This week: Don't let Brief be too Brief! Edited by: Leger~  
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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.
This week's Short Story Editor
Leger~
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Don't Let Brief Be Too Brief
When creating an item in your portfolio, such as a Static Item, part of the creation process is a brief description. You get 90 characters to describe your item. Too often I see this area skipped over with something minimal typed in so the item is created. You're cheating yourself here if you just type something "Blah, Blah there.
You want readers to be intrigued and click to explore further, don't you? So this area becomes an area for a hook. Sure it's only 90 characters but it's a great spot to promote your item. When your piece shows up on the public listings with EVERYONE else's items recently created, don't you want potential reviewers to click YOURS? This is also true when it comes to review listings, you want a reader to be intrigued and click your item to review.
So consider the things potential readers are looking for, they already have the rating and the genre shown to them, what more do you want them to know? Some of my brief descriptions say the writing is an entry in a contest. Some are just a teaser sentence or two. Some note that the item is a "WIP", work in progress. If my poetry uses a specific form, I often note it there. If it is a contest, I note the deadline there.
Also, as a side note, be sure to choose all the genre drop down offerings, so your item shows up in more listings.  Keywords are also important, not only for reviewers but for editors looking for items to feature in our newsletters. (Did you submit your item to the newsletter for feature?)
In the end, take the time to really fill out the fields when creating an item, use all the space available for brief description and keywords, they can really help get your item on more lists and ultimately bring more reviews to your inbox. As always, Write On!
This month's question: How do you use your Brief Description area?
How do you choose keywords to expand your audience?
Answer below  Editors love feedback!  |
Excerpt: “Damn this place,” he muttered. A small woman with red blotches covering half her face turned to scowl at him and he quickened his pace toward the Howard Federal Building.
| | | Rocky (13+)
A 1000-word flash fiction piece, about canines saving the universe from an insidious foe.
#2204173 by Mikibits  |
Excerpt: Civilization lay in ruins. A beautiful city now concrete rubble, twisted steel and crumbled asphalt; the sun lost in a haze of smoke and dust. The distant sizzle and thump of lasers and mortars a reminder their job was far from over. Some creatures couldn't abide civilization.
"Still with us, Rock?"
| |  | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1761799 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: But I’m not supposed to cross the road without an adult. Daddy’s at work and Mommy can’t go, it’s supposed to be a surprise. If I am very careful when I cross the road, I will be okay, and when Mommy sees all the pretty flowers I bring her, she won’t be mad.
Excerpt: There's nothing like being born on the day of your great-aunt's death. Though I hadn't known her previous to that time, I know her now and we've become close, indeed. Sometimes, too close.
Excerpt: The man pulls the woman towards an entrance. She resists for a moment, embarrassed, then follows. Taking the few steps through the small garden, they enter past the dark sliding glass door. No voice, look, nor smile disturbs their anonymity. They stop in front of a vending machine with pictures of the available rooms and the prices. The woman chooses a room with a karaoke machine and walls of mirrors encircling a round bed. The man slips in the money. A key drops out: room 555. They take the elevator to their floor and step into their room.
Excerpt: Dark clouds are hanging over the River Styx, the boundary between Earth and the underworld, the underworld of Hell. There, Ichabod Dribble and Alfonso Stray are complaining this day about the endless ringing of the bells, the constant ringing of the bells.
Ichabod griped: “Bells, bells, bells, bells, hour after hour!”
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#2226332 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Dylan did not gulp down the two cups of coffee, tanned by the light sprinkle of milk, and two sticks of jerky meat. No, he slid them down his throat with as few chews as recommended by his doctor. It would have been less time consuming to blend it all into the horse chowder he needed. Every ounce of energy he could squirrel away he did for today. Every minute that ticked away was another inch closer to the finish line that burned away at his mind since Monday. Even the dreams of shadow people did not deter him from the weekend that lied just out of reach.
All entries must not exceed 1,000 words for stories or 40 lines for poetry.
Excerpt: A place to answer a daily question and spark conversations.
Prompt: "The Long Way Around" by The Chicks (f.k.a. The Dixie Chicks)
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This month's question: How do you use your Brief Description area?
How do you choose keywords to expand your audience?
Answer below Editors love feedback!
Last month's question: What dreams do you remember?
brom21  : Totally fascinating! I think some dreams have hidden meaning and importance. A good number of people believe this. I love dreaming! Our minds are mysterious!
Zeke : Dreams are great, but never forget about nightmares.
Elle - on hiatus  : I sometimes don't play 'myself' in my dreams. That is, I might be an older or younger person, a different gender, a different body, whatever. In the dream, I'm that person, but when I wake up I think 'Whoa, that wasn't even me!' I wonder if this comes from reading a lot of books and 'putting myself in a character's shoes'.
prettypoetry:Not to be a Debby Downer ... But since I got my head bashed I don't dream. It's great in my opinion because I used to have these LOOOOONG Drawn Out Dreams They exhausted me telling them and my mom was usually my audience. God Rest Her Soul
balloon : The crazy ones. 
Jimminy Jingle!  : This is a personal question, but I will try to answer it with one of my own most powerful dream in memory...I crawled out of a swampy grave and noticed the grave marker was of a racoon pelt that had been stretched out with ropes. In the distance, I could hear wolves howling, get closer and was running, trying to get away, but they had my scent. Then, I came across this giant she-lion and she turned her head to look at me and I felt a heavy peace settle upon me, I was no longer scared. Could you believe she was the size of a small mountain? The wolves were getting closer; they had been howling at me over many nights of dreaming but never actually caught me, until one dream they did. But that was another dream...
So Lite : Since moving into my new house, I have recurring dreams about an ocean in the back room of my house that have huge windows. There is no back room to my house. In my dream there are extra rooms that exist in my house. I understand during my dream, that I have yet to discover parts of my house I have never been in.
s : About 90% of them. I used to keep a dream diary for story ideas but I never used any (and this was over 12 years of dream diarying from 1990) so I stopped. I'm rarely in my own dreams - I dream in stories, vivid, all senses utilised, colourful, noisy... I thought everyone did until I became a teacher 20 years ago and discovered I'm weird.
Dawsongirl : ...the dreams I dream right before awakening in the morning. I've awakened laughing, crying, horrified, and puzzled. A few times I have been spoken to by dead friends and relatives. They speak emphatically but I cannot always decipher their message. I do know my dreams are numerous and thought provoking. No wonder I often feel less than rested.
Paul  : I know I dream because I wake up remembering a very small part of the last, then it’s gone. I’m trying to learn how to do lucid dreaming. It is not easy.
🐕GeminiGem🎁  : Recurring stress dreams. I'm back at college, some 35 years after I graduated. The campus has changed so much that I hardly know it anymore. I can't find my...dorm, dorm room, my first class, the bookstore, the financial aid office...one of those. I never find most of these places, but I have found my dorm/dorm room. When that happens the dream continues in a completely different and stranger direction.
bob county : I dream about dreaming and waking up.
somik1: To be an honest person.
keyisfake : Living in odd places like a department store and one time I lived in a house that was inter-connected to other houses
Neil Clair : A couple years ago, I dreamt that my parents were murdered by my crush...
demerious: Recently, I was trying to find my shoes to leave my parents house.
TheBusmanPoet  : Nightmares as a child mostly [falling off an endless cliff, devil dreams]. Comes from being bullied and abused as a child. As an adult, living on a Planet with just women.
Thanks to everyone for your replies! Your feedback is much appreciated! Leger~
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Short Stories: July 22, 2020 Issue [#10287]
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