Writing a short story, the preclosural way

Abstract

This article examines how preclosure theory and the data gathered from preclosural analysis might be used to support creative writing. Preclosure theory attempts to reveal how and why readers chunk short stories into ‘meaningful units above the sentence level’ (Lohafer 2003: 58) through identification and analysis, both structural and linguistic, of those sentences in a narrative where a reader feels the story could end. This article begins with a description of the development of a preclosural writing frame for the creation of short fiction, explaining how the writing frame itself is developed in response to data generated by the preclosural analysis of fifteen British short stories written between 1885 and 1920. Here I propose that this methodology offers the author-practitioner a new way of controlling the staging of closure within a short story by replacing a previously intuitive process with a more conscious approach. In the article’s second half, I describe my writing process prior to my engaging with preclosure theory. This account of my intuitive and unconscious manipulation of closural staging in prior works provides context for an evaluation of the impact of this methodology upon both my writing process and the text produced. In closing, I argue that the preclosural writing process outlined here has had a positive effect upon my own practice and, furthermore, has the potential to extend the author-practitioner’s understanding of and ability to innovatively employ the staging of closure when crafting a short story.