  Short Stories
This week: 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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It's hot!
I'm tired!
I'm bored!
My muse went on vacation!
Sometimes it's hard to come up with ideas for stories. Or you have a prompt from a contest, but you don't know what to do with it and you have a deadline. How do you come up with ideas? I researched some methods to come up with new ideas or ways to break a writer block.
Freewrite – Type whatever words flow into your mind. Don’t look at the screen, or paper, don’t go back and edit, just let the words flow from your mind. There are no “bad” ideas during a free write.
Focused Freewriting – Free write for a set period of time, do not stop until the set time expires. If the idea flow slows, let your writing slow also, but do not stop.
Invisible Writing - If you have the overwhelming urge to go back and edit during free write, cover your screen with a thick sheet of paper. Turn off your monitor and type.
Brainstorm! – Generate ideas as they come to you, then go back and expound on each idea, adding new ones. Do not edit as you type.
“Brainstorming” was originated by Alex F. Osborn in 1953 in a book called Applied Imagination . Osborn was an executive advertiser.
Idea web or clustering – Good for handwritten creative brainstorming. Start with a central idea and draw lines radiating from that idea to related ideas, and then radiate lines again from each related idea with more ideas.
Freight train your ideas – Find an idea in your free writing that appeals to you and start a new train of thought on that idea.
Ideation – Share your brainstorming ideas and create new thinking. Collaborate on project ideas. It’s not necessary to share with another writer; even children can come up with fun leaps of thought and ideas.
Eavesdropping – Sometimes an overheard phrase can prompt a whole new story idea. Also, listen to other’s conversations to learn the rhythm of dialog. Too often writing contains too much dialog because authors don’t allow the participants to have understanding and intuition. Remember, information by eavesdropping can be a very clichéd fiction device.
New Surroundings – While on your vacation take a good look at your new surroundings. Write some notes about the new terrain, language and people. This could spark some new story ideas when you get back home.
When you and your muse return from vacation, I hope some of these methods help you get started on a new story. Write on!
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Excerpt: Bartholomew and Oliver Cummings enjoyed spending summer afternoons in a secluded spot by the brook. They had discovered it when they were boys, and to brothers of five and eight, it was the most wonderful place to go and escape chores while inventing great adventures, fighting pirates or giant sea monsters.
Excerpt: Santol fruit was discovered many years ago. How it grew up here in Asia, I simply do not know. It is sweet, its fruit has the size of a tennis ball. If you eat it to include its seeds, watch out, you'd be inside Mama's room for the whole day
Excerpt: There was nothing Albert Collins hated more than hauling coal on a road that he had never driven before, and in that opinion he was not alone. Pulling an eighty ton shifting load of black gold in a bucket of steel balanced atop twenty-two rubber tires was dangerous enough, but throw in blind curves, hill after hill, and reckless drivers that wanted to play chicken and it was enough to make an undertaker sweat.
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Excerpt: The boat rocked on gentle waves of the northeast Carribean. The weather was perfectly suited for a diving adventure off the coast of St. Maartens. Luke, his mother, and the crew of the Lucky Lady had left Phillipsburg on the early morning tide, and were now anchored in the Statia Maine Park.
Excerpt: Katie and her mother were walking along the shore as the sun begins to descend in the sky. Hand in hand they shuffle through the waves as they lap at their bare feet. Katie looks out across the ocean. It stretches to the horizon aflame with color as stars start to open their eyes and the moon looms in the growing gloom.
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Excerpt: I hung my head and strolled outside to my workshop. The sun shone brightly, creating a beautiful day, almost too beautiful for the task that lay before me. The sun enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with the snow pillowed clouds that floated effortlessly through the pale blue skies. A chill lingered in the air, and I felt a shudder run the length of me.
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Excerpt: I feel more alone than ever. I shiver but I don't feel cold. It could be from this cheap, degrading gown they had me put on about a half hour ago. They stuffed my clothes into a plastic bag no bigger than a lunch box and shoved it into an even smaller locker.
Excerpt: The moonlight shone through the bars, dimly highlighting one figure as he leaned against the wall, his short stumpy arms crossed in front of him. His grey eyes wincing, making the wrinkles in his pointy nose more conspicuous, to see the mysterious figure that stood on the other side of the cell.
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Excerpt: I find myself spending more time with the body, watching it. I can’t say why, but its stillness calms me, comforts me. Its coldness brings me some scrap of warmth.
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Excerpt: It was the fourth of June, when that driver of the Cadillac darkened my doorstep. His hat lay squared even with his ears, squashed down over his eyebrows. But that grey Cadillac was something else.
Excerpt: I thought Mom would burst with excitement when the invitation came. The Andrews were throwing a party for Lynne’s tenth birthday. Mom worshipped the Andrews. “They live by Nickajack Creek,” Mom said, as if moving from the city somehow made them better than us.
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This month's question: How do you find new story ideas?
Last month's question: Are there words that you commonly associate with another item?
obwan  replies: Ledgermain, This was an interesting article, but one of your examples has an even deeper history and meaning.
You used the word "Satanic" as an eponym from "Satan", but "satan" was actually an ancient Hebrew or Babylonian word which meant "adversary". It wasn't until the Christian New Testament that "satan" became a proper name - so this word has undergone a double transformation when used as "satanic".
Thanks for an interesting newsletter.
Come Fly with Me--Kiter answers: Many words have the consequence of calling up other associations. Symbolism is based on such associations. Bread is rich with meanings. In the Hippy culture, bread meant money. To a Christian, bread may mean food, a meal, communion, or Jesus (I am the Bread of Life). Sometimes it means the grain the bread is made from. To a writer each meaning of a word or each reference is significant.
Be careful with this one. Those strange word assiciations are common in schizophrenia. Of course, it may be involved in creativity, too.
Comments from readers:
Stiggles  : Thanks for the fantastic, informative newsletter. I've never heard the word "eponym" before so thanks for teaching me something new!
Cookie ~ contemplatingareturn : I loved this issue, I really learned something that was interesting and helpful; wonderful issue! And thanks so much for featuring my story in the article  , when I read down the picks to do some reading of my own  , I find me  .
assayouti : Something new for me. Thanks.
Strange Wulf : Interesting NL. I've used such words before without a thought as to what they were called. Now I know! Eponyms! ^_^
Btw, I've heard that the correct quote for Murphy's Law goes like this:
"If there is more than one way to do something, and one of them is wrong, someone will inevitably do it."
What irony! XD If this is true, the man was a victim of his own law!
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Short Stories: July 19, 2006 Issue [#1149]
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