Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Academic theses;
Abstract
When I ran track in high school, I always ran the 400 meter dash, also known as the quarter mile. This race was the least favorite of the members of the team, as it was considered the hardest race to run. For the most part, people avoided running this race if they could. The sprinters would prefer to the shorter sprints and long distance runners would stick to the mile and two mile races. I, on the other hand, was intrigued by the quarter mile. It seemed to me like it was a combination of the two extremes, uniting the speed of the sprints and the stamina of the long-distances. I view the short story in a similar fashion. I have an immense amount of respect for the genre as it necessitates the immediacy of poetry and the endurance of the novel. I wrote these short stories the same way I ran the quarter mile: as hard and fast as I could for as long as was deemed necessary. And along the way, I stuck with a couple of rules. 1) Hook the reader right away. Any self respecting reader should put the story down if he or she is not interested after the first page. 2) Don't lecture your audience: a good writer raises questions, not answers them. Like Chekov said, what is "obligatory for the artist [is not] solving a problem, [but] stating a problem correctly." 3) To tell the audience more than they need to know is condescending. Overcompensation can kill a story. 4) Lastly, be as honest as you can about the human condition. Don't fake a situation for narrative sake. If I stuck to these rules, I generally found I'd end up with stories about interesting people in intriguing circumstances. Nothing more, nothing less. More than anything, I wanted to be like the successful quarter mile runner. To keep a stead pace throughout the race. To finish the race before flaming out. To raise my arms in glory knowing I'd conquered the hardest of engagements.
Year of Submission
2004
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of English Language and Literature
First Advisor
Grant Tracey
Second Advisor
Jerome Klinkowitz
Third Advisor
Vince Gotera
Date Original
2004
Object Description
1 PDF file (7 leaves)
Copyright
©2004 Wade Thomas Geary
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Geary, Wade Thomas, "Renting and Other Short Stories" (2004). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2723.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2723
Comments
The creative works referenced in this graduate thesis, consisting of pages 1-79, currently are not being made available in electronic format through UNI ScholarWorks.
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