This week: Stories Where You Find Them Edited by: Legerdemain  
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The purpose of this newsletter is to help the Writing.com short story author hone their craft and improve their skills. Along with that I would like to inform, advocate, and create new, fresh ideas for the short story author. Write to me if you have an idea you would like presented.
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Stories Where You Find Them
I've been traveling a lot. Not the kind you necessarily think of, like a vacation. This is a necessity between a home we just bought and the one we've owned. I've discovered that 25 years in one place causes a person to collect a lot of "stuff". Ack! In doing all this running back and forth with my little truck loaded with stuff, I don't have a lot of time for reading.
I don't want to get into Facebook and the FB culture but I will mention blogs. I'm not super regular on reading the blogs of my friends or blogs that fascinate me, but I always take away something of interest. It's certainly more interesting than reading click bait on the 10 Most Haunted Amusement Parks, yes...I clicked. Don't...laugh at me and my late night curiosity.
In all of these things we click and view (don't get me started on TikTok), funny little nuggets get caught in our creative juices and swim around until they surface in one of our stories. Half the time I never remember where the original idea sperm came from, but eventually the thing births in my story mostly formed. It surprises me when it happens, but I appreciate my brain working overtime on such lovely nuggets. So enjoy the videos, the blogs, the gifs and tell people you're doing research.
And hey, take a little time and visit the SL blogs...our community has a lot to say. After all, each entry is a short story hanging out in there, shared for free by our friends. Write On!
This month's question: Do you read blogs and what do you take away from them? Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback!
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| | Terminated (18+)
You never know what you'll see at a bar, especially Andre the Blog Monkey's Banana Bar.
#2253132 by Writer_Mike  |
Excerpt: I attended Richard's Retirement Bash at "Andre The Blog Monkey's Banana Bar". I'd been to Andre's many times before, to the point that I was almost a regular. I knew the staff and they knew me. I usually enjoyed my time there, too, 'cuz it's a class joint. They'd really done the place up nice for Richard's party and everyone was having a swell time until the day-shift bartender, Charlie the Chimp, apparently did something that quite literally earned him the old heave-ho.
Excerpt: We always warn tourists about the drop bear, some believe that it’s a real creature, others scoff at the thought. We tell them that it’s just an urban legend; a cousin of the sweet natured herbivore koala, except that it’s twice the size with course orange fur and sharp carnivorous fangs. They have strong arms for climbing to the top of trees, using the height advantage to drop onto its unsuspecting victims, stunning them long enough to sink its sharp teeth into the neck of its prey to disable them. We tell the tourists that it’s just an urban legend, but that’s not true, it is a real creature. One that stealthily hunts hikers, and animals scavenging in the underbrush below, waiting for the most opportune time to drop from above. It has no preference as long as there is fresh meat, because it is a predatory creature.
Excerpt: I admit to feeling both emboldened by the Internet and frightened by it. As I write these words will people believe what I write, will they seek to locate and destroy me for what I am? Is my own destruction what I truly seek deep within that place that once was my heart? Or am I just testing the waters to see how tolerant humans have become in this enlightened age...
Excerpt: Why do I keep going there? I loath Walmart. I loath the people there and most of all I loath myself for stepping foot into that backwoods carnival. Yet I go, I try to go at 1 or 2 in the morning. Not that don’t want to be seen there just that the orcs and assorted Nair-do-wells are huddled in a RV doing meth and singing Sweet Home Alabama.
| | | Stranded (13+)
An incompatible couple is stranded on a deserted island.
#2134764 by Dee  |
Excerpt: Danica woke as the cool waters of the Pacific Ocean slid beneath her body. It wasn't long before the tide rolled in and enormous waves began crashing on shore. While forcing herself to stand, she surveyed the area and saw Tom sprawled out just a few feet away. It was all a blur. All she could remember was swimming to safety, then collapsing on the beach.
Excerpt: I got up and put on my robe and slippers. Glancing over at the clock, it was two a.m. My wife opened her eyes.
"What's the matter, honey?"
"I can't sleep."
Excerpt: You don’t always get to pick the arrow that strikes your heart. The man that reached out and drew me in wore a prison uniform. His stripes tell you he is the Property of the Indiana Federal Penitentiary.
