  Short Stories
This week: 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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Potbelly Reduction
Oh, you all know you have it! Quick, take a look! There it is, sagging down, drooping over quite unattractively. You say you're going to do something about it, but you never do!
Well, I'm here to help you trim the fat! Tighten up those figurative abs! You're going to have lean, mean, and fascinating short stories!
I've written newsletters about great beginnings and wrapping up your stories, so now it's time to examine the middle. Yes, the fat where you can easily lose your readers. The rotund place where the reader gets bored, wallows around and starts to read ahead. We're going to stop that! I've come up with a few points to help out.
Your Characters:
Who was that masked man??? The middle of the story is the perfect place to expose your characters. Give them depth, give them a background, show your reader who they really are and what they want to accomplish. Flashbacks, verbal accents, mode of dress are ways to give character depth.
Action:
Give your characters action! Don't let your story become a couch potato! Keep things moving, develop drama and suspense, make your reader interested in what happens next. Use conflict and foreshadowing to give your plot a pulse. Use imagery, emotions, and narration to create movement in your writing.
Timing:
Pick up those knees! Get moving! Use your writing to control the speed of your story. Use dialog, shorter sentences and summarize to speed up your pace. A faster pace creates drama and excitement. It builds tension, conflict and danger. Longer sentences, narration and lack of movement slow your pace down. A slow pace gives your reader an internal view of thoughts, senses, and emotions.
Speech:
"Uh, like yeah." Your character's speech can make or break a good short story. Vernacular can develop characterization. Dialog can progress your plot. What you should eliminate is the boring stuff. There is no room in short stories for small talk, long diatribes on history, or flat lexicon. Dialog is not a exact recording of conversations. We're not just flapping our jaws here! We're creating characters!
________________________FLAT LINE________________________
Your short story will die without a pulse in the middle. So trim the fat, create some interest and keep up the pace!
I hope these tips will help you with your writing endeavors. Now sit up straight and eat those vegetables!
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#1053476 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: The ocean was smooth early that morning, almost like a lake, and it was very quiet and the sun was orange through the thin, gauzy clouds. The waves were small ripples as they washed onto the beach, the tide creeping in slowly. It was warm and I was comfortable in my old blue jeans and tee shirt, and I put a shrimp on the hook and cast my line outward, the bait landing with a small splash about forty yards past the little waves.
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#893501 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Lush heat that exploded on a person as soon as they stepped into it, causing the senses to focus totally on the air around them. Hard on humans but so beneficial to tropical plants and a sultry summer, relieved in cool drinks and multi-fans. No. 13 sat amid this atmosphere, as at home in it as any native plant or wild grass. Its old wooden exterior had faded a drab gray in the heat of the sun, constantly chipped and peeled by the high humidity and pursuant rains of the climate.
| |  | Break Down (18+)
Cars aren't the only things that can break down on a lonely stretch of highway...
#1057239 by sonia71  |
Excerpt: The gas station was one of those all-in-one, pump-and-rest stops strategically located every forty or fifty miles along desolate stretches of highway - the kind of place where the main building serves as garage/restaurant/convenience store, offering every amenity to passing travellers. The kind of place where one could purchase gas, an order of burger and fries to go, and even cold beer and live bait from the same giant cooler in the back of the crowded store.
| | | The Tin Box (13+)
A winter storm in the mountains, a dreadful discovery, a journey of fear.
#1055965 by sonia71 |
Excerpt: The storm swept in at midnight.
Outside the window where I stood looking out into the darkness, gusts of wind bent trees nearly to the ground and whipped through heavy snow. It was barely November but winter came early here in the mountains. Within minutes, the world was covered in a cold, white blanket and the first tiny seed of worry was taking root inside me.
Excerpt: The sound split the silence like a clap of thunder.
Stephen Shaw bolted awake, his body jerking off the bed in a tangle of arms and legs trapped in damp, cloying bed sheets. His head grazed against the bedside table on the way down, and then he was flat on his back on the hardwood floor, staring at the ceiling of his room in the murky light of dawn.
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#936462 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Amarantha was bored. It was a typical Wednesday evening, and the members of the haute ton had gathered at Almacks to sip tepid lemonade and launch their daughters onto the marriage mart. A sea of young ladies adorned in pale satin dresses lined the edges of the grand ballroom. The young misses desperately tried to avoid eye contact with the equally large throng of young men who had been dragged to the event by their eager mamas.
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#1032515 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: “Why won’t you talk to me anymore?” His answer to me was a groan, so I rolled my eyes and stopped off. Again. I wanted to cry but I couldn’t seem to find any tears.
