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  Noticing Newbies  1. About this Newsletter 2. A Word from our Sponsor 3. Letter from the Editor 4. Editor's Picks 5. A Word from Writing.Com 6. Ask & Answer 7. Removal instructions  Welcome to the Noticing Newbies Newsletter! Our goal is to showcase some of our newest Writing.Com Authors and their items. From poetry and stories to creative polls and interactives, we'll bring you a wide variety of items to enjoy. We will also feature "how to" advice and items that will help to jump start the creation process on Writing.com We hope all members of the site will take the time to read, rate, review and welcome our new authors. By introducing ourselves, reviewing items and reaching out, we will not only make them feel at home within our community, we just might make new friends!  Passionate about writing? Take your passion to new heights - with an online Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, available only from top ranked National University. Choose workshops based on your interests. Work with experienced and published faculty. Prepare for a variety of career opportunities. Use a state-of-the art online system: Study where and when you want. Click here to get more information!  I’ve been staring at my monitor, trying to come up with a topic for my “Letter from the editor” bit in the newsletter. But my mind is consumed with images of fire and ice. We recently had three small wildfires start that, because we had the Chinook blowing at over 85 m.p.h., blewup to several thousand acres of prairie and forest within a few short hours. What saved us all was a mix of frozen rain and snow, it helped to contain the fires, which are still burning but are 100% contained. The storms coated the nearby forests with 1/4” inch of ice. There was something that was so primal about those fires. The one closest fire to my home was in a Left-hand canyon. I could stand outside and see the flames, and the plume of smoke stretched from one horizon to another. What is amazing is where I live we can see the eastern prairie stretching out almost eighty miles away. That’s a lot of smoke. I guess I should say I am in Colorado and not California. I’ve lived through five severe fire seasons here, including two dreadful fires, which burned over 700,000 acres between the them. What do forest fires have to do with a newsletter and writing? Only this: on viewing the fire so close to me, I was rendered both speechless and mute. I grappled for words to describe what I was seeing and I had none. Some things have to be experienced in person because words don’t stretch enough to describe some things. It was a humbling experience to stand and watch the canyon burn, powerless, unable to even record the events with words. One day I will attempt to describe that fire though a poem or essay. Until then, the images will percolate through my mind until it, the muse, insists I take it down. It’s the task of writers to record the times and events around them, from the banal to the horrific. It’s our task to always find words to describe what is indescribable, that’s what it means to be a writer: giving voice to what is often impossible to describe. With regards, Pita  *** Here are five outstanding new and outstanding members to Writing.com  tysoncoffman's port offers both non-fiction essays and short stories. A great port to curl up with on a cold winter night! (His BioBlock is a hoot too!) geopoet A lyrical and outstanding new poet! A port well-wroth raiding! radagast59 offers a range of genres and works in a delightful port. Highly recommended! glrx2003 has some amusing and enjoyable stories tucked away in his port (in the public folder.) thea marie  offers a balanced port with poems and explorations into the metaphor that surround all of us! *** The How-to Corner Part II. Whole books are written about both writing and reading fiction. There are schools that specialize in a vast array of literary criticism ranging from Semiotics to Deconstruction to Reader-Response. The later is probably most applicable theory to reading work online and the authors-as-readers. When an author writes, they bring their experiences into the work. When a reader reads, they also bring their experiences to the text. An example is if I write "Phuket," pronounced "poo ket.) To most Americans this seems like a pun on a swear word. To the few that have traveled through Thailand, it will conjure the image of white sandy beaches, a huge marina, the King’s Cup yacht race, and hot sunny afternoons. The same thing happens when we read a text. Our own limitations and experiences color how we see the events in a story. Basics: The first thing I look at is point of view (POV.) I want it to stay constant (except in certain novels and literary devices where the POV shifts between certain characters.) And hand in hand with that is tense. That really needs to be constantly in the past or present. It’s too distracting when the tense shifts within the same passage. Characterizations: Are the characters believable? Do they respond as living people do to certain events or emotions such as pain, coldness, love, and hate? Do we feel as if we stepped into a small section of their life or are the characters flat devices of the author? A rounded character has a past, present, and future. They have loves, likes, dislikes, and hate. They have certain mannerisms that reflect their past and present. They have conflict over events, and display a range of emotions. In short: they are believable. A flat character is one slapped on a page, maybe a waiter in a dinner scene. We might have a few words describing the waiter's demeanor, a line or two of dialogue, and he vanishes. He is a non-central character that isn't shaped and sketched out fully. All stories have these background characters. It’s only a problem when you find someone's main characters are flat and unbelievable. Most stories have rich rounded characters and many flat ones in the background. What about setting? A setting should have rich and concrete details, but don't get trapped in the details (think James Michener here, almost every I know skips to chapter 2 of his books.) Remember where the author "put things" in the story because we want them interacting with the things in a realistic manner. What is the central theme? A story can have multiple thematic elements, but one will rise in the backs of our mind. In Star Wars, we came away knowing that while good might get a raw deal, good eventually wins over the minions of evil. Do we understand the author's central theme? Is the theme one of drama or to does it speak to the human condition (in the time of the protagonist?) Does one come away entertained or examining their moral beliefs? Plot Plot develops from a central protagonist, or circumstances if you will, and either an antagonist or the plot itself is antagonistic to the protagonist. The plot is generally broken into three parts: 1. Rising action the story rises to its chief conflict or crisis. 2. The story's climax. 3. Denouement (falling action.) Generally part one is the longest part, and part three is often reduced to one or two pages, or an epilogue. Things to ask about a plot:  Are the mechanisms of the plot real, possible, viable for the rules set down by the story? Does this plot have a central theme or multiple themes moving toward a climax? Does the plot build curiosity in us, as readers, or boredom? How can this be fixed? Was the plot's climax realistic given the characters, actions, and literary devices used up to that point? Where you entertained, or did you come away examining your belief system? (Not all stories will revolve around moralistic themes, many are simply entertainment.)When I read a story I read it twice. The first time to get a general impression, then I read for the above listed items. All of these items will impact the score I rate a piece. Sometimes I will do a line-by-line review (mainly for friends that ask it.) Other times, if the story seems average or worse, helpless, I will make a few comments and suggestions but that's it. It would take weeks to help some stories, For writers remember, not all poems and stories will work no matter how much you work on them. Yet the story or poem is successful if you, the author or author-as-reader, came away with some understanding of why it didn't work. *** Poetry This is one outstanding example from this writer's port.
A tender poem to the one she loves.
A poem that captures the pain and confusion of Alzheimer’s.
A lovely ode to autumn!
*** Non-Fiction Reflections of a runner.
*** Fiction Is this evolution or something else?
An avante garde piece that blends a journal with a monologue.
A story of love lost!
A funny thing happened on the way to the green....
A very good story about help in unexpected ways.
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