This week: What's Your Next Adventure? Edited by: Legerdemain  
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2024 - What's Your Next Adventure?
Lots of people try new sports and hobbies each year. I'm like this, I don't necessarily try new physical things, but I do love discovering new things. One great thing about the internet is that it loves to force suggest new ideas to you every time you open your phone. I get bored! I open my phone and there it is, a cool article about some underwater deep hole.  Click.  I just need to know! I'm aware it's all click bait and I'm probably making someone lots of money but I can't ignore it.
Do all the random factoids I learn help my writing? A few, maybe. But I kill it at trivia.
 So I now know that Peanut, a 21-year-old hen from Michigan, was recently named the world's oldest living chicken by the Guinness Book of World Records. According to the release, Peanut was 20 years, 304 days old as of March 1, 2023.
But I have no idea where my car keys are. Or where I parked at the mall.
Need an inspiration? Check out https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/ Sorry for the time you're about to lose, but what a great place to find some off-the-wall facts!
If you have a little down time this holiday season, think about what you want to write about in 2024. What will be your next adventure? Do you want to start a new activity?
I'm learning to play the recorder. I know, a kid's instrument, but it's helping me learn to read music. And I'm pretty sure I'm driving off all the insects and rats in my county with all my tweedle-squeaking.
I hope it's been an adventurous and fun-filled year for you, my friends. And I hope 2024 brings much more.
Write on!
This month's question: Does random curiosity help you learn new things?
How do you use that in your writing?
Answer below  Editors love feedback!  |
Flash fiction is fun to read and a challenge to write. It must contain all the elements of a larger work of fiction, but in a much shorter space.
Send me a prompt.
I pick the winners each week and send them gps.
I pick the best prompt of the month from the four top weekly winners.
The monthly winner will be awarded this contest's exclusive MB!!!
Excerpt: One Saturday morning, Daddy told me to go down to Taylor's store and buy Grandma two twists of Shoe Peg. The fact is, I was uneducated concerning the winds and turns of an old woman's habits. I didn't know anything about Shoe Peg.
Excerpt: The light of the sunrise shone into the traveler's dark brown eyes as he awoke. Warm in his thick sleeping bag, he stretched his limbs. The brown grass of the Mongolian steppe stretched to the distant horizon. He noticed a thin layer of white frost and could see his breath in the morning air.
Excerpt: The pregnant belly of the sky hung gray and fat above the airfield. Even as its water broke to announce the birth of new rain, Gabe Harlow, Air Marshal, flipped up the collar of his leather jacket and shuddered from the damp and cold.
As much as he tried to ignore it, everything felt wrong about his next flight. He didn’t have the words to describe it but recognized the feeling, the instinct. Something in the air that yearned for thunder and ached for lightning -- something he could sense rather than identify.
Excerpt: “Aulfric, I’ve been waiting for you. Come in, come in,” the king said.
Aulfric strode into the study and approached the desk. The king gestured for him to sit in one of the chairs in front of the desk.
“I’ve received these,” Wulfric said, handing the papers to him.
Aulfric took the papers and began to read them, a scowl appearing on his face as he did so. There had been rumors that a lich had sequestered itself in a long forgotten temple deep in a forest on the edge of the kingdom. It had been terrorizing the local population for several months. It was rumored that the lich had several powerful talismans in its possession. Many had tried and failed to destroy it. At first it had just been rumors. Now, the rumors had been confirmed.
Excerpt: Timbaweea Island is but one of the many islands dotting the coastline of Mozambique. Phenomenally, the dense and isolated jungle island is the only place on Earth where an exceptional and elusive butterfly flutters: the most rare, Speckled Tri-Wing Heliotrope Major.
Several years ago, the magazine, Butterflies Forever, sponsored a contest. Five people who wrote the most compelling reason why butterflies are so special were to be awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to Timbaweea. With the aid of an experienced guide, the winners would search the island, and with luck, photograph its special treasure. One of the lucky winners was a dentist from Odebolt, Iowa.
Excerpt: In the halcyon days of my youth, I was in the Sea Explorers. An offshoot of the Boy Scouts of America, often called Sea Scouts. So, yes, we had sea scouts in the caveman days!
