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This newsletter aims to help the Writing.com short story author hone their craft and improve their skills. I would also 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.
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Reader Glasses.
The older I get, I sometimes call them cheaters. I need them to read the computer screen too! Yes, I leave them all over the house. In the end, I'm grateful to see.
I was thinking...writing a short story is like putting on your magnifying glasses, isn't it? You can write a longer story with lots of details about the setting, and the characters, and toss in some spear carrier characters because they were fun to write. You know, the goofy guy at the drive-thru window.
When writing a short story, emphasis on the word short, sometimes you have to take your focus from the big picture and look carefully at the smaller picture. Especially if you have a word count limit. Magnify down and distill the picture. Reduce extraneous characters that don't help the story. Lose the guy in the drive-thru.
And lose the spear carriers, unless the spear is Gungnir and Odin is nearby, right? I hope this helps you give thought to your short stories and managing characters.
As always, Write On!
This month's question: Do you find it hard to cut extraneous characters?
Send in your answer below! 
Editors love feedback! |
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Quote Prompt for June 2025: "Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations."
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#1700829 by Jeff  |
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Excerpt: Staring down from the balcony at the sea waves a few yards away, he again descends into that unspeakable thought. Compulsory evening routine, late afternoon meditations. Seated in an armchair, he is often so abstracted, so absorbed he never notices you approaching until you call out “Wilfred!” bawling at him in mystified irritation. Then he will start, startled, and make a nervous utterance of flimsy self-defence.
Excerpt: Lightning cracked and thunder pealed across the stormy grey sky as DeathLord AngryDeathPantsMurderWill (Will for short) brooded on his magnificently crafted throne. All right, so it might have been a recliner from IKEA, but he'd fixed it up with a lot of black drapery and red gauze and really, it looked intimidating enough (at a distance, in the dark) that it worked.
Excerpt: He remembