Paul Michel - Author Interview: Story

Pick one of your favourites among your published fiction stories or a story which is an interesting example of published fiction. What makes this story one of your favourites or an interesting example from your fiction?

My story “Say to the Waves” (Glimmer Train, Summer 2004) is one of my favourites as it successfully weaves several narratives with common themes and even characters whose lives intersect, but in multilayered and not immediately obvious ways.

What genre(s) do you consider this story primarily to be, or how would you describe this story?

This definitely is a “literary fiction” story, that presents a slightly more complex reading than a simple beginning, middle and end.

What is a published fiction story by another author you would compare this story to and why are they similar?

Though is seems like gross hubris to suggest it, I think there are elements of many Alice Munro stories that are constructed in similar ways—seemingly disparate threads that wre woven together thematically, rather than merely by by plot.

To what extent did you use any pre-existing story formula, template, paradigm, plot design, archetype, or theory or principle of story/plot structure in planning, writing, editing or rewriting this story?

As with characters, I tend to let the structure of my stories (though not so much my novels) surprise me on the page.

How would you describe the first chapter, scene or section of this story in one paragraph?

An elderly woman is mourning the recent suicide of her husband, who took his life for no apparent reason, though she has a glimmer of understanding that his hopelessness was merely the recognition that his life had run out of challenge and danger, and thus was no longer worth the effort.

What makes this chapter, scene or section an effective opening for this story?

It presents just enough detail about the deceased man’s life to create a thematic framework for the other narratives that follow it.

What major stages, twists or turns does the story conflict take in this story before the conflict is resolved (or not resolved)?

This story evolves slowly, with different characters (albeit in more or less the same setting) traveling parts of the dead man’s life arc on their own, with different resolutions but similar constitutions.

How would you summarise the major sub-plot or sub-plots in this story? If this story has no sub-plots, how would you describe the main sub-plot or sub-plots from one of your favourite published fiction stories by another author?

I suppose that the sub-plots woven through this piece have to do with the way the worlds both big and small of the protagonists (of which there are three) both support and deny their natures and searches for fulfillment even at the risk of danger and annihilation.

What does the story gain from the sub-plot or sub-plots?

The sub-plots work to tie the themes together, of three men who are torn between their proclivities and their environments.

To what extent would you describe your story discussed here as typical or atypical of your fiction stories?

“Say to the Waves” is somewhat atypical as the majority of my stories follow a simpler narrative line and, with some notable exceptions, are less multi-layered.

Author website: http://www.paulmichel.com/



Paul Michel - Author Interview: Short Story Writer

What kinds of fiction did you read as a child and teenager, and did you have some favourites?

I read everything I could get my hands on, from Homer to Edgar Rice Burroughs. I loved the adventure books of Zane Grey, I devoured science fiction in the 1960s and 70s, I read lots of classics, the Tolkein books, Dickens….there wasn’t much I didn’t read.

Would you say your childhood and teenage reading has had a distinct influence on how you write fiction now, and why?

Yes. I think that because reading was such a central source of entertainment in my childhood that today I write in many senses in order to entertain (as opposed to writing to instruct, lecture, persuade, etc.) I like to think that readers of my work, whatever they may think of my style or plots or characters, ultimately are glad they took the time to read it.

Pick one of your favourites among your fiction stories or a story which is an interesting example from your fiction. What makes this story one of your favourites or an interesting example of your fiction?

My story “Not the King of Prussia” (Glimmer Train, 2010), an elderly man must re-examine himself and his marriage in the days and hours before the arrival of a distant, orphaned nephew who will be coming to live with them. I think it’s a good treatment of some of the wants and worries that are visited upon folks who have long given themselves over to solitude and the confines of a small world, suddenly faced with a larger one.

Who is another author whose fiction writing you admire and why?

Anton Chekhov is unmatched in his ability to create a recognizable, convincing inner character of any sex, age, background or condition in such a few lines of narrative or dialogue.

How would you summarise one of your short stories in one paragraph?

My story “Cryptography” (Inkwell, Fall 2008) is the story of a boy who begins to come of age while his older brother is away in the service, and whose developing new perspective persuades him to regard this brother as much less of a hero, when he does come home on leave, than he did just a few short months before.

How would you describe the appeal of this short story to readers?

I think it is a timeless and universal story, in a way, of how things we admire and love can change in our eyes as we change, and the consternation and pain that such transformations can cause.

How would you summarise a scene or sub-section from this short story in one paragraph?

The boy awakes the morning after his brother and friends have been out carousing, to find them drunk and sloppy in the living room, with his angry parents in schock, and only one of the soldiers—who heretofore had seemed the least appealing of the group—behaving as it seems to the boy that a man ought actually to behave.

How would you describe the contribution this scene or sub-section makes to the short story?

It’s the turning-point, really, for the boy—a confirmation of his worst, barely-acknowledged fears that his days of sibling hero-worship have come to a crashing end.

Do you aspire to primarily write novels in the future, or are you more interested in writing short stories, and why?

I enjoy the longer form and can imagine always having a novel-in-progress from here on out, but I don’t intend to abandon the short story form. Sometimes a break from a novel to dive back into some shorter pieces is just the tonic that both forms need to be fresh and alive.

Do you read many short story anthologies, and why?

I tend to read collections more than anthologies, because I like to get a big chunk of a writer’s oeuvre to work through rather than just one piece in a broader anthology.

What lengths of short stories do you usually write, and why?

With some exceptions my stories tend to weigh in at anywhere from six thousand to eight thousand words. That just seems to be the slice I cut for myself, and I cant really say why, though I do consciously try at times to produce much shorter (and longer) pieces.

Do you submit for many short story competitions, anthologies and magazines, and what are your main motivations for this?

I submit less when I’m working on a novel, but I do still tend to send out more work than a lot of writers I know, and as a result I’ve been quite lucky in terms of numbers of published pieces—over two dozen now and (hopefully) counting. My motivation is simple—i.e. to get published. (Certainly not to make money, as short stories seldom do.)

Author website: http://www.paulmichel.com/