  Short Stories
This week: I Need a Stunt Double Edited by: Legerdemain  
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I Need a Stunt Double
Sometimes I get so busy with life I lose track of what really makes me happy. I find it a good thing to stop and reassess what my needs are and prioritize the never-ending list. In a life of "hurry up and wait", I'm learning to look for moments of creativity where I can find them. My smart phone is a helpful tool. While I strongly recommend NOT doing these things while driving, they're certainly good for times like sitting in waiting rooms, airplane boarding gates, waiting for a schoolchild pickup or as a passenger on a long car/train trip.
I located an app that just takes notes. You can color the note, make a task list or just write on it. You can also use your finger to write the note instead of the keyboard, but let me put it out there...don't try that bouncing around in a vehicle. What I am learning, is to take concise notes, so when you actually have time to write, you can decipher what the heck you meant in the note "darts are poisonous words". Yeah, the mind boggles at my cryptic message and it sure gave me some fun ideas, just not the one I probably meant to inspire when I wrote the note. A few more details could have helped.
My phone camera has been a fun inspiration too. While many of my pictures turn out a little blurry or not framed all that well, they can be handy for surreptitious photos of interesting people (turn your volume off for the "click") or random interesting things you pass by. I save them to a folder for inspiration or sometimes, I admit, a good laugh.
This month's question: Do you use an app for inspiration or record?
Send in your reply below! I read all your answers and love to hear what you think.
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Excerpt: Samantha knelt in front of the stack of cardboard boxes that had taken up residence in her favorite part of the house, the attic. To most adults it was just a typical unfinished space found in many similar houses in many similar developments across the country. But to most children, it was the hull of a pirate ship and a frontier fort and a great hall of a castle and, why not, the cabin of a spaceship. And dozens of more things that had yet to be thought of by the blonde haired seven year old.
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Excerpt: It was dark, but I knew I had to go. The nightmare had shaken me awake from my already fitful slumber. The tunnel called.
I grabbed a dagger from my pile of armor, but forsook the breastplate. As far as I knew, there was nothing that could harm me in the cave. The dagger was mainly for protection against any beasts I might find in the forest. Though once wild, the creatures had learned to fear our blades, which glowed softly in the moonlight.
Excerpt: Grief is a unique creature. It visits us all in different ways and in different times with varying intensities. Some of us grieve alone while others seek to grieve in groups. I always found my grief increased exponentially in the company of others, while it was just present with a sharpness when I grieved alone. I think that is why I always sought to be away from others during periods of mourning.
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Excerpt: It was the sweltering month of June as I stood in the veranda of our home of ten months, watering the plants. I had stepped onto the veranda which was a courtyard within the building and almost immediately felt the intense heat soak into me as I left the air conditioned confines of the house.
Excerpt: I am lost in the land of thrifts stores… and I like it!
Where I previously lived, the thrifts stores were few and far between. Also I was never real impressed with the quality of the merchandise. So much depended on luck and how hard you were willing to work for a good find.
Excerpt: He grabbed the sides of his head and struggled to stay on his feet. This was going to be a bad one; though not as bad as some of the others. His vision clouded and he toppled over onto his bed.
“Breathe into it,” he thought, remembering his mom’s words. Somehow she knew what was best.
Excerpt: Are there really fairies out there? She looked out the window yearning... Then began writing down her wishes in her diary. Saturday I will be eight years old, what do I want most of all? She walked over and reached under the bed and pulled out her notebooks. She laid back, propping her pillow up behind her and studied her drawings of Tinkerbell, her fairy sisters and the unicorns. They looked so magical and beautiful! That's what she liked best about them.
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This month's question: Do you use an app for inspiration or record?
Last month's question: Do you experience real life creep in your stories?
Alexandra replied:
I find that my writing is greatly influenced by my real life experiences even when I am writing fiction and/or fantasy. Although I use my imagination when creating characters and settings, I find that the finished work usually bears at least a subliminal connection to my own life and cultural background.
Pumpkin answered: Yes, I do rely on people I know or have seen in a movie or TV. They're not the same, but I picture them in my mind. I can see the face and body, hear the voice, notice the mannerisms. A reader probably wouldn't make the connection, but as it plays out in my head, I know who the characters are.
Second of Nine sent: Real life in my stories? Always. Family of course, since I have so much variation to mix in from my own. Animals too, usually strange ones. I've always found it fascinating that there is so much in real life that people would delegate to the pages of a fantasy book, saying that there is no such thing anymore. Real life is the best inspiration for fantasy that there is. Where else can you stand in your front yard with a 10 lb tree duck perching on your arm that hisses instead of quacks, after all? :)
dragonwoman responded: Real life doesn't just creep into my stories, it rushes in where angels fear to tread! I don't think I plan these appearances, they just seem to happen.
S Ferguson~ Prepping for Prep said: Oh yes I have real life creeps in my short stories all the time. I am even working on a full length novel that is based around a waitress (my mother is a waitress). My sons are my inspiration for many of my stories.
sdodger admits: Your comments were correct; there are pieces of me in every story I write--except for the bad stuff, of course. That's from someone else. 
Quick-Quill tells: Yes. I used the fact I am a pack rat and dumped my knowledge of Hoarding into my story for the MC to be able to find lost letters. I used psychology of kids to deal with a nephew. I used my own love of people to build my characters. My writing is all about the life I love or want to live in.
whimsicalme agrees: Oh definitely, yes! Real life sounds, sights, objects, creatures - they all spill onto the pages I write. I don't see how they wouldn't. We are, after all, inspired consciously and unconsciously by our surroundings; attracted, repelled, inhaling and exhaling the substance of all that fills the senses and mind.
StephBee - House Targaryen reveals: Great topic. I have a lot of real life creep in my writing, too. I love nature so you'll see a lot of appreciation for nature in my poetry. I love writing about water and lighthouses, and if I can, I throw in a little French here and there. I think a little real life creep helps to give it an authenticity it might not have without it.
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Short Stories: March 11, 2015 Issue [#6877]
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