This week: When In Pain 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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When In Pain
Chronic pain can be a debilitating condition in life. The mental stress and biologic psychological effects of pain can be just as severe as the pain itself. The brain is neuroplastic, meaning it can be changed. Sometimes those changes are not for the better.
Cognition is an important function that can be impacted by pain. Scientific evidence supports the notion that pain negatively affects cognitive ability. While temporary pain doesn’t affect cognition much, persistent pain can cause changes in the brain systems that control cognitive function.
The link between chronic pain and depression is strong, but not well understood by psychologists. Some researchers believe this depression as a result of pain may be programmed into our wiring evolutionally. Contextually, it makes sense. Withdrawing from society provides the body with a peaceful environment needed to heal. It also creates a “safe place” away from stressors and possible threats.
Activation of complex brain systems affected by chronic pain may increase awareness of pain and decrease pain tolerance. Additionally, because pain signals the fight or flight system, heightened sensitivity to other “threat” cues may result. This makes sense in the context of survival, where consistent perceived “threats” would increase awareness out of protection for self.
Often our stories include battles, attacks, and sickness, things that will cause pain. The injury is momentary, but the pain may continue for a long time. With this in mind, a character's mindset could completely change and may change the storyline. This doesn't have to be a negative, a twist of events can sometimes create positive results. I hope this inspired something in your stories.
As always, Write On
This month's question: How do you show pain or depression in your writing? Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback!
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Excerpt: Why can't magic choose my path? I stand at a crossroads and the choices are hard ones despite my gifts. A millennium of living has taught me that a broad green avenue can lead to ruins and wilderness, while a stony path might open into sunlit uplands. But which is which, here and now? I need wisdom but the skies are grey and my mind and vision are fenced in by fog.
Excerpt: I continue to stare down at the photo between my hands. Bright sun, azure sky, cheery crimson-and-white sail rippling in the breeze. Cyan sea stretching to an unseen shore, beyond vision, beyond knowing. And Jeff, leaning against the mast, his grin cocky and reassuring and altogether him.
| | | Affection? (E)
Short story about a girl's affection and empowerment, based on true life events
#2110778 by BBK  |
Excerpt: Prerna knew sometime or the other the question of meeting would come up. When she had joined the app initially, she was only looking for a distraction from her boring life and didn’t intend to meet anyone. Due to her past hurt and rejections, she avoided getting involved. Each time, the emotional attachment had left her broken and disconnected from herself.
| |  | Invalid Item
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#2245315 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: I felt the tears coarse down my cheeks. From the speakers' Rod crooned, "I don't want to talk about it," sobbing, I sang along, "how you broke my heart." Yeah, that's right I cried. Don't make such a tremendous thing of it. We're supposed to talk more now. You know, about our feelings and such. It's a new dawn of men bearing their hearts and fears.
Excerpt: Emma Morrison takes pills but they are merely made of sugar. Of course, Emma does not know this, which is fine because all that is important, to Emma anyway, is that they work. Emma will stroll into the apothecary bold as brass or perhaps secure as sass and hand old Doc Wertz a dime for a handful of pills--that’s all there was to it, no prescription, no formalities and no fuss. Then Emma, bouncy, white-haired Emma, holds the look of smug nonagenarian. Her's is a conquest and an air of pride, balanced upon the peak of an upturned nosed graced with just the slightest hint of rosacea. She shuffles surely across the cranberry titled floor and exits the quaint pre-World War II building to the chimes of the little bells abutting the door frame and jamb.
Excerpt: A crumbled piece of paper arched through the still air and headed for the trash can. At the last second it found the rim and bounced into a growing pile of errant tosses. Sharon sighed heavily. She couldn't shoot baskets either. So much for a career in basketball after art.
She laid her head on her elbow and looked at a brightly colored pastel drawing she had drawn yesterday. It was stuck among the knick-knacks on her table. She loved the colors. Unfortunately, the drawing didn't conform to what Michael had asked, so there it sat.
Excerpt: People tell me I'm pretty and I smile. They're all liars though. Within the light the wrong festers. In the mirror I see the aphorism.
My friend, Leslie, says I'm over analytical, and that we all have the same feelings of wrongness. True. But I tell her I'm a singularity. A traveling light in the cosmos.
