 Short Stories: July 09, 2025 Issue [#13221] |
This week: Short Stories Are Short Edited by: W.D.Wilcox  
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Short stories are...
Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and dreams. They are journeys you can make to the far side of the universe and still be back in time for dinner.
-Neil Gaiman
Start with short stories. After all, if you were taking up rock climbing, you wouldn't start with Mount Everest. So if you're starting fantasy, don't start with a nine-book series.
-George R. R. Martin
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How To Write Short Stories
What is so special about short stories?
The short story is different. Because they are more compact, they allow readers to readily absorb the entire narrative structure. The preamble is banished, and their succinct length allows us to retain the entire story arc in our minds without relinquishing the details for the length of the read and beyond.
What are the 5 main characteristics of a short story?
These elements are: setting, plot, characters, conflict, and theme. When and where the story takes place is referred to as the setting. The settings of short stories usually occur in one area or place because of the limited length of the story.
Why do people prefer short stories?
A short story can stay with you for a long time. The brevity does not make it any less interesting or powerful. A short story can be read multiple times and enjoyed again and again. Readers can discover new writers.
The primary purpose of a short story is to entertain its readers by telling a compelling, self-contained narrative, often within a single reading. However, short stories can also serve to educate, explore themes, and evoke specific emotions or moods. They are a concise form of fiction that focuses on a limited number of characters, a single plot, and a singular effect.
A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film. A good [short story] would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit.
Until Next Time,
W.D.Wilcox
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Do Your Shorts Have Shorts
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#2343006 by Not Available. |
| | | The Plan (18+)
If you're a daughter with a typical dad, good planning for certain events is critical
#2326960 by Soldier_Mike  |
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Ask Me Anything
When I was younger, I hitchhiked to Hollywood with my guitar. I must have been, oh, I don't know, in my early twenties. I had no money and nowhere to sleep, so I thought I'd thumb my way down to Sunset Beach and sleep on the sand. This guy pulls over in an old Chrysler built like a steel boat, and asks if he can give me a lift. I said, "Sure!" and jumped on in. I told him I was there to sell some of my songs, and he asked to hear them. So we sat on the beach and I played him by tunes.
Come to find out later, his name was Dewey Martin, the drummer for the Buffalo Springfield. In case you didn't know, that was the band that included Stephen Stills, Neil Young, and Richie Furay.
To make a short story shorter, Dewey introduced me to several people who ended up buying seven of my songs. Those were good times.
-W.D.Wilcox
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