  Short Stories
This week: Tic Tic Tic 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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Tic Tic Tic
A fun way to create suspense and action in your short story is a deadline. Imagine this, your protagonist is Dudley DoRight and his fair lady is tied to the railroad tracks. Yes, of course there is a train coming. We all gasp in horror. Will Dudley save the fair Nell in time? Will the Canadian Mountie rescue her and ride off into the sunset? Or will Snidely Whiplash finally succeed in eliminating the pretty woman?
When writing a scene such as this, let your fingers flow and fill the scene with everything you can think of. Then let's edit. Does the dialog move the action? Are the sentences short, quick and concise? Is description kept to a minimum? Surely Dudley would not notice the sky or the flowered and grassy terrain unless he tripped over it and held back from saving Nell Fenwick in time.
Keep your sentences short. Just like the ticking of the clock, quick short dialog with minimal tags and short paragraphs keep the reader engaged and interested. Make sure your story has the right elements; rising action, climax and resolution. When editing, take out unnecessary movement or words, crop down to the most essential and in the end, you'll have a great action scene.
Write on!
This month's question: How do you keep action moving in your stories?
Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback!
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Excerpt: Lloyd Ricks couldn’t sleep. In fact, he hadn’t slept in so long, he couldn’t function properly. When he started hallucinating, he knew it was time.
“I’m telling you, Doc. I haven’t slept in a month!” he told his doctor.
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Excerpt: "We are complete now," he heard her say in a sad monotone, the aftermath of a tragedy, but when life has to go on.
"Nukilik." He gasped her name, his throat was dry. He was lying on his back, her crossed legs, his pillow.
"Oh no!" he sat up and a cold sweat formed on his brow. He put his gloved hands on his fur hood and breathed out steam.
The kayak rocked side to side, and alarmed Nukilik. She whimpered loud.
He realised what had happened.
Excerpt: I’d never been to a Ghost Club meeting before. In fact, I’d never even heard of one. But they are out there, and last night I went to my very first one.
Excerpt: There is no assurance of justice in death. No guarantee of logic. Brain cancer or pneumonia can claim the life of a toddler, but sometimes a lonely mother is the culprit. A man murders his father suspecting he is a robot, removes his brain, takes a bite. Life isn’t a court, it’s an abattoir, and often as not, the butcher is indifferent or insane.
Excerpt: "Earth to Earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust..."
Empty and emotionally raw, Katherine heard the words whispering in the soft, stifling breeze; a prayer echoed as the earth enclosed her mother, three days before. A long-stemmed red rose, stark against the dark ploughed earth; a fleeting memory as her awareness drifted to the chaotic sounds surrounding her: of cars accelerating, tires screeching, horns honking and muffled shouts in a smorgasbord of accents. The ebb-and-flow of the city.
Excerpt: We were underground now, as was apparent when lamplight cast into view water trickling down the elbow of a tree root snaking out of the tunnel's stone wall as we passed. The man I followed strode swiftly down the corridor's slope, the tail end of his swallowtail cloak flailing wildly back and forth behind him with every stride he took.
"Hurry lad," he turned back to say, "And hold that light up."
Excerpt: The bushes jiggled again and I pressed my face against the cool glass, waiting. Sure enough, King pushed through the leaves and strutted onto the sidewalk. His muscles rippled with each step and his thick mane shook as he paused to roar. I was pretty certain he knew we were watching and was trying to show off.
Excerpt: Maris, though unsettled herself, cackled at the look of horror on the captain's face. “Ha! The Conquest conquered! Though this barky be a fine enough Vardenlandish tub, it'll not outrun a Yadramari pirate dragon ship, Cap'n Scallywag. Besides, there's 'ardly a breath of breeze.”
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This month's question: How do you keep action moving in your stories?
Send in your answer below! Editors love feedback!
Last month's question: Have you used a moment in history in your stories?
Quick-Quill  replies: My moment is using a Detective in a case that involves bootlegging in St. Paul, MN. He'd have to deal with Al Capone's gang, Ma Barker's kids, etc. Then I want to bring in Eliot Ness. Maybe my Detective was one of the guys who helped Eliot Ness go after the Mob in MN.
willwilcox sends: The new series 'The Terror' written by Dan Simmons is based on the Franklin Expedition through the Northwest Passage. Of course the ship was named the Terror, but the true terror was what they met out there on the ice.
dragonwoman  said: I'm writing a story that takes place in the Roaring Twenties.
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Short Stories: May 02, 2018 Issue [#8884]
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