In the mid-1960’s we cruised aboard a 65-foot former aircraft rescue boat, the SSS Tuolumne, of Modesto, California, but actually ported in Stockton. The vessel's Skipper was "Doc" Van-Valen, a local Podiatrist. Our ship's emblem, (and I don't know how BSA ever approved this,) was a Skull and Crossbones, shaded in a yin-yang black over white. To the delight of every adolescent boy who joined the crew, First Mate Daryl, our "Skipper" for events, had a wooden leg... actually, a prosthetic leg. But that was close enough for our imaginations to see ourselves as rowdy sea-dogs!
Excerpt: Turning in a circle, the forest looked the same in all directions. Lost, alone, night was approaching. Kneeling he rifled through his pack for his compass when he recalled he had left it home. All he had was his pocketknife and some water. His phone had no service. The overcast sky made it impossible to determine South. Continuing to walk he heard a roar behind him. He knew the sound. Anxiety descended and he moved faster. The ground began to slope downward. He chanced it an indication a river was further down so he followed it. |
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b}This month's question: Does random curiosity help you learn new things?
How do you use that in your writing?
Answer below Editors love feedback!
Last month's "Action/Adventure Newsletter (November 22, 2023)" question: Do you bring on the storms in your stories?
Beacon's Light  : You know, I'm working on bringing the storms to my 3rd book but there's something I just have to think where the story is going to go, once I figure it out. Those are good questions and I have to think about that.
Fernando  : I have only used storms once in my writing but I find that I have used this storm in particular to create suspense. Later on I will be involving a snow storm so that will be fun!
Cubby&Hubby~WeddingAnniversary  : Only a few times, but most recently, I wrote "Unprepared" , in which I received 2nd Place in September's "Journey Through Genres: Official Contest" . 
Victoria : Rain, wind, even a symbolic tornado. I just try to not be terribly obvious about it and to not overuse it.
Massive Friendly Derg  : It honestly never occurred to me to put weather in my stories, much less make it part of the story.
Khola Mousethyme  : One of my stories is all about a storm...."The Darkest Storm" .
It needs a good rewrite but at least it is finished.
s : Here's the nerd in me.
If I am setting a story in our world with definite dates, then I download the Bureau of Meteorology info for the months required to make sure the weather is accurate...
So, if I want storms (and I often do) I just get the info for winter: June, July and August. Then I can pick the best days.
Elisa the Bunny Stik  : I tend to prefer to bring the heat. Heat can exacerbate awful conditions better than storms.
deltablue : In "Delta Blue," I use summer heat and humidity for one character to undo a couple of buttons on her shirt. The MC notices her exposure, which is one more reason he becomes attracted to her. Later, the same character becomes uneasy during a thunderstorm which causes a power outage. Just as someone she doesn't want to see arrives at her apartment. In a WIP, a rain shower forces two people who had been walking along a country road to seek shelter. There, one finally admits to being in love with the other. And elsewhere, I've used whatever the weather is doing just to see the scene for anything that happens outdoors.
Bob : Not unless I'm writing about Noah.
keyisfake : When it's needed.
Detective : I do occasionally bring storms into my stories, but it depends on the story. It depends on what's going on in the story and if it requires such weather. Currently, I have two stories that involve storms trapping people in a location, including my current NaNo.
Joey's Spring has Sprung  : I lived in the country growing up. I was driving tractors and other farm vehicles at the age of ten... in the late sixties, at the age of 13... I used to drive my brothers and neighborhood kids, ten miles, to the movies in town.
But I am a boomer, born and raised, in the days, before kids stopped being taught how to do anything useful in life. Yes, there are many things today that make life better. But it is sad that so many of what used to be rights of passage and human milestones are lost due to overprotection and stupidity.
Damon Nomad  : Good newsletter and an excellent reminder. I rarely use the weather to help move my stories along. Missed opportunity! I'm adding it to my checklist.
citruspocket : My main WIP is set on an island, so I'm always trying to remember that it should be windy when I have scenes set outside! Your mention of "hair getting messy" inspired me, though - BRB going to rewrite all my outdoor scenes and mention how it musses up everyone's hair, haha!
Thanks to everyone for your awesome replies!
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Action/Adventure: December 20, 2023 Issue [#12331]
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