Excerpt: The toast was as hard as a rock, its taste like dry sand coating my tongue. I chewed slowly, fixing a polite smile on my face as he watched me with greed.
“Is it good? Do you like it?” he asked fervently, now leaning over the small table as if hoping I wouldn’t vanish before his eyes.
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This month's question: How do you show pain or depression in your writing? Send in your answer below! Editors love feedback!
Previous month's "Short Stories Newsletter (February 28, 2024)" question: For historical writing, do you research the details?
Bikerider  : I have written several historical fiction stories and one novel, so yes, I believe that research is paramount. A lot of readers will catch a historical mistake. In one story I used a historical speakeasy as one of the settings, so I went to NYC on an unrelated visit and found the place that is now The Flute Bar, a champagne bar. But it is exactly as I described it in the story.
Beholden  : Thank you very much for including my short story, "Thylacine" , in your Editor's Picks section.
Colour and fashion, hey? It's an interesting thought but I really can't see me researching the colour of the month before writing my next short story. I suppose, if I were into period dramas...
s  : Yes. 1000 times yes. because there will always be that one reader who knows the period and says, "But they didn't use linen in 1547 Italy, they used calico," or something.
I know; I have been caught out twice with the weights of swords. I have since wielded a sword and they are heavier than I would have thought!
And I called out an author who had people ride a horse from Melbourne to Adelaide in 1850 in a single night.
With the Internet, basic research is not that difficult. But if you are going for realism, then you should go beyond the basic.
Beholden : I would, if I did any historical writing. Come to think of it, that's probably why I do so little historical writing...
Schnujo's Doing NaNoWriMo?  : And to answer the official question, I don't write historical fiction (much at all, but probably can't say 'never') precisely because of all the research involved. I think it is absolutely necessary, especially for longer works!
Cubby  : Most definitely!
Massive Friendly Derg  : This is why I love historical fiction. Not only are they great stories but you learn alot as well.
oldgreywolf on wheels : Yes, historical, technical.
More plausible to run reality through the corkscrew, that way.
Mouse says gobble gobble  : I try not to write anything that requires too much research. It is the bane of my writing.
underthemoss: Absolutely. But then, I love the research part of the writing process and frequently end up going down research rabbit holes. It's good fun, but it doesn't get the story written!
Happy to write : I would say I should but not always however I don't write a lot about history or then again I do however it's my own.
tj-turkey-jobble-jobble-hard-J  : I was skimming a story based in the late 1960's through the mid 70's that I thought would be interesting. Shortly into the item, the mother called her son who was out past his curfew. He was up to mischief, but when his cell phone went off, he was busted! Cell phone, really?
That's why a person should research any story.
It be like Charon having an outboard on his skiff!
Dave  : Of course. That is the only way to maintain credibility.
TheBusmanPoet : I research articles that are relevant.
Tannus : Absolutely! You can play around with historical fiction but not actual historical writing. In my opinion, that is the best part. You get to research and may discover something new.
Fraught-With-Safety : It depends on what I am researching. Sometimes I feel it is unnecessary, but I generally research like a maniac. Often I use little of what I have learned, because I am not writing a textbook, but I feel more comfortable creating from a knowledgeable standpoint.
kimauge Try to find many details at that time.
jackson : Yes, I research. If I mention trees or other things in my stories, I don't want to place those things where they don't belong.
Boulden Shade (fka Jeff Meyer) : I actually started to, once. It was the last short story I began to write for the Adam West cycle. Usually, I just take what I know about the relevant history (if any is needed) and throw it in whatever story I'm writing. But this time, I started researching some stuff to get dates and supporting events right...and I swamped the boat. I got so mired down in researching stuff that when I got back to writing the story, my muse had apparently gotten bored and moved on. The story was gone, and all I had were a bunch of useless facts.
Since I write mainly from the hip, my stories kind of wandering to the end THEY want, I tend to get sidetracked way to far if I try to do research up front. And when I come back, I guess I'm usually too lazy to do any research and make any edits.
Long answer made short: no.
Bob : I don't do nonfiction, but when I set a story in a particular past time frame I do some research for accuracy.
T.J Shepard  : yes nonestop research i do it while writing
Thanks for all the responses! It is much appreciated! L~ |
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Short Stories: April 24, 2024 Issue [#12523]
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