Can I write my short story by reading similar stories? - Part 2

Last time, I shared my struggles with writing down my short fiction. I decided to approach it differently and workshop the process. Let's remember the hypothesis and continue from where we left off:

Hypothesis: I'll be able to write my sci-fi short story by learning from and imitating similar stories.

Step 2: Read these stories and choose the relevant ones

First, I'll narrow down the pieces into a manageable number of words for the sake of this project.

Short-listed stories

I selected these twelve from the 32 I listed previously based on their length. I want to write a 3000 to 4000-word short story, and the following ones range from 1000 to 5000 words:

A Ring Around
STET
Upgrade Day
The Unknown Painter
The Machine That Would Rewild Humanity
Forged
Silicon Hearts
Tomorrow Is Waiting
Reader Alice
Hermetic Kingdom
Bigger Fish
Patterns of a Murmuration

Read the stories

I started reading the selected material and taking notes about their style and delivery. I thoroughly enjoyed these twelve tales; each had a novel perspective and a professional execution. I'll learn a lot from them.

I'll briefly overview each one:

• A Ring Around was an immersive space journey. It's the story of a couple following some missions and their AI spaceship assistant. There was something poetic and soft about it despite its harsh outer space setting.
• STET was the most unique tale in terms of narrative format. It was powerful story-wise, too. It narrated a woman working on an AI-related paper and her colleague's communication with her.
• Upgrade Day had a lovely character journey. It follows a robotic service assistant's unexpected life.
• The Unknown Painter narrates the accidental birth of an AI forecaster. It focuses on the creator and spans several years, told in snippets.
• The Machine That Would Rewild Humanity had a unique narrator. It's been several years since humans became extinct. We follow the point of view of a robot successor leading the "Rewilding of Humanity" project. Reading a robot perspective so humane was enchanting.
• Forged was another unique perspective. In this story, some humans have chosen isolation from the machine-led world. Our main character, a drone, is tasked with stealing the creations of these tribal groups and selling them to art dealers. The voice was funny and entertaining, and some parts of the world-building were hilariously genius.
• Silicon Hearts, an engaging narrative, was the story of two AI writers. It was primarily told in dialogues, masterfully showcasing the conflicts at the heart of the plot. The prose was witty and a joy to read.
• Tomorrow Is Waiting follows a university student assigned to an AI project she is not particularly excited about. However, she accidentally creates the first sentient AI in the process. It was lovely to read, with a positive outlook rarely seen in the genre.
• Reader Alice had an intelligent tone. LLMs have overtaken the professional sphere in this world, and we follow the POV of an editor. They're a magazine publisher still running after several years in print. They accept a mix of human and LLM submissions. Then, we shift our attention to "Alice," the title's namesake. It was one of the few narratives in this collection with multiple POVs, a nice feature for further exploring and learning.
• Hermetic Kingdom started so differently that I thought I made a mistake in categorizing its genre. But soon, I realized the reason. It follows two characters in challenging, brutal settings. We read about their past and how they worked together to change their conditions. This piece is excellent for analyzing various setups in one short story.
• Bigger Fish was unique genre-wise. This time, I read a "murder mystery" sci-fi short fiction. The world-building was interesting and fitting the genre and narrative. The mystery was evident initially, but the conclusion was interesting nevertheless.
• Patterns of a Murmuration was another one from the robot's POV. The political setup was the unique perspective of this piece. The characters were laid out beautifully, and I was impressed with the ending and the character arc.

The stories were professional and distinctive in their POV, setup, world-building, sub-genre, and narration. This diversity in the sci-fi narrative was fascinating to me. Can I write mine with the help of a particular one from the above list? Alas, no. I think that's why it is so difficult to learn the creative process from others. Everyone's vision is vastly different. Sure, if I read thousands of stories, some will help me directly. Out of twelve? No, unfortunately not. I need to find another way to get inspired by these to write mine.

Choosing the relevant stories for learning and inspiration

To curate a list of relevant stories, I'll break down the different parts of the piece and choose a related one for each:

• Theme: Tomorrow Is Waiting - For its "Creator's process" and the doubts and growth along the way, which suits the themes I have in mind.
• Characters: Silicon Hearts - As an utterly dialogue-based narrative, it will help me lay out my characters with their words instead of excessive descriptions and navel-gazing.
• Plot: A Ring Around - Its chain of events is the perfect marriage of human connection and the role of AI in the story I'm thinking about.
• Conflict: STET - Conflict is the heart of this tale, and it will help me convey the conflicts in my story to the reader
• Setting: Reader Alice - This setting is closer to what I'm considering—a near-future setup with massive AI influence. However, the human impact is still valuable, and some people doubt the disproportionate use of AI.

Step 3: Further analysis of the relevant stories and start drafting

You know the drill; it's a story for another time.

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