  Short Stories
This week: These Three Things Edited by: Legerdemain  
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These Three Things
Editing is a job every writer must do to improve their story and prepare it for submission and publication. I have three suggestions to keep in mind when editing your work. The first is our classic "show don't tell". Make sure your scenes show the reader what is going on by using dialogue and action. Get your reader involved with the story rather than telling them about it. Examine your story for summaries. Replace the summary with a scene that involves your reader.
The second is rising action, or conflict. Your characters should feel pain, experience anger and suffer disappointment. Don't sell your reader short by not involving them in emotional encounters or compelling conflict. Get your reader engaged! This makes your characters real and individual, and helps your reader relate to them on a personal level.
The third is begin at the beginning. Starting your story with a pile of narrative gives your story a fairy tale feeling and keeps the reader emotionally distant. Start with action and work the back history in later. Much information can be woven into your writing seamlessly without distancing your reader. Large chunks of narrative, even in a flashback can lose your reader's interest quickly.
Try these three things when editing. And remember, writing is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Write on!
This month's question: What methods do you use to work back history into your story?
Send in your reply below.  Editors love feedback!
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Without a doubt, I believe my father had to be one of the greatest sports fans that ever came down the "proverbial turnpike". It didn't matter whether it was football, baseball, basketball, golf, horseshoes, bocce, or bowling. He sincerely loved all kinds of sports and sincerely believed sports helped young athletes develop into even better people.
I had a couple of months to shake off the mothballs and turn Thistledon Cottage back into the popular guest house it had once been.
They recap the details... All of them, around the world, gone with the sunrise. The minute the sun came up, no matter where, no matter what the time zone it came up in, that was all she wrote: gone. No more dandelions.
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The last place I thought I would find myself on a Sunday morning was standing on a patch of grass at the top of a hill wearing funny shoes with spikes on the bottom and holding a golf club in my hand.
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I got my brain damaged last time he came home. I was ten years old.
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Are you looking for a prompt-based writing contest, but a contest with no genre-limitations?
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FICTION STORIES ONLY No Erotica No Vampires, Werewolves, or Zombies
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.
He took off running till he hit the fence then slumped in the dirt and folded his head in his hands. He didn't care if he was being a poor sport, it didn't matter if his coach would be angry. He did care though when his grandmother came and sat in the dirt beside him not saying a word.
Decided to ease back on the warming up exercises, and start off with a slow jog instead. I didn't realize just how slow I was traveling until a brown dog (pedigree unknown) commenced a relationship with my left leg.
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This month's question: What methods do you use to work back history into your story?
Last month's question: Do you try a different narrator or point of view when your story becomes confusing?
DRSmith  replied: Hiya, Leger... For what it's worth, if my story tends to bog down because it becomes "confusing," then from my perspective, that section needs a hard look and solid rewrite. A change in point of view is not likely to help confusion. My take, is that changes in POV should be subtle and work smoothly into the pace with the reader unaware it's been done if the writer is effective in keeping the reader moving with the flow, plot, theme.
Futrboy  responded: At first, I tried not to, but, when I got to my most far-reaching novel "Land of the Blind," I found it unavoidable. It proved impossible to experience the plot through one person since I had several characters vitally important to the book. So, yes, in some situations, several points of view are needed (like in C.J. Ellisson's "The Hunt"). However, for most short stories and novellas, I advise against it. If you want to use several POV's, do yourself a favor and make up a character list, if only for yourself. Trust me. I learned the hard way.
jdenningberg answered: I'm writing some now that I started in first person but later just put that aside and have rewritten it from had been a secondary character's point of view but in third person. It's going a lot better and it's been more interesting for me and all the characters in the story. If you decide to switch, keep the first draft, there's always interesting things you may want use or refer back to!
StephBee - House Targaryen  sent in: Great question! For me, as a I writer, I generally write in the third person limited. Sometimes, I'll do a first person account if I'm a writing a horror story because I find that gives the story a more personal nature. With my romances, I generally stay with two points of view, the heroine and hero. If I'm writing a romantic suspense, I'll add in a third perspective, the villian, to add the element of suspense.
Rhyssa commented: I'm actually in the process of rewriting a short story to move from first person into third--to see if that will tighten the story. It was a suggestion in workshop. I'm actually finding it relatively easy except for dialogue, when I had relied on shifting pronouns to keep the characters straight.
Bluesman reveals: I don't try a different narrator, but I do have another character look at my main once in a while... It becomes interesting, and sometimes talkative!!! |
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Short Stories: May 09, 2012 Issue [#5028]
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