  Short Stories
This week: Checking Into Rehab 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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Checking Into Rehab
The title isn't personal, really...but it's about a pet peeve of mine. I drive through run down neighborhoods that have beautiful old homes going to ruin, or subdivided into tiny apartments and I wonder what caused the urban decay. Did a nearby company close? Did the freeway divert traffic? Or did the township mismanage the services provided so people up and left. Sometimes it takes decades for the decay to turn around and new families to come in and rehab the shambles to their former glory.
That would be a great thing, but I drive ten minutes further down the road and see a forest being completely leveled for a new development. It makes me grind my teeth to see the waste. Wouldn't it be easier to spend the money flipping those old places? Sure, but the return on a flip isn't completely definite so builders go for the easy dollar. Except most of these new homes are not built with the care and craftsmanship that the older homes were built.
In the same way, we all have stories in storage that might have had a fantastic character or a beautiful setting, but somewhere along the way got lost and mismanaged and we decided to discard it. Sometimes it's a simple matter of time management. We wrote part of a story but didn't finish because the contest closed before we wrote the last line. I'm just as guilty, I have tons of shards in storage and rarely look at them.
Perhaps next time you're looking for inspiration, you can rummage in your writing closet and bring out something well-loved and perhaps discarded. See if you can dust it off and bring it to life again.
As always, Write On!
This month's question: Have you managed to refurbish a story? What were your methods? Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback! |
Excerpt: "If you fell down yesterday, stand up today." -- H.G. Wells
The task is simple: get inspired by the quote above and write a short story!
Post your goals Monday and recap on Friday, earn 2,000 gift points. How hard is that?
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#2111252 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: "Grandmother!" Little Doe screamed in terror. Tears streamed down the little girls face as she looked around the darkened hut that was her home. "Grandmother..."
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Excerpt: My Alice died of cancer the following spring.
After that, there wasn't much money left, and I had little desire to fish. Then, last Christmas, the kids surprised me with the kayak.
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#2111418 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Sleeping peacefully in his hotel bed, Hank never thought that he'd be awoken to the sound of two fists pounding on his door like a hammer pounds nails, each one louder than the last. A desperate voice, one that sounded like it had been crying, echoed through the wood of the door and sliced into his eardrums like the howls of a wolf.
Excerpt: “Why…Why don’t I shine as brightly as my dad?” he asked quietly.
“Well, son, it’s because you are a reflection of your father, the sun,” she began, paused a moment to think, then continued, “Your father burns so brightly, that no one can look directly at him without hurting their eyes. You, on the other hand, people can look upon you and see you in all your glory.”
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Excerpt: When your eyes reveal a truth is it madness if no one else can see? At what point does a man acknowledge his senses have taken leave of reality and are communicating things which cannot be?
These questions have plagued me since first I encountered the thing that torments me, the abomination perched at the end of my hospital bed each night.
Excerpt: Natalie Foster stared out her bedroom window at the bedraggled gray bird pecking on the pane. “What are you thinking?” she asked, positioning herself so she was face to face with this feathered visitor.
Nattie hadn't expected an answer, but she paid closer attention as the bird cocked its head at her for a moment, unafraid. It seemed to be suggesting something she couldn't quite perceive.
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This month's question: Have you managed to refurbish a story? What were your methods? Send in your answer below! Editors love feedback!
Last month's question: What side of the brain do you use to write?
Seshat  commented: Useful and interesting article. I definitely am a right side brain writer.
Pony Tale wrote: I loved this newsletter! Thank you for the insight on who's who in the brain department. From now on, I will forever be analyzing which side of my brain my writing is coming from.
I would have never considered such a thing before!
Cadie Laine sent: This month's question: What side of the brain do you use to write? According to what you've written in your newsletter I write more with my left brain than my right. I would like to work on writing more with my right brain this year. Writing more emotional and imaginative. Thank you for this information. It's hit me on the left side 
S Ferguson~ Prepping for Prep  responded: I am a right sided writer for sure. Most of the time there is no preparation, just what I am feeling at that moment or what my muse is making me feel. I admit I enter most contests from the seat of my pants and prepare 0%. The only thing I make outlines for or any actual 'work' is Nano, or if there is an actual novel I really want to start writing. I feel like plotting out the story before hand makes me not want to write it. It feels too much like work.
Acme revealed: Smashing newsletter. Got me thinking on how WDC gives me the opportunity to access other writers' brains that balance mine! Reviewing is my favourite activity here, and each review given or received lets me tap into the side I need. Over the years I've built a great relationship with an amazing left brainer, Alan Philps . I like to think we mutually benefit from each other's brain.
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Short Stories: February 08, 2017 Issue [#8125]
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