This week: I'm Bored! Edited by: Legerdemain  
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I'm Bored!
"I'm bored!" Parents deal with this complaint often. We complain about it too. My parent's solution was "Go outside and play".
My spouse and I once had an argument over this. He said "go find a stick and play", and I said, "a stick is not a toy, and they might poke out their eye". The problem was solved, we were at a farm and the kids discovered the electric fence. That was much more interesting.
I didn't want this newsletter to be about inspiring your writing, but about how you show your character's boredom. I like to use one of my favorite words: ennui - a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest. But it is not always an appropriate word for your story. Jump into the thesaurus and check out all the words for boredom. That alone can be inspiring.
Then there is dialog, is your character sleepy? Is their speech slow and slurred? Are the answers to questions slow and unimaginative? Think about body language, are the character's movements lethargic and listless? Emotion can be shown without the character realizing it. Look into micro-gestures and micro-expressions, it's an interesting topic. Other characters can observe emotions in others. How do you change the tempo of your story when emotions change? Do you use descriptions while a character is bored and looking around?
Give it some thought while writing and editing, emotions definitely change the pace of your story.
And as always Write On!
This month's question: How do you show character emotions in your story?
Answer below  Editors love feedback! 
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Excerpt: The way she’s holding my hand so tightly, her grasp trembling, I know there isn’t much time left. We have been together for half a century, and now we’re about to part—for eternity.
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Excerpt: Eric acts tough, looks tough, and talks tough, but take the guy to bed and he morphs into something so cuddly and adorable that you want to keep him forever. The ladies clamor over him and he wallows in their attention, yet he’s gay. The guys gawk at him and he snubs them with great intensity, yet he’s gay. I’ve never met a gay guy so shy of being who he truly is. It’s a struggle coaxing him out of his shell, though our attraction is mutual and our future bright. That’s why I called Uncle Charlie.
Excerpt: "Snow White! Where are you?" The Queen's shrill voice echoed up the stairs into the marble floored hallway above. "We are leaving!" Snow hid in a small room upstairs pretending not to hear her though it was impossible especially when she heard heeled shoes clicking up the stairs.
Excerpt: Enraptured by the spicy perfume of death, Hatch climbed up and down the endless tunnel.
It stretched before him like an immeasurable ribbon of stairway, dark and unwavering, about seven feet across and curving upward to where it met and formed a ceiling. Behind him was a dazzling fire of red light, and always before, the white brightness that was too blinding to behold. It was as if he were trapped within a black, stench-filled tunnel that burned fiercely at both ends, neither of which he could reach.
Excerpt: Lavishly attired in red vestment, Bishop Symes faced the accused and proclaimed, "Giselle Burnett, you have been convicted of practicing witchcraft and sacrificing your child to the devil. The word of God commands, 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.' Only with fire can your soul be truly cleansed."
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Excerpt: Play the hand you're dealt, the saying went, but George Vale never put much stock in that. Fate had dealt him an awful hand, and he didn't have a play to make, never had. Scrawny, with bland, unattractive features, he'd been ignored by his father, bullied at school, and pushed aside by the go-getters in the workplace. His facility with arithmetic had landed him this job as a bank teller. It paid well enough to afford a decent studio near the bank, food, a few nice suits, and the occasional treat, but he already knew that he would retire as a teller even if he gave fifty years to the bank.
Excerpt: The Fighting Cockerel lay out of the way in the rolling countryside, two-thousand paces or more from the city. Apart from a vocal rooster in its cage out back, silence reigned over the tavern. Clair found the sticky tables, hot ale, and stale air a decent trade to be rid of the boisterous streets and his badgering sisters. The proprietor, a heavy man with eyebrows thick as rats, had welcomed Clair with a nod and sent over his silent wife with a pint.
Challenge yourself!
Excerpt: I guess I must have been about nine years old that one particular summer when Grandma Sary Holloway came to visit. Grandma smelled like spearmint. I always liked that smell, and me and Grandma got along just fine. She had a cane she used to walk with, all bright and shiny, and made of hickory wood. Grandma had herself a sense of humor a boy such as myself liked mighty fine.
