  Short Stories
This week: Edited by: Legerdemain  
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1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
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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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A Good Description is Worth a Thousand Words
Have you ever come across a phrase in a book and thought, "Awesome description!". Generally, after I think it's awesome, I think, "Oh, why didn't I think of that?". Some authors are talented at finding the perfect phrase and injecting an entire image in a reader's head.
"Night was fading over the fields as if the rain had washed the darkness out of the hem of its garment." ~Inkheart ~Cornelia Funke
In editing your writing, when finding a big descriptive chunk that is flat and unimaginative, try to find a phrase that will inject an image directly into your reader's thoughts. In my story, "Rusty and the Shillelagh" , I could have described Rusty's injury in great gory detail. While I wanted the reader to have an image, I didn't want the focus to be on injury itself. So instead I wrote "The lump on Rusty's head was growing away from his skull like an egg coming out of a chicken." Many reviewers found the description amusing and didn't focus on it being a bloody injury.
"For me, good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else." On Writing ~ Stephen King
King goes on to say, "I think locale and texture are much more important to the reader's sense of actually being in the story than any physical description of the players. Nor do I think that physical description should be a shortcut to character." "Before beginning to write, I'll take a moment to call up an image of the place, drawing from my memory and filling my mind's eye, an eye whose vision grows sharper the more it is used."
It is a good exercise for any writer. Try getting an image you see in your mind, to text on your paper or screen. Once you cut the extraneous fluff, see if the words you have left still complete a picture for a reader. Send in a response below in the Ask and Answer section, about what great descriptive phrases you've written or read.
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Excerpt: Do you have a story about your child or children that you would love to share with the world? Is there an extraordinary event that needs to be written down? Here's your moment to shine with that tale. Fiction and non-fiction are welcomed.
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Excerpt: The Spring Edition opens March 20. Deadline April 20 at midnight WDC time. Make your plans to write a Classic and come back when the season changes.
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#1629297 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: The road in front of Basil Bob's Pizza & Wings was a busy one. Back when it was lucrative, he’d have selected a dark and desolate border town, with dust and tumbleweeds blowing down the center line, but the days of wayward souls driving empty highways were over. Now, buying and selling souls was a business like any other, and the key was location, location, location.
| |  | Colin Rhodes (13+)
"He bought into the tragic starving artist stereotype and ruined it for himself-"
#559326 by Veritas  |
Excerpt: The putrid green, rotary phone wasn’t really an important part of the time I spent at the Cave. But every time the phone rang, and I put the receiver back in its cradle I couldn’t help taking a couple minutes to just stare at it. Or rather through it, since in the phone wasn’t really the focus of my attention.
| | | Moving On (13+)
How much would you pay? (EDITOR'S PICK 3/17/10 SHORT STORY NL)
#1645760 by BScholl  |
Excerpt: Big clumsy Clew dismounted the truck and probed his pocket for the key to unlock the gate. He swung the heavy gates wide open, as they groaned on their hinges, and attempted to latch each side. Suddenly, he looked up admiring the beauty before him, and then turned his attention back to the gate latches.
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Excerpt: Standing in the front hallway of what had been her home for so long, Carly took a last, lingering look around. Everything was so familiar, brought up so many memories – the scuff on the floor where her son David had attempted to rollerblade indoors when he was eleven, the lop-sided bookshelf Sam had mistakenly believed he could construct by himself, the painting that they all hated but continued to display because it had been a wedding gift from her aunt.
Excerpt: I've hated circus clowns ever since one popped a balloon in my face when I was five. Grown men in fuzzy orange wigs and polka dot pants who talk in squeaky little voices are just plain creepy. Rodeo clowns are a different story though. Cowboys get all the cheers and the glory, but our job is easy compared to the clown's. All a bull rider like me has to do is stay on for eight seconds. The clown has to distract a fuming mad bull from the cowboy it's just thrown off it's back, keep from getting stomped to death himself, and give the crowd a good show at the same time. I have nothing but respect for every rodeo clown I've ever met, and Buttons was one of the best.
Excerpt: I pick up the reports and read through them. Starting about a week ago thin strands of solid gold starting showing up all over the city. The gold had been verified as genuine. The sudden increase in supply was causing the price of gold to drop suddenly. We were being pressured by the governor to find the source and put an end to it.
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Excerpt: We called her Ms. Claus (or was it Claws?). It was more ironic than anything else, seeing how she was the meanest, most ornery old crone this side of the poles. She'd been old as long as anyone could remember- like she was born that way. That she was actually a widow was a question for the ages because no one could recall her husband.
Excerpt: All that cold cash emitted a warm sunny glow that temporarily restored his mood. He tried to reboot his fantasy train from where Leo had derailed it. But a little black cloud began to form and soon he felt the first cold drops of alarm pattering on his thick skull. Shortly it was a downpour.
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This month's question: What great descriptive phrases have you written or read?
Last month's question: How do you use real life stories in your writing?
Lornda  : I enjoyed reading your comments on story ideas. I never thought about using the news. Thanks for the story highlight! In answer to your question: Usually, real life snippets are infused into my characters, whether it's a personality quirk, their appearance, or an incident that's happened in my past. By using this method the characters become stronger in my mind, making the story flow onto the paper easier.
scribbler : Some of my favourite stories that I've written have some directly out of moments in my life that I remember as being beautiful or poignant. At the time I might not have felt that way but when I look BACK on those moments I can finally see them from a objective viewpoint. The best feeling is if someone who was there in the moment happens to read the story and suddenly realize just how lovely or heartbreaking it actually was.
Ԝ€ß☆ԜiʈCH  : Great kick-start to story ideas, Leger! Fine Newsletter, that I am glad I stopped what I was doing, to read. Sometimes we are so busy with things, we simply delete and move on. Bad move, because, we could lose something quite enkightening. Also, I would have missed the fact that you highlighted my story, """I Hate Early Morning Visitors"" ."  Thank you for that BTW!  You rock!
Zeke : I find dreams to be a great inspiration. I keep a notebook on my nightstand to jot notes about my dreams so I can build a story around them. Sometimes the story is nothing like the dream, but the subject is the thing. Zeke
Torschlusspanik : I have already used it once and it got amazing response from the readers. I had read a newspaper article about a lady found frozen near a small town church. I took the article and added a bit of imagination and the end product was a short story called '"Invalid Item" '. Though it didn't win any prizes but the reviews given by the readers were touching, and it made the effort worthwhile.
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Short Stories: March 17, 2010 Issue [#3614]
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