  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.
This week's Short Story Editor
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 It's the most wonderful time of the year...
The Christmas holiday is right around the corner and in the United States; the winter season is about to begin.  Have you noticed the winter theme on Writing.com? I love that little snowman hiding behind the sign. 
There are lots of activities and contests going right now. With all this inspiration right here, it's easy to get swept up in the spirit and write some holiday-themed stories.  Since the pool is closed, you'll have time to check them out!
Now, once the contests are over and awards are given, what do you do with your story? I have a suggestion...polish it up and start submitting it for publication. Publishers work far in advance of their publication dates, so many start accepting stories for their December publications early in the year.
So don't let your stories languish with all the torn wrapping paper and discarded bows, send them on their way! Perhaps next year we can feature you here on our site as a published author. You can find many of our published authors under the "Item Jumps" drop down list under "Authors In Print".
Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and a fruitful, prosperous and inspiring New Year!
 Legerdemain
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Excerpt: I remember the old days of Christmas, before the legislature renamed it to Annual Gift Holiday. Christmas cheer and Christmas spirit emanated from children's eyes as they hung their stockings by the fireplace and left milk and cookies for the universally beloved Santa Claus.
Excerpt: Though Nic was a prestigious man, the ace in his field, was not at all selfish. He had no desire to blow off Christmas with the kids or otherwise disrupt the holidays. A few simple hours of quality time with his wife is what he wanted, a little holiday time spent relaxing together.
Excerpt: At first glance, I thought he was a character from one of the old Western movies I'd enjoyed as a kid. Maybe it was the craggy face that looked liked time had sculpted it with wind and sun, or maybe it was way he walked, straight-backed and erect, despite a pronounced limp.
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Excerpt: OK, Mom, I love you. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye.” Valerie hung up the phone and plodded into the living room, dropping down on the couch with a weary sigh.
“Everything good with your folks?” Josh said, looking up from the brief he was studying. Valerie wished he wouldn’t bring his work home with him, but she supposed there was no avoiding it.
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Excerpt: We crept quietly as caterpillars along the hallway, past our parents' bedroom and into the living room. We froze when the grandfather clock began chiming midnight.
When at last the venerable old clock stopped raising the alarm, we went on with our mission. We found ourselves under a tall pinon tree we had earlier transformed into a glittering Christmas wonder.
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Excerpt: Maybe the squirrel family won’t miss me. I hope the neighboring trees treat them with respect. Anyway, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking now that I’m sitting here amongst all these youngsters. They seem giddy, but I’ve seen and heard about it a hundred times. Some family takes a fellow pine tree home this time every year to “beautify” him or her only to be thrown back to the forest somewhere foreign to die.
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Excerpt: Benny stood alone at the bus stop, listening to the crooning voice of Bing Crosby singing White Christmas from static speakers of the department store across the street. His old, ragged knapsack hung by a single strap, causing it to hang haphazardly across his deformed back. Diligently holding out his weather-beaten baseball hat with a dirt streaked hand that shook with age, he waited for the familiar clinking of coins from kind passersby.
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Excerpt: I reflect back on the time when I worked in retail during the Holidays -- thankfully, many, many moons ago -- and by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, those carols haunted my dreams and became cursedly stuck in my head till at least February!
Comedy relief was my only saving grace!
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Excerpt: Has to be something newly written based on the weeks prompt which I will post in the forum-weekly
Excerpt: Welcome to the DIALOGUE 500! This is a weekly contest using only 'spoken' and/or 'internal' dialogue. Some weeks I will offer up a prompt, and some weeks I will just leave it open for you to decide what to write about.
Excerpt: The Bards Hall is a monthly contest, running from the beginning to the end of each month, with a new genre for each round. We try to make things fun and interesting, and provide prompts you might not see anywhere else.
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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This month's question: Do you change your writing style to try and win contests?
Last month's question: What is your favorite era to write in?
Replies:
writeone  : Thanks for the newsletter. I found the website www.sensibility.com has some great vintage images. You can even see patterns, and they give a brief history of how that particular clothing item came to be made. Anyone can also google fashion and then a date. It takes time to sift through the different web offerings, but it is definately worth it to make your piece authentic. Thanks for a great newsletter. Hope your fitting went well.
LOL! Thank you for the great resource!
angelaask  : I'm complete believer that the character's clothing and appearance help add to the setting, as the saying goes 'clothes make the man'. But, I would greatly appreciate it if you could elaborate more on this topic. People always tell me to show rather than just tell the story. Is there a way to do it without boring your readers to death with paragraph after paragragh of monotous descriptions such as, 'he or she was wearing....'?
Mavis touches on this in her reply.
Mavis Moog : I agree that clothing styles are a useful setting clincher, but may I make a plea for interwoven descriptions. Whole sentences devoted to the clothes of a character can be pedestrian.
His cape swept the ground behind him, is better than, He wore a long cape.
Thanks Mavis, I agree! Dropping a laundry list (yes, that's a pun) of clothing description is not necessary. It's better to weave it into your story in a subtle manner.
vivacious  : What is my favorite era to write in?
The future, the far, far future, because then I don't have to worry about researching clothing styles, forms of speech, political structures, and maintaining accurate descriptions of towns and countries.
I guess you could say I'm a lazy kind of writer.
I don't know if I would agree that makes you lazy. Creating a whole original environment is hard work too.
NS needs a new muse : I like to write in either modern times or the near future to give the reader a sense that it could be happening right around them or could happen in their lifetime.
Good idea.
Vivian  : My favorite time period in which to write is my life time. Oh, guess that does cover a wide range of time, doesn't it?  ~~ Viv
Andrew : Anytime, I guess. Sometimes, I like to randomly pick a number using the virtual dice and use that as a year to base a story on.
A great use for the virtual dice tool on our site! |
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Short Stories: December 06, 2006 Issue [#1413]
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