I remember one day Daddy told me to go down to John D. Taylor's store and carry back Grandma a couple of twists of Shoe Peg. Now, the fact is, I was uneducated concerning the twists and turns of an old woman's habits. I didn't know a thing about Shoe Peg.
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This month's question: How do you show character emotions in your story?
Answer below Editors love feedback!
Last month's question: Do you enjoy researching for your writing?
WriterAngel  : Mountaineering! Well done! I've written several climbing themed stories and even a climbing poem or two, but it's difficult to capture the feeling of ascending toward the summit in words. It's a wonderful topic for the newsletter, however. I'll have to read the other stories you linked. Maybe I'll be able to see how it's done. Thank you so much for linking to my little story. I'm flattered that you found it worthy of attention. Thanks again! ~Angel
BIG BAD WOLF is hopping  : Some things to research are rather fun. Others though, disturbing.
Monty  : I have written a lot in my lifetime about mountains. I have climbed a few.
Shadow Prowler-Spreading Love  : Way more than I should! I can lose all track of time and get completely lost in research. It's one of my favorite parts of writing 💻
Sum1  : Let's face it. I'm pretty much a Geek, and am detailed oriented in many things I do. I absolutely LOVE doing research, especially if it's about something I intend to write about.
bryanmchunter: Yes. I've been looking for new questions and answers for my Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? interactive story in particular.
Starling  : The short answer to this is Yes. I have always enjoyed all kinds of research. Most of it make me sound like I know what I am talking about, which can only be a good thing.
THANKFUL SONALI Now What?  : Actually, I haven't really tried writing for something that needed researching. So far I've been writing from my own experience or my imagination. I am not sure if I'd like researching for writing or not.
Paul  : Sometimes the research is more fun than writing the story. Learning the meanings and derivation of words fascinate me.
One of my favorites was “Aftermath.” It was not what I thought, the etymology of it shows that it came from mowing a seed crop like wheat or rice and the aftermath is the regrowth of the dropped seeds. How did that come to mean the rubble after a disaster? Look it up on etymology.com.
LinnAnn -book writer  : Yes! As a former teacher, I love putting in interesting facts that the kids can learn from. A deep-sea monster fish that has two rows of poisonous spikes down its back, and pads behind the eyes that can shock someone with fifty volts. That is enough to stop a heart.
Apondia  : Yes. I like to find the facts I've never heard before. For instance: In days gone by, Dandelions used to be used to treat Sugar diabetes. Now the chemical components of Dandelions are used to make medicines to treat sugar Diabetes.
Emma : If the topic is something that I am interested in or enjoy researching, then absolutely yes! I don't usually do research, though.
Bob : Within certain limitations, yes. I've written one piece that could be classified as historical fiction. As it was set during the great depression. I found Community Coffee came on the market in 1910, so when my main character found a two-pound community coffee can extolling the benefits of chickory flavor in a drift on the bank of the Red River, I knew I was historically correct.
lynn avalon : To some extent, yes. but sometimes I get so involved in my research that I end up procrastinating my writing, so I have to watch out for that.
Brooklynn England : Heck yes! I am like, the research master. At school when the teacher says we have a research project everybody grones but I scream with excitement... I love to research diseases and possessions.
s :
* If it's world-building that I do, then, yes, I love doing the research to make a world real.
* Most of my non-fantasy fiction occurs in areas I live or have lived, so research is ongoing, and that hardly counts.
* If I'm writing non-fiction around music, it's good, except when I have to listen to rubbish songs.
* I do find other non-fiction research a little tedious.
Leslie Loo : I love researching when writing. It's an educational experience.
elephantsealer : Yes, I do enjoy the research work for any of my writing...It gives me many ways to make my writing much more interesting...
N.A Miller : for technical stuff to make it sound truthful and not made up.. yes... I find it very satisfying when I can make a story that actually has realism in it... you can learn alot in research and usually make it sound really good too if you try hard enough.
Jae Mavier  : Yes I enjoy the researching part of formulating my story because I am gaining new knowledge and I'm getting cleverer and much realistic idea :)
keyisfake : Yeah, I learn new things.
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Action/Adventure: June 08, 2022 Issue [#11404]
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