  Short Stories
This week: Wearing Red 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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Wearing Red
Okay, if you're reading this...look at yourself. Go on, what color is your shirt? If it's dark blue, hey..that's my favorite color shirt. If it's red...well, nice knowing you.
This newsletter is about disposable characters. One of the terms for a disposable character is a "redshirt" character which came from the series Star Trek in which security and officers accompanying the main characters into unknown situations often had a red uniform on. And then were promptly killed for any number of reasons.
Another is spear carrier. It comes from operas and plays where a chorus or minor characters were needed to fill the scene. They generally lurked in the back and carried spears. These are also called "supernumerary characters".
Then there is the "sacrificial lamb". The term is derived from the traditions of Abrahamic religion where a lamb is a highly valued animal to possess. Some sacrificial lambs are actually animals, but often times they are characters killed off for the good of the story. Or you know, if they annoy you.
Maybe your guy is one of the "forlorn hope". This comes from the military, where these combatants were the first to lead into the fray, and the death toll was quite high. Give him a sword, maybe he'll fare better. Better than being "cannon fodder" where the conscripts were put in less defensible positions and the more talented soldiers were protected.
Finally...when you're with some friends in a spooky house, with no power and anything you can see are by flashes of lightning, do not turn to them and say, "I'll be right back."
This month's question: What other terms do you know for disposable characters? Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback!
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Excerpt: Flash fiction is fun to read and a challenge to write. It must contain all the elements of a larger work of fiction, but in a much shorter space. Are you up for it?
Excerpt: Each day around 12pm NOON WDC time, one of our dedicated volunteer judges will judge the previous day's entries and post a writing prompt. The contest for that prompt ends before NOON (11:59am WDC time) the next day. All entries that follow the prompt will be judged according to the creativity in responding to the writing prompt only. This means that grammatical errors WILL NOT be a determining factor in deciding the winner!
Excerpt: The Paradise Cove Writing Challenge is a romance AND erotica contest
and open to all authors on Writing.Com. Each round, a new prompt (or prompts) will be posted. Write a romantic and/or erotic short story that the prompt inspires in you. Let's discover what you have hidden from everyone in your very own Paradise Cove. Don't be shy... share it!
Excerpt: You're probably not old enough to remember, but in the 1930's thru the 1950's pulp magazines were all the rage. Many of the great authors we hold dear today got their first paying jobs writing for pulps like Weird Tales, Astounding Tales, and True Detective, just to name a few. Speculative fiction writers like Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, H.P.Lovecraft, and Robert E. Howard all began submitting their stories and honing their skills.
THIS contest is designed to take you back to those days. So now you TOO can write for the old pulp fiction magazines just like the 'master story-tellers' did back in the day.
Excerpt: The mission of this contest forum is for those who are serious about writing for children, to write! The more you write, the better you'll get, especially if you receive great suggestions from reviewers.
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Excerpt: Can you take the challenge to write me a story or poem in the equivalent of a tweet - 140 characters or less? Why not try it?!
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Excerpt: Norvig’s sleep was interrupted by the feel of hands grabbing and lifting him in air. His red eyes blinked at the bright light of the lab.
Damn! I hope it’s not another maze.
Excerpt: They were both men of routine. The young man woke up, showered, ate a stale waffle, got into his car, screeched the f-bomb for as long as he could maintain his morning rage, accounted for the next eight hours, and then visited the library. That’s where their paths converged. He would find him sitting there in the back with a stack of newspapers or books on the table near him, a black garbage bag filled with clothes next to him, and reading material in front of him. He was an older man, with hoary and wild hair, tousled by the electric touch of so many minds.
Excerpt: A high-pitch squeal similar to a drill winding down filled the room. Unfortunately, this noise couldn't be stopped simply by letting go of a trigger. Because this incessant sound was being squeezed from my lungs. Trying to take a breath in, wasn't much easier. The sharp inhales mimicked those made by someone being repeatedly punched in the stomach.
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Excerpt: I am Sir Gallus, Tireless Defender in the Night, Vigilant Watcher of the East, and Lord Commander of these foul lands. Hear my tale.
Like my father before me, and his before him, and all of my ancestors back to when Sir Little crossed the great road to evade the falling skies, I was born to lead, to protect, to watch. Alas, I was a lesser-born son, and so to my brother, Bantam the Black, went the titles and honors of our proud house when our father succumbed to the avian plague. I was married off to some corn-fed yet well-bred lady of good stock, and as dowry was granted dominion over her backwater lands. She has given me many heirs, and my mistresses even more bastards. We cry not over the countless stillborns, but offer them up with glad hearts to the Walking Gods who silently collect them in the small hours, and use them for their sustenance.
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This month's question: What other terms do you know for disposable characters? Send in your answer below! Editors love feedback!
Last month's question: What is your editing style?
Mary Ann MCPhedran  sent: Thank you for the newsletter.
My editing when I'm checking a book is to print the item out first and check each page and then go back and correct mistakes.
willwilcox responded: I write very slow, assembling and disassembling sentences until it says more than what I originally wanted in fewer words. To me, self-editing as I go makes for a tighter story, but will bog you down if you're just trying to pound out a good idea. So I'm torn on which works best. The only thing that really matters is if it's good or just crap.
debc  replied: You are right about balancing your writing. I am just starting to do that. I do have a way to go but I am moving forward. My problem is sometimes I take on to much.
Well for my ideas on my writing I use nature, personal things and try to think out of the box.
John Nation  commented: My editing style?
1: Write the story.
2: Read the story, catch typos, misspellings, story not flowing consistently, looking for things in the middle and late in the story straying from things written early in the story.
3: Repeat item 2.
4: Repeat item 2.
5: Read each sentence backwards. (I have caught many errors with this step)
6: I have a few select people I ask to review the tale.
7: Fix any errors discovered in step 6.
8: Repeat step 2.
9: Make public and see how it goes.
Quick-Quill  admitted: I wish it were better. I begin at the beginning reading and editing for everything. Sometimes I will miss something and when I start again I back up a few pages just to get into the mood. Lately my mood is procrastination. I'm getting bugged to get the story done and read for a proofreader and professional editing.
J. A. Buxton  revealed: For all my self-published novels, I first posted five chapters at a time on WdC. Wanting plenty of feedback from other members, I always offered what I hoped was generous gift points for reviews. The helpful comments and constructive criticisms were then saved in various Word entries on my laptop. When the novel was finally ready for the dreaded editing, I went through all the saved entries to catch typos, plot holes, and ideas for improving the story. One suggestion was to read the story out loud to further catch problems. Because I don’t like the sound of my own voice, I used the free software called ReadPlease instead. There are other software available if this one doesn’t fit your needs.
glynisj sent: I've ended up being one of those who goes back and edits when where I am in my WiP is stalling a bit. I'll go to previous scenes and edit until I feel my brain start to unravel so I can deal with whatever problem there is with the most current scene in progress. Occasionally the edit changes the story enough so the problem doesn't exist anymore. |
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Short Stories: June 01, 2016 Issue [#7675]
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