  Short Stories
This week: Make it Believable 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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No matter what the premise of your story, your reader must be engaged to enjoy it. I can't tell you how many stories I've read where the setting is awesome, the characters are interesting but the story falls flat because something in the story arc feels false. I'm fine with suspending belief in a fantasy setting. But the base of the story has to feel plausible. There still has to be a human element to your characters and story that I can connect with.
Big jumps in time without reason, a change in location without moving your characters within the story, or characters out of time or place can halt a reader and cause disbelief in the story. Whether your character is human or not, it has to have human-like emotions for the reader to connect with. Characters have to act as expected given their back history, if you can't give them believable actions, the reader loses connection to the story.
So when you are in editing mode, review your work for gaps, check for consistency and keep track of your characters. Write on!
This month's question: Send some examples of items on Writing.com that show great human character!
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Excerpt: "Welcome back to the land of the living." As one entity, all present in the Hall repeated the greeting three times.
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Excerpt: The Alien had been on Earth for the best part of a week, and though he pretended not to care what people thought of him, he was actually a very sensitive Alien. He just wanted people to like him. And even though he would just shrug when people called him boring, or a square, or a flat tire or all sorts of human slang deriding his naturally conservative nature, he was secretly wounded right down to his very sensitive alien core.
Excerpt: Traffic doddled along the highway on a dogs day afternoon in August. The dullness of the moment threatened to strangle my will to live. I really need a little excitement in my life I thought. These days I can barely stand the sight of myself. When I look in the mirror, into those shit brown eyes I say, “Who are you? Who the hell are you? And when are you going to start living a life?”
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Excerpt: I am something of a World War II Submarine history buff. This is how I envision a letter written from a sailor on one of the sunken submarines may have written to his parents.
Excerpt: The gallows finally came into sight. The rain was falling lightly and Glenda could feel it trickle on her forehead. She wanted nothing more than to wipe her brow, but the ropes binding her hands kept her arms firm against her side
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This month's question: Send some examples of items on Writing.com that show great human character!
Last month's question: What tricks or tools do you use to wrap up a story?
BIG BAD WOLF is hopping  replied: I like endings that say "come on back" as it were, like in the Redwall series. Each of the twenty-two novels are their own standalone stories, though it helps to read them in a certain order, so that you don't get too surprised when certain places are mentioned, like the name of this one mountain, or the name of the place the Redwallers ancestors fled from, or the names of foes who had been defeated in the past, like Cluny the Scourge- the main foe of the first book. The series fills up one of my bookshelves- Well, I best journey back to that land.
brom21  answered: Thanks for the resources. I’m an average reader myself. I think it would be hard to write endings to a book in a series. Any book must tie in loose ends at the finish and have a hook of interest as well. The succeeding books must recap briefly what went on in the previous one. I still think shot stories are easier to read and write; period. I’ll try to check out the resources. Like everyone I need someone to review my work and unfortunately getting helpful suggestions are harder to come by than just pats on the back here at WDC. Thanks again!
RICH responded: There is a new fashion out there ... it is called 'Open ended ...' (don't shoot the messenger!) Personally, I agree with a solid ending to a story. Then sometimes - open ended has to be the option. It explains the habit some have of reading the end first?
Dawn Embers  sent: Good newsletter. In answer to your question, I wish I had tricks or tools to use when ending a story. I'm not very good at ending because I have far more practice starting stories than finishing them. I also lean more towards novels than short stories so half the time when I try to write short the reviews comes back asking for what happens next. Only on occasion do I like an ending I've written. I have one story I have submitted a few places and even though some feel there is more story left to be told, I am happy with how it ends. How did I do it? I have no idea. lol
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Short Stories: February 12, 2014 Issue [#6158]
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