 Short Stories: September 16, 2020 Issue [#10372] |
This week: Name That Tune! 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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Name That Tune!
Whether the song is old or new, soft or hard, sung or screamed, I often find myself dwelling on lyrics and winding a story idea around them. Sometimes a song creates an image in my mind and I'm inspired to weave a story that includes that image. Other times, songs remind me of something in the past, a person or place and I start from there. Surprising? Probably not. Many musicians generate lyrics from something emotional or personal, so why wouldn't they evoke the same feelings in a listener? Just like a reader would create an image of a character in their mind that might not be exactly what you as a writer imagined, interpreting music can be the same.
Try listening to some new music. Not a big country music fan? Not all country music is about pickup trucks, guitars and yellow dogs. Perhaps Christian or gospel music could inspire a new character. Remember disco's polyester suits and wide labels? A good way to dress a retro character. A friend and I started singing along with the canned music in an elevator, only to emerge in the lobby and find out the elevator is on camera for security. 
Certainly listening to indigenous music could help you imagine a setting in a remote location. Even if you don't understand the language, the emotion in the music could be inspiring. You might catch yourself dancing to the beat and getting a little exercise in the process! So give music a try, play it while you're writing, or in the car, and let it inspire new characters and settings. Write on!
This month's question: Has music inspired something in your writing?
Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback!
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Excerpt: The atmosphere's chill, watery breath recalled his consciousness. The forsaken house was pelted with innumerable darts of water, while the rotting roofing sheets rattled lifelessly and threateningly.
The roof sounded like his father, who since his childhood threatened to send him out of their home, and had done it that day. Beneath his woolen hood, tears formed in his eyes and dropped on the guitar case on his thighs.
Excerpt: Siting there in the quiet of the evening, she heard a clear voice rise up in song. She could hear the strumming of a guitar. Someone was out there. Someone with a gorgeous, pure voice. The voice held her transfixed as she recognized the song as one of hers. Beautiful with only a guitar as accompaniment. Memories of writing that song. The pure joy of it brought tears to her eyes.
Excerpt: Baylee Gibbs turned on her right blinker and pulled the faded pink RV into the rest stop. Steam escaped from its hood, "We need water for the radiator again," she told her ex-boyfriend, Troy, who'd been asleep in the passenger seat for the past three hours.
Excerpt: "Just look at me. The camera will be behind where I'm sitting. Pretend we are having drinks and it's your turn to fill me in. Talk to me. It will be as if we picked up mid-conversation. Just don’t stop talking. We will edit it later. Ready? Here we go, in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... and," he pointed at me.
Excerpt: Moving away to a new home
Yeah, she wants to go back
back to her old home town
To family, friends, mountains and shores
back to that place that she calls home.
Excerpt: The chatter slowly morphs,
In unspoken compliance,
Filling the expansive hall,
With a vast sea of silence.
Then a note light and clear,
Becomes two, three and four,
Like softly pattering rain,
It builds more and more.
Quote Prompt for September 2020:
"The dying process begins the minute we are born,
but it accelerates during dinner parties."
-- Carol Matthau
Excerpt: The Prep is a month-long, community-oriented challenge that takes place every October, designed to help you plan a novel prior to writing it. The Prep was created to coincide with NaNoWriMo, but it can be used to prep any novel project. You don't even have to have a novel idea to participate! Your first assignment, on Oct. 1st, is to come up with an idea, and we provide you with brainstorming tools, plot generators, and a whole community of other novelists to help you along.
Excerpt: Prompt for September/ THE HOUSE OF GOLDEN MASKS
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This month's question: Has music inspired something in your writing?
Send in your answer below! Editors love feedback!?
Last month's question: Do we have to travel to another planet or universe to create something new?
none
Beholden  response to "Short Stories Newsletter (July 22, 2020)" : Those who couldn't be bothered with description and just click on "Other, Other, Other," are doing themselves a disservice. I like to know what I'm getting into before beginning a Review and "Other" tells me nothing. I'm likely just to move on to the next item in that case.
Aside from persuading people to read your stuff, the descriptions can be useful in unexpected ways. Both of my winning entries for the Quill Awards last year were in categories that I wouldn't regard as their main intent. They won in a secondary or even teriary choice for additional areas of interest. Click on as many categories and genres as you can think of - it can only increase your piece's chances.
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