  Short Stories
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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Or could a thousand words paint a picture?
It's an intriguing quote by Napoleon Bonaparte. How do you use images in conjunction with your writing? An image can be a wonderful prompt to start a story. I've held contests with that idea in mind. In one contest, the contestants had to look at a different image each day, for fifteen days and write about the image they saw. The requirement to remain a contestant was to write at least fifteen words but no longer than fifteen minutes. Their fifteen minutes of writing a quick story was judged on originality and creativity relating to the prompt. I'd like to think some of those entries would someday become stories.
Using images to spur your creativity could be a fun daily activity. Every day, you could open a magazine and write about whatever image is on that page. It's a great exercise to improve your descriptive work. Think about color, texture, sounds that might be heard...use all your senses!
Or you could test your creative memory. Give yourself five minutes to gaze at the image and then close the book. Write about everything you saw in that picture and compare it when you're done. How well did you do?
Images are fun to illustrate your stories. You can add images to your writing if you have an Upgraded membership or higher. With a Premium level membership, you can use animated images. ** Image ID #1226769 Unavailable ** Pictures are wonderful additions to family anecdotes and historical writing.
If you haven't been to the locale yourself, photographs can be great help with settings in your story. Writing about a character's visit to Stonehenge can be easier and end up true to life if you look at some photographs of the site before you begin to write. Searching for the right words to express the intense azure blue in the Blue Grotto is better inspired by gazing at a photograph.
Next time you're looking for just the right words for a setting, or need a push to write something new, think of using images. Write on! |
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#1194695 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: You. Me. Sitting together in the back of your dad’s old Ford pickup, ages ago. I was six and you had just turned seven. We were riding out to where the world ended, out past the measured rows of apple trees and the tangled growth of evergreen, out to where land stopped and water began. There was this big green balloon and you were holding it up in front of your face, a contorted demon through the translucent green mask.
Excerpt: I picked up the whetstone off the scrubbed wooden table and brought it over to the three legged stool in the corner of the cabin. The dusty air filled my nostrils and coated my sinuses with the labor and hard work of many years. It had to be just after sunrise because I could hear the cuckolds chirping bloody murder in the trees outside.
| | Papa’s Girl (18+)
A young woman stands firm despite her father's backward thinking
#607476 by Joy  |
Excerpt: “That writing in the back... What does that mean, Papa?” I watched Adelina gently touch the silver chain of Papa’s pocketwatch.
“Aha! Volere è potere. When there’s a will, where’s a way,” Papa said
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Excerpt: Eric pulled his phone out and looked at the text message displayed, When u coming home?
Had 2 work late. Waiting at subway now.
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#1204757 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: John stepped outside his building into the chill October air. Standing for a moment under the overhang, he pulled the gold-plaited lighter out of his pocket and lit a cigarette. Just beyond, the city sprawled out before him with that gray, disheveled beauty only a city as large as this one could possess.
Excerpt: Roger had been drifting in and out of sleep for the past three hours, but now at 6:30 in the morning he was curiously awake. The fact that he was lying on a vinyl couch with a thin blanket and no sheets partially accounted for his restlessness, but of course it wasn't just that.
Excerpt: THE BIRTH HAD been quick, but painful. Lost Crow had known it was coming soon but the way it came upon her, so abruptly, caught her offguard as she was in the midst of the woods gathering berries. One moment she was stooping to pick a blueberry; the next, her basket had fallen to the ground, and she had bent over, clutching at her belly and grimacing in pain. There hadn't even been any warning before that
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Excerpt: I was one of the animals in the stable. I've heard humans refer to us as lambs. I was a witness to a baby’s birth. Many called Him the Savior. Though I had trouble at first understanding just what Savior meant, I later understood the meaning. My mother had great understanding and wisdom and taught me everything I needed to know. She was a good listener and heard many humans talk about this future event, and now it was finally here and we got to witness it for ourselves.
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Excerpt: I'm having a cup of the 'Gentle Breeze' herbal tea you sent me last month. Girl, I really need it because I almost had a car accident on the way to work this morning. Ricky J., my favorite radio announcer cuts up every chance he gets. That man and his crew have me in stitches everyday. My radio dial is stuck on WLAF because Ricky J is a big laugh per minute. Let me tell you why he had me going.
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#1226533 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: If a little, old lady was walking across the street, there was no doubt in Alison’s mind she would speed up to run her over. She slaved twenty-four hours a day for the last six months, taking care of her grandmother, and now as she left the lawyer’s office, Grandma’s lack of generosity irritated Alison immensely.
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This month's question: How do you use images in conjunction with your writing?
Last month's question: How do you enrich your vocabulary?
Thanks to all the readers who replied.
Here's what they had to say:
⭐Princette♥PengthuluWrites  : How do I enrich my vocabulary? Hmm...well, ever since I was a little kid, my parents noticed I used awfully big words, and it was because I read all the time. Even when I was 6, I was reading "adult" books and learning all these new words. I could figure out their meaning by their context and then use them in everday conversation. Of course, if you go by this method, people can generally tell when you've just learned a word out of a book, because you pronounce it wrong! :)
Practice makes perfect. One should definitely look up a new word and understand its meaning before using it.
