  Short Stories
This week: You're Toast! 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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You're Toast!
It's coming! I can feel it in the air! Thanksgiving? Christmas? No...it's NaNoWriMo burnout!
First let me say, I admire everyone who attempts to win the NaNoWriMo challenge and am in awe of those who finish. But just like going to Uncle Rick's cabin in the woods to celebrate the holidays with family, close quarters with the same people for a month can be excruciating. Yes, yes...the outline says you should be packing your bags and heading back to the big city, but somewhere along the line your spouse got the flu and chummed cranberry chutney behind the cabin for two days.
The turkey was supposed to be golden crispy on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside, but Grandpa dozed off after he dropped the turkey in the fryer and the bird ended up being turkey jerky. We won't even mention the oddities we found in the stuffing. Anyhow, final goodbyes are being said and you're headed down the dirt track to home sweet home. Hope you took enough plastic bags, the spouse still looks a bit green behind the gills.
When NaNo is finished, I'd like to issue another little challenge of my own. Keep writing! All those wonderful characters and settings that went into your novel can go on the back burner for a while - let them simmer before you reach in and start the edit process. Let the smell of burnt turkey fade from your clothing. In the meantime, still sit down every day and try some of the various contests and challenges around the site. The contest hosts have missed you and would be thrilled to see some new faces in the forums. It'll keep your daily writing habit alive and your muse entertained.
This month's question: Do you feel short stories need all the elements that novels have? (Plot, scene, characters, action, and conclusion?)
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Please stop in and give these stories a review!
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Excerpt: “What is wrong with you people? I’ve done nothing wrong. Where are you taking me?” Kieran Nightshade shouted over the bustle of the crowd and rattling of wagon wheels over the harsh, rocky terrain. She struggled against the rope that bound her to the post behind her, but the action only caused her restraints to dig painfully deeper into her wrists.
Excerpt: They knew that I had seen them from the distance. I waved at them, and they immediately waved back. I was following orderly marches of birds on the wet sand, and I sometimes ran in the direction of gardens of terns and seagulls—making them fly away like disorganized little clouds. The two ladies were sitting on their folding beach chairs by the sandy water’s edge, and their small, pink and yellow parasols gently shook in the breeze, over their heads.
Excerpt: She ignored him, and reached into a pouch in her filthy, disheveled clothes. She pulled out a somewhat cleaner rag. Her husband shook his head. She wiped the mud from her face. A piercing outcry came crashing down upon the diggers from above. Her adult son looked up at the somewhat darkened, moonlit sky; a large, silhouetted, winged figure flew in circles, hovering above everyone.
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Excerpt: Lucas' eyes quickly darted to the window, but not quickly enough. Liam noticed this and demanded, " What is going on Lucas? Is there someone out there? Are we in danger?"
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Excerpt: People always ask: How did you meet? “You’re such an interesting couple; it must be quite a story.” Evangeline and I share a look. Not really, we think. We met in the cafeteria. I was ravenous with roast beef; Eva was bored with her salad. I made a joke and she didn’t laugh. We didn’t fall in love at first sight—too many surface flaws to be seen: I bear this eyepatch and hairy arms; she has a scarred chin and vertigo. She says gravity makes her awkward… Gravity and the wings.
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Excerpt: “Can I have my key’s Sarah?” There wasn’t an answer. I looked around and saw Sarah skipping around the corner to the exit of the cinema. Helen was busy explaining to the cashier that I was just getting my wallet and so hadn’t noticed Helen running off.
Excerpt: Or is it die? he wonders. He's currently alive but the jump from the bridge should take care of that soon enough.
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Excerpt: Stewie was Stewart Townsend, a bounty hunter, exhausted after the wild weekend he’d just survived. Stewie stretched, yawned, and punched the air in mock frustration. However, just yesterday that frustration wasn’t mock and his temper had reached its boiling point. Stewie began to wonder if the trunk of his souped up Mustang were a good idea. Stewie shrugged and figured he would burn that bridge when he got to it. Of course, rides in his trunk were not unknown to David Gillespie, the bondsman he worked with. Davie didn’t tacitly approve of the mode, but he didn’t explicitly prohibit it either. Either way Stewie thought, the skip had been caught, and his job was now to get her to Davie so he could get her to arraignment tomorrow, and blessedly get paid.
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This month's question: Do you feel short stories need all the elements that novels have? (Plot, scene, characters, action, and conclusion?)
Send some feedback! I'd really hate to make up some replies...
Last month's question: What type of story combinations intrigue you?
Zeke  replied: I have experimented with bringing a historical event into a modern setting to get a response. For example, what if the Titanic sunk yesterday? Wouldn't our first response be terrorism?
dejavu_BIG computerprobs  answered: An interesting, thought provoking newsletter, Leger ! Westerns or history combined with the paranormal really intrigue me. Sci-fi and paranormal as wel, although I am not sure I'm high- tech enough to do a sci-fi story !
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Short Stories: November 22, 2011 Issue [#4736]
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