it for awhile. Then you focus on the strengths. It’s a kind of training, like for a sport or a martial art. It’s like climbing shale and scree. You have to do a lot of slipping and sliding, two steps upward and one step down, to get to the top. When it’s going good, it’s effortless, and when it’s going bad, it’s hell. But that’s all part of getting there. Sometimes it’s good to take a class or be part of a group.

When I teach, my way is to read aloud and have students write and read aloud, and to read them not only my own work but my favorite stories, and to have them bring in their work and their favorite stories and read them aloud and tell us why they like them. When it comes to critiquing, I like to have each person say something, and to tell what works and what doesn’t work for them and why. The things to look for in a group are professionalism, support for trying to do your best work, a sense of depth and a lack of petty jealousy, and creative and helpful honesty.

Any group or class should encourage you to develop your own voice, your own likes and dislikes. I would stay away from a workshop where everyone writes the same kind of story.

If you take a class, my advice is not to write for your instructor, necessarily. Write for your ideal audience or yourself as an audience. The rest of the group is just along for the ride.

While you are reading, why not read the best, the classics. My suggested reading list includes James Joyce, Jorge Luis Borges, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Joyce Carol Oates, Flannery O’Connor, Charles Dickens, Samuel Beckett, Mark Twain and Raymond Carver. This would be a good start, if you wanted to learn from examples.

It’s a good idea to expose yourself to lots of successful, professional writing and see what sticks with you, see what defines you as a reader and a writer.

Sometimes it’s a good idea to have something in mind when you write, a goal. To frighten, say, or to enlighten. To entertain. To reveal something about the human condition. To explore your own imagination or psyche. Or just to follow the jazz. There are many paths to the mountain top, as the saying goes, so there are many ways to construct short fiction. Some writers plan in detail, like an architect drawing a building. Some rely on their inspiration, as I do. No one way is right, no one way is wrong. Whatever works.
Most of all, I think, the thing is to enjoy the act of writing, when the imagination is visceral and the world you invent is real to you, and you can feel your characters’ feelings and hear that little tiny voice in the back of your head that is the voice of your own creativity. Let it carry you away, all the way to the end.