Breezy-E ~ In College  : Enriching vocabulary is easy: you just need to read a lot. Most of the time, you get the idea behind the words from context, and when you want to use them (or something similar) you just check a dictionary or thesaurus. And for those who hate pawing through those books, some writing programs come with them!
The real problem comes when it's time to decide if a word is too advanced for the age group you're writing for...
Breezy-E
Robert Waltz  : "How do you enrich your vocabulary?" Well, when I'm not making up words, I work out my gray muscles by reading. Lately, I've been getting better at actually looking up words I can't figure out from context. It's good to use thesauri, but they don't always help you use a word in its proper setting. Writers should read. 
ydnim is back : I think that focusing on expanding your vocabulary is fantastic. I like stories that use a wide array of words. They enhance descriptions and help bring new life to stories. One thing I do want to mention about using a thesaurus - and only because I was on yearbook with a student who did this in college - is to make sure that the adjective you use is right for what you're trying to say. Just because it's an adjective for a word doesn't mean it means the exact same thing.
Thanks again for a great newsletter!
Rayne : To answer the question about vocabulary, I read. I think the best way to construct a vocabulary is to pay attention to words, and not just phrases as a whole. reading a new author, (as opposed to the newest releases from my favorite authors) is a good idea, a new author from a different area/state/country will have a totally different vocabulary, and the more we read the more we absorb new words.
patheral: I enrich my vocabulary mostly by reading, reading, oh, and reading. When writing, I don't know what I would do without the research tools in my word processor, especially the dictionary and the thesaurus! I've always used - and still do - the paper versions, but right-clicking is so much easier!
Moody Blue: Needs an Upgrade : Hi Leger. Great Newsletter. In answer to your question: How do I enrich my vocabulary? I try to use a word or words I have never used before. I also have a thesaurus sitting on the computer.
StephBee - GOT Survivor  : I have a thesaurus within arms reach when I write. I can honestly say it does help to spice up my writing and it gives me fresh ideas when I notice I'm being repeative with words. Thanks for the reminder. A thesaurus can be a writer's best friend.
theblueninja: You still need to use good judgement when using a thesaurus though. I can't even remember how many times i've read somebody's work and they have some long, complicated word that does not make any sense where it is. 'I found it in my thesaurus' they say. Not all of the synonyms for a word will work in every situation that the original will. Example: 'Damp' has many syllables, one of which listed is irriguous, which means well-watered, such as land. So to substitute 'irriguous towel' for 'damp towel' would not exactly work.
--Matheson
billwilcox: Leger,
I have decided to start writing without words. Instead I will use pictures and symbols like Prince, or the artist formerly known as 'some symbol or another'. I have a box of crayons, so if the scene is outside, I will use red and blue. If the scene is inside, I will use black and uh, the other black. In this way, my readers will be enthralled with the imagery of the story: the pink dialogue, the brown dirt. But I can't think of what I should use for trees...*checks thesaurus (box of crayons)...Oh yeah, there it is...green.
You color some wonderful pictures Bill. Write on!
inbuninbu-- in Japan!! : One of the eaiest and most convenient ways to enrich your vocabulary and increase your stock of unusual and interesting words, is to **READ!** I am certain I owe my vocabulary to all the long Sundays I spent reading fantasy novels as a child, but even now, when I find a spare moment to open a non-academic book, if I stumble across a new word I add it to my repertoire. When you're reading and you encounter a new word whose meaning you are unsure of, don't simply skate over it in hopes the context will make it clear, look it and write it down in a notebook specially kept for that purpose. Also, I'd caution against using a new word without checking the meaning in a dictionary first, as that is how misuse of a word can occur, wich might detract from an otherwise perfect, well-written piece. Also, sometimes in can be inadveertently really funny, which isn't what you want in a sombre period piece, a serious crime novel, or a terrifying monster story.
fleckgirl: As you mentioned in your newsletter, I subscribe (actually a friend gifted to me) to A Word A Day. Each week typically has a theme and I've found that my vocabulary has grown as a result besides the fact that some of the words and themes are just plain fun! I also have saved thesaurus.com and rhymezone as favorites on my internet browser. Every little bit helps!
Fleck Girl
Rapunzel : Regarding thesaurus usage, I'd also advise that once you pick a word, look up that word in the dictionary just to make sure it's the perfect word to use. Thesauruses are full of near-synonyms, but sometimes a word the thesaurus recommends won't have the exactly the right meaning, and you'll never know for sure until you look it up.
Great newsletter!
bazilbob: Great newsletter on expanding vocab, if you have any other hints, that'd be great, it's something i struggle with. I love my theasaurus, but as soon as I've found and used a word, I tend to forget it, and then have to look it up again later. Also, my creative writing teacher in yr 1 of my degree was very anti-theasarus, he felt that they only offer the hope of finding that perfect word, but rarely actually deliver it. What do you think?
I think it can be a great tool. But, like a monkey wrench in the hands of a baker, you have to know how to use it. You can only expand your vocabulary by adding words to it and using them on a regular basis.
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Short Stories: March 07, 2007 Issue [#1581]
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