The Snowflake Chronicles

Letter From the Editor January 2015

Getting back to basics


The Five Ws and One H

"I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who."

Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

For more information on the five Ws and one H see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ws


Sometimes I have to get back to the basics to edit or finish the manuscript. This means I have to make sure I have answered the questions:

Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How

It is the beginning of a New Year, which means completing unfinished projects from the last year. I have several unfinished project from the past several years that I need to finish and edit. When I turned 68 on December 24, 2014, it became more important for me to finish these projects. Since I do not know how much longer I have, I need to focus on finishing some or all of the writing projects I have in my portfolio. I could live another thirty or forty years, I do not know and I do not want to know. I do know that I want to finish the unfinished novels. short stories, and poetry collections I have begun.

I have begun dreaming about these writing projects. In my dreams my mother is standing behind me watching as I work on one of the novels. She encourages me by patting me on the back and smiling at me when I look at her. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about one or more of the novels I have begun. In order for me to get any rest I have to focus on finishing the chapters in the novels and then editing. I have to stop procrastinating and answer the hard questions. In this case the hard questions are Who, When, What, Where, Why, and How.

I know that part of the problem with one or all of the novels concerns the civilizations. The other issue is the way the protagonist and antagonist interact with the other citizens of the civilizations. I can deal with these two elements by answering the five Ws and on H. After that the only issues I have to deal with are the technical problems of grammar and spelling.

Dragon's Flower  (13+) A darkness that has long laid dormant returns to finish what it started. #2023722 by Dove

Excerpt: “You must run. Run until you can no longer see the city. Run and whatever you do, do not look back!”
         “I promise I will find you.”
         “Hurry, they are coming! I will hold them off!”
         “RUN!”

Blood-soaked Stars - Chapter 1 (1/4/15)  (E) (First 1900 words) A boy's life is on the verge of change after a chance encounter. #2024425 by Bleary-eyed Lad

Excerpt: The massive metal tubes rumbled slowly by, and as they passed, a few tiny hands stretched precariously upwards, scooping powder and placing rounded hunks of a clay-like material into them. Then, large devices spat fire and roared down viciously onto the shells, clamping large cones on to their tops or filling them with metal balls of all sizes, readying the cheaply produced munitions. The normally shaded windows had been left open, and beams of light shone into the darkness which was illuminated mostly by the fires of churning machinery. The workshop was almost empty that day. Had it not been for the overbearing foreman, Epouve would have ran home or out to the square, where the celebrations were taking place. After all, today was Gustave Day. The day of the king. The holiday that stopped the whole nation, except the Royal Armories, which never stopped producing weapons and armor of spectacular variety.

STATIC

A Gift From the Gods  (13+) Prologue to a novel I am almost finished writing #2024147 by LCCooper

Excerpt: It was a beautiful late summer morning in New York City. The kind of morning when even the most cantankerous among us couldn't help but to close their eyes, and drink in the suns radiance before it faded into the cooling breezes of autumn. With a spike of higher than average temperatures, almost everyone had been taking advantage of the dog days of summer. Even at 6:30 in the morning people were everywhere. The streets were bustling with girls in short skirts sipping their lattes; children laughing on their way to school; men in suits; and an odd assortment of characters unique to New York City. This was, after all, the city that never sleeps, so Beth wasn't too surprised to see the streets crowded this early.

Submitted by Our Readers

Army of Humans and Monsters-The Book  (18+) This is the book version of my Army of Humans and Monsters #1625172 by BIG BAD WOLF is Howling

Excerpt: This is the Book version of the "static" interactive of the same name.

This story tends to revolve around two people, Bloodtooth and Jenkins. Enjoy guys.

Contests

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #1948208 by Not Available.

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #2026236 by Not Available.

Feedback from
"Fantasy Newsletter (December 31, 2014)" 

BIG BAD WOLF is Howling writes: One has to have fun.

brom21 writes: My reason for writing is to improve my skill in an effort to get published. I still have a long way to go though so it is a good reason to start in the New Year.

Feedback from
"Fantasy Newsletter (November 5, 2014)" 

Elfin Dragon-finally published writes: In this newsletter you asked if we've ever had the problem of a chapter of our fantasy novels not ending the way we want. In fact I've had several not going the way I want and actually scrapped the whole thing and started over. I did keep the main theme, just started with a different viewpoint. I think sometimes when we start with one idea it sounds great but when we put it on paper (so to speak) the flaws begin to come out and we may need to change things so it works better. There's nothing wrong with having to change directions in order to "get it right". As writers we're always considering new ways for our characters to leap out of the page to capture our readers attention. That is our ultimate goal. If we have to re-write something, the so be it.