7 Day Story Writing Challenges: A Brief Guide to Writing Surrealism
This guide is all about surrealist fiction. What it is, tips for writing it, and a list of surreal stories you can read online for free. We also discuss the difficulties, limitations, and pitfalls of writing in this genre. This guide is a must-read for anyone assigned surrealist fiction in a 7 Day Story Writing Challenge, or for anyone wanting to explore new or unfamiliar literary genres!
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What is Surrealist Fiction?
For the purposes of our 7 Day Story Writing Challenges, we’re defining surrealist fiction as a story which is strange, weird, unusual, or bizarre. While a lot of fiction features strange or unusual things happening, most writers try to use as much realism as they can to make the strange or unusual seem real. For example, the Harry Potter books include a lot of strange and unusual characters, creatures, and events. And yet they would not be classified as surrealist. Surrealist fiction isn’t concerned with making the unreal feel real. Instead, writing surrealist fiction means fully embracing the strangeness in the story.
Difficulties, Limitations and Pitfalls of This Genre
We think the biggest challenge for this genre will be letting go of your desire for your story to be fully understood.
Top Tips for This Genre
If you’re stuck for an idea, why not write from your character’s subconscious? It’s not actually as difficult as it sounds. This is essentially the idea behind Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi. The story is about a young Indian boy who is travelling by freighter from India to Canada with his parents and several zoo animals when a violent storm sinks the ship. Most of the book is written as a dreamy, magical account of the boy’s attempts to survive at sea with only a zebra, hyena, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger for company. It’s only later that we realise (spoiler alert) that this surreal story is probably told from Pi’s subconscious, and what actually happened is both more mundane and more tragic. If you’re having trouble coming up with an idea for a surreal short story, we’d probably recommend using this concept. To do this, try thinking in realism first. Come up with a character and a story idea that’s rooted in reality. Perhaps you decide to write about a young woman at university. She feels isolated, overwhelmed. She feels out of place, like the black sheep of her class. Can’t seem to make friends easily, doesn’t really fit in. And she also feels like everybody else is way smarter than her. They talk about books she’s never heard of, films she hasn’t seen. OK, now how do you write a surreal story from this? Here’s where you start thinking about dreams and dream interpretation. Ever had a dream where all your teeth fall out? Apparently that means you’re feeling a loss of control or you’re worried about losing someone or something. Ever dreamed about being chased? You might be anxious about something catching up with you. A debt or deadline, perhaps. Take your realistic story idea and write it as if it were a dream. In our story of the girl at university, we might have our protagonist turn up to class and all the other students are inexplicably wearing masks, the teacher stands in front of the class and starts talking actual gobbledygook, the other students nod along as if they completely understand. One student raises his hand to ask a question, and the question literally doesn’t make any sense. Now you’ve got a surrealist story on your hands!
Surrealist Short Stories you can Read Online
‘The Beloved’ by Leonora Carrington
‘The Little Green Monster’ by Haruki Murakami
‘Windeye’ by Brian Evenson
‘Wood Sorrel House’ by Zach Williams
‘Samsa in Love’ by Haruki Murakami