Excerpt: Gabriel Dupuis enjoyed his garden. Planting, weeding, trimming, mowing--these activities brought him satisfaction, even a kind of peace. He was proud of the layout, proud of its color and form, proud of his green, perfect lawn. It required a great deal of effort, but he considered the effort worthwhile and rewarding.
One evening, as he snoozed in his hammock in the back yard, strange dreams disturbed his sleep and roiled his mind. He fought to overcome a nameless dread, a dark and forbidding terror that threatened death and darkness. His entire species, his very world, doomed to extinction, unless--a jumble of impressions--huge projects, vast expenditures, grand undertakings, desperate and frantic haste.
Excerpt: Each morning, I grimly stared at the man in the mirror as he slowly deteriorated. Bloodshot eyes grew more shadowed and sunken, stress lines deepening, skin fading to an unhealthy pallor as sleepless nights took their toll.
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This month's question: Do you read blogs and what do you take away from them? Send in your answer below! Editors love feedback!
Last month's "Short Stories Newsletter (July 21, 2021)" question: How do you use your Brief Description area?
How do you choose keywords to expand your audience??
Elisa the Bunny Stik  : This newsletter is like catnip for me. I have even brought up the subject of brief descriptions in Zoomies meetings. Seriously, I have read (and reviewed) items solely on the strength (or occasionally weakness) of the brief description. Also, I about jumped for joy when I saw this line.
"Keywords are also important, not only for reviewers but for editors looking for items to feature in our newsletters."
Keyword searches accounted for at least 15% of my total time on the site during my mod days. I suppose I should be glad I never edited the fantasy newsletter. 
Grin 'n Bear It!  : Found your NL very informative. I, too, frequently use a phrase from my story in the description. I find coming up with a title even more challenging. As I'm taking care of grandchildren, my time to write is limited, so I try to write flash fiction for the "Daily Flash Fiction Challenge" - which I highly recommend. Sometimes I'm posting my story within minutes of the contest deadline, so I'm often rushed to come up with the title and description. I'm going to take your advice and re-evaluate my descriptions and add keywords. Thanks also for featuring my flash fiction "Pursed Lips" in your NL.
brom21 : Thanks for the newsletter! I liked how you emphasized something so important yet so simple to instill. I think I mastered this idea though. lol. BTW, I have not read a WDC newsletter in a long while. It is great to be back! Thanks again for the NL!
blimprider: My sincere thanks to Milady for highlighting Brass & Coal, one of my older stories. I posted that on the day I joined, and it goes back considerably further than that. My point is that, thanks to its inclusion in the newsletter. I just received a comprehensive review of this story that I thought had faded into obscurity years ago. Let it be known by those who may doubt, an Editor's Pick has value far beyond a simple stroking of the ego. In a very real way, I thank you for that review. 
Kåre Enga in Udon Thani  : I have written many poems with "Zmitri", my not so fictional character, as a focus. If I use his name in the description and/or key words it helps me find the poem again. I have dozens of Zmitri poems and thousands of stories/poems stored here... somewhere. Same with gzaibun (my own type of "haibun").
I have used a line of poetry and actually saying something about the piece is useful. Referring to oneself is seldom useful.
You know what's really brief? "The Title". Choosing a strong title matters. "Gone With The Wind" is stronger than ”Bugles Sang True” or “Not in Our Stars”. (Scarlett was originally Pansy.) Anything is stronger than "Poem" or "Story" or the inane "untitled".
elephantsealer : In writing, is there ever a thing as a "brief description"? To choose the right words for what I want to describe briefly would be to find just the right word (s); to get attached to a dictionary in order to make certain I am using the very word that would make the word I am describing as the actual word that would give meaning to the reader.
Anna Marie Carlson : I'm not sure. To make a guess, I would use verbs that show action and use adjectives to describe what I am saying. To exercise my brain, I try to use words properly. By learning to use new words properly can be a challenge. By trying to use words correctly, it exercises my brain. When I'm using or saying them wrong, I try to correct them to the best of my ability. I'm grateful when someone can correct my usage when I use them incorrectly. To show excitement, I use exclamation points.
Thank you all for reading my newsletters and replying, your responses are much appreciated - Leger~ |
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Short Stories: August 18, 2021 Issue [#10937]
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