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Dark Days
We all have them. Sometimes you have fleeting days where nothing seems to go right, and circumstances seem to conspire against you. I call it grumpy days. And yes, sometimes I blame them on getting old. Some people suffer mental struggles and have dark days. It's time to see a doctor when those days seem to be most days.
There's a thing called SAD, which is a bit ironic, since a person is sad, but it's a seasonal affective disorder, usually when there is less sunlight in the hemisphere. My grandma called them the winter blues. She'd tell us to get on our snowsuit and mittens, and go chase the blues away. I think she got tired of us saying we were bored.
How do you convey the difference between being sad about something temporary, things like grief, and full-on depression? I have a list of symptoms: sadness, fatigue, sleeping too much, overeating, gaining weight, lack of self-care, and poor hygiene.
When writing, you can add clues to your story to show your character sliding into sad times, or trying to climb out. Not only with dialogue, but also with description. Maybe they'll take up yoga!
In all, consider describing not only the mental aspects, but also the physical ones. Use helpful hints like dark skies and damp ground to help set the mood.
And as always, Write On!
This month's question: How do you describe dark days? Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback!
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Excerpt: I’d be living there for a year, sharing a flat with a guy called Alan. I hadn’t yet met him, but he’d sounded friendly enough on the phone.
Excerpt: “I remember,” he said, then paused. “Do you remember the day everybody died?”
Excerpt: "You look familiar."
I turned around, startled, thinking I was alone in the dim antique shop. Everything was dusty, like no one else had been there in months.
Excerpt: There is always a metallic aftertaste; that lingering sensation just tickling the back of his throat as he shoves the last forkful of chicken alfredo into his mouth. Slightly trembling hands reach for the still bubbling glass of champagne, where his thirst is quenched with a single quick gulp.
Excerpt: In the heart of a desolate mountain range, buried beneath layers of granite and secrecy, lay Vault 13—a subterranean prison built to contain a single occupant: an immortal known only as Subject Zero. Discovered centuries ago during a mining operation, Zero was a man who could not die—his body regenerating from any wound, his mind unyielding to time.
Excerpt: She dug her fingers into the sand and shoveled out a small hole. Flora stopped when her nails and fingertips encountered a smooth object.
Excerpt: We'll take you live now to Seattle, Washington. Bud can you give us an idea of what's going on there?"
"Well Tom, I'm here outside the offices of Mississippi.com Inc where we're witnessing a somewhat unprecedented demon-stration."
Excerpt: The yelling started when a pride of lions came up over the hill. There were at least five or six lionesses, all crouching low to the green grass, moving slowly toward their prey.
Excerpt: "Hey, Coffin," the surveyor said, elbowing his literary-minded partner, "look what we got here."
He lifted his chin toward the girl. Coffin followed his lead, and his eyes locked on her like magnets.
| | | Blind Revenge 🥇 (13+)
She vowed to collect restitution. Personally. For Short Shots Oct 2020 - 1st place winner!
#2233683 by Roari ∞  |
Excerpt: Burning sagebrush stung at Jessa's nostrils. She looked up from her sewing, through the open window. Thick, black tendrils of smoke came rushing across the desert, driven by flames devouring drought-starved scrub. Outside, her father and siblings were working in the garden. She cried out to them, "Run!"
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This month's question: How do you describe dark days? Send in your answer below! Editors love feedback!
Last month's " Newsletter (Spare)" question: Do you find it hard to cut extraneous characters?
S 🤦  : Cutting extraneous characters... In short stories, a few years of writing them now has taught me that, with very few exceptions, 5 characters (primary and secondary) max works. Yes, I have had a few with more, but that was when the group itself was almost a single entity. In my old stuff, extraneous characters were everywhere; getting rid of them and focusing on the protag/s and antag/s with secondary characters only if vital has seen my stories become more accessible to an audience. I think. Of course, others reading my work could well disagree.
I think after so many years of this writing thing, I've got to used to not including extraneous characters. But, yeah, a second draft rewrite combining two characters into one has been known to happen.
W.D.Wilcox  : Cheaters are like infidelity; you just can't trust anybody.
Beholden  : Short answer is no. My characters have to work for their living.
Mary Ann MCPhedran  : this is how I write: In the wee small hours of the morning my writing I create, idea's are running through my head, like a small child I leap from my bed. I tap on the keyboard, and a poem I create.
N.A Miller  :
In one story, I cut 15 people, killed them outright. had no problems doing that. Then I felt guilty and brought two back. 
Milhaud - Tab B : Do you mean the George R. R. Martin Syndrome? Motto: Never fall in love with your characters or writing ... too much.
dragonwoman : try not to have any, but if I do, it's scary how easily and ruthlessly I can be rid of them through accident or murder; even accidental murder.
I_dont_know : no, make the side character loveable then just kill them off with no remorse, i easily can think of a few ways to kill them off or make them leave permanently on like a journey but first make people love them so it hurts when they leave. (i think that's a mental illness but whatever
Thanks to everyone for your responses! L~ |
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Short Stories: July 16, 2025 Issue [#13249]
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