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#983398 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: The headlights stirred Hector from his thoughts. He looked up and saw the twin lights of a car pulling off the rain-soaked Texas highway and onto the gravel parking lot. Hector watched as a man, dressed in a worn black suit and faded overcoat, ducked out of the car and into the downpour. The door creaked when he entered the lobby.
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This month's question: How do you keep your story plot moving?
Last month's question: How do you stay organized?
Rooster Roo writes:
Thanks for the organisation tips I will put them to good use ASAP and I wish you a productive New Year too. To be honest I have lost track of my submissions and yes my files are a mess. I have also learned, the hard way, not to throw out earlier versions of my work. Hopefully that‘s a thing of the past.
Rooster Roo
I hope so too! 
Davy Kraken  submits:
Hi, Leger. Those with a Premium Membership or above can also track submissions using the Writing.Com Submission Tracking System, which is listed as "My Submissions" under "Author Tools."
You're a wonderful font of advice, thank you!
newykr says:
Great advice for starting an organized new year!
Thanks!
Puditat has great advice:
Leger, some great tips for getting organised for a year of writing. Love to see some basic, practical advice for every person!
How do I keep organised? I do a lot of things similar to yourself. I have folders within folders, within folders when it comes to my writing files on the computer. I even save various edits of my novel to separate folders...so I can always check up on that section I cut, or revert back if I make a complete mess of the current edit (haven't needed to, in case you're curious  ).
The rest of my life is not so organised, but when it comes to my writing, it's my own private world. 
And it's organized!
Miss_JoJo writes:
Hello Legerdemain,
Thanks for taking the time to write such a topical newsletter - I just finished cleaning out all the scraps of paper containing midnight insights - turns out my hero had a peg leg and spoke with a Tirolean accent after all
I now carry around a brightly striped notebook which fits in my pocket and is hard to misplace, and I transfer useful entries to the folders on my laptop once a week.
Aside from impromptu flurries of feverish writing, I also now schedule two sessions a week: I hide away with the laptop and keep on writing for an hour or two, although I have been distracted by the urge to reorganise my folders again...
LOL! It's good to schedule time for yourself!
gigergal writes:
Thanks for the very helpful and informative article THE ORGANIZED WRITER. It's helped me to ogranized my own computer files. Thanks so much.
Hope it helps!
billwilcox says:
Leger!
Good stuff! I've followed all your suggestions. I threw my bills in the trash and everything that was on my desk I pushed to the floor. And you're right, it does make a better creative atmosphere. Then I made folders for all my stories and poems and put folders inside those folders, and then put them all over my desk. Now this is where I ran into some problems...because now I can't even find my monitor through all the stacks of folders. 
See how helpful I am?
TigersEye writes:
On the computer, I stay organized the same way you do. With many, many folders. You have given me a few good tips to sort my items better. Off the computer, things get a little messy. I try to keep everything, from rough drafts, new ideas, to anything else you can think of in one notebook, but if you look through the thing, that is where things get really messy. But it works for me!
That was a great newsletter. :)
At least it's in one place!
Elisa the Bunny Stik  admits:
I have to admit I've given up on being organized.  Every time I organize my room or even my desk, I lose things and usually forget where things are. With piles, I somehow am able to find things more easily even if I have to sift through a couple feet of junk. I still don't know how that works.
C'mon, give it another try!
blueeyes says:
Hey Legerdemain, I thought the editorial this week was great. I've written more in the past six days than I have in the past six months. It's funny that you mention keeping separate folders for stories; I did that today. Good point on keeping background information in the folder, too. I'll have to work on that. Thanks for some helpful tips!
Great work! Glad it was helpful.
Come Fly with Me--Kiter writes:
In answer to your question, I don't ever seem to stay organized. Your suggestions for keeping track of the work area, the time and the material were excellent. Maybe I can take baby steps and grow as I go. Good newsletter.
That's it! Keep trying!
Pepper tells us:
My organization "routine" was instilled in my being from childhood. I have a file, folder and pocket for everything imaginable. I always have a supply of pre-sharpened pencils and clean paper to start the day. Anyone can ask me where anything is and I can go right to it! Being organized saves so much time!
By the way, I absolutely loved this weeks newsletter!
Chey
I'm jealous! I'm trying!
Alimohkon submits:
Ever since I decided to start writing, I've never organized myself. Upon reading your editorial, I realized I really need to organize myself and my writings, be they "good" or "bad" writing. Thanks for sharing your ideas.
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Short Stories: February 01, 2006 Issue [#826]
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