  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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Lights! Camera! Action!!!
Cut! Cut! CUT!!!
Before we start with the action, let's check how our characters are dressed. Clothing can be one of the biggest and most important hints to your readers about the setting of a story.
A teen that appears in a poodle skirt, a blouse with a Peter Pan collar and saddle shoes creates a classic 1950's image. It immediately places a setting around the character without much description. Your readers can imagine the sock hop and souped-up Thunderbird.
A woman ambulating down a path in a flouncy, wedding-cake ruffles and frills of a dress with a parasol resting lightly on her shoulder moves your reader into the Victorian times. The men's costume of the Industrial Era appeared like the black tubes of the smokestacks with long coats of somber colors and tall hats.
A ten-gallon hat and boots with spurs universally sends your story to the West. Imagine a paint pony or a bay gelding tied to the rail outside the saloon.
Even Levi's jeans have a history. They weren't called "jeans" until 1960, before that they were called "waist overalls".
The point of all this is as an author, it is important to understand your setting and do some research as to what types of clothing were worn in that region and in that era. Knowing what your characters are wearing can help your story with an accurate setting, which in turn assists your readers in understanding the setting.
Now if you'll excuse me...I have a fitting with my seamstress for a new ruffled neck collar. 
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Excerpt: Lightning split the night sky as the rain came down in sheets, obscuring the two lane black top. Jerry Harris strained to see the road ahead, the wipers of his Dodge Ram pickup struggling vainly to keep the windshield clear.
Excerpt: As is often the case in our household the conversation eventually turned to sport. “Who are you playing this week Jack?” I asked my son. “The Eagles”, was his reply.
“Actually, you know what, I am thinking about playing next year myself”, I announced.
Excerpt: He was driving down the highway on a dark, foggy night with no destination or any idea as to why he was even driving. The urge to get away from everything was strong; away from his life. Away from the memories that tore at his insides. He felt like a rat trapped in a well. It tried to claw its way out to no avail.
Excerpt:
As the final hymn drew to a close, Pastor Marx moved from behind the pulpit to the center of the sanctuary. “Go in peace. Serve the Lord,” he declared.
“Thanks be to God,” the congregation intoned. The pastor began his recessional as the postlude commenced, completing his journey at the back door of the nave. That familiar cue prompted me to grab Amy’s little hand and shuffle out of the pew toward the center aisle, where we were swept up in the rest of the crowd filing towards the exit.
| |  | Invalid Item
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#1161985 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Damn, I feel skinny.
That was my first thought on walking into the crowded event room. Here I was, finally, at my twenty-year high school reunion. And I was damn skinny.
|  | The Nymph (E)
A tale of loneliness and its foil and its effect on people
#971270 by Matthias  |
Excerpt: I watched the boy, the boy on the bank, picking up pebbles and throwing them into the dark, dirty river. When his hands grew brown from dirt and dust, he washed them in the calm, almost stagnant water. His shirt looked foreign to me with names of bands of which I have never heard; they might as well have been from Brazil and very well could have been.
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#1175190 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: The sun glistened on my dark brunette hair in the memory. It had been so bitter yet bright, a day that cascades itself upon the walls of my mind even presently. My father had moved the two of us to live with a new woman.
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#651316 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: It was a hot August evening and Corky, a young orphan boy, was in the alley behind the big department store. This was his make shift home now. There were about ten families staying back there. They were all homeless.
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#1034245 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: I could tell I was almost there. Through the bare, skinny trees of those gray woods, I could see the shiny bottoms of tin washtubs lined up, hanging along the wall of a weathered back porch. It was the last day of October and my mother had filled my arms with clothes that needed alteration.
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This month's question: What is your favorite era to write in?
Last month's question: How much time do you spend improving your grammar? ?
Replies from readers:
namra: I would want to say, what a well timed posting!
I have been looking for tips on punctuations as I found it is one of the things I am lacking.
I found most of the sites and tips recommended are very useful, pratical and invaluable to acquire.
I hope there will be more posting such as this in the future regarding not only the writing structure but emphasising more on the elements of writing as grammar and punctuations.
Again, thank you for the useful tips.
With regards,
Namra
jaya h : Thank you for info on grammar, it was good to know where to turn, whenever help is needed in writing.
Jaya H.
scribbler : I'm still in high school so I find my grammar is pretty good. I rarely need to think about it, my spelling on the other hand. *shudders* it's terrible.
Mike : I thank you for your encouragement to proper puctuation. I am fifty and well always bombed on Comma and Apostrophy work. I am getting better and am enjoying writing a bit more. I always wanted too, yet plural and singular and Mr. possessive have made a fool of me. I need to refresh from time to time I thank you for the reminder.
Mikeyaw
Andrew  : Improve grammar? What is this? I'm generally good at it, so I rarely take the time to go over it, unless it's a book report for school, in which case I go over it copious times....
`ACB
Lauriemariepea : What an informative and cleverly-written newsletter--thank you, legerdemain! Now, I'm completely aware of how ignorant I am, concerning grammar.
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Short Stories: November 08, 2006 Issue [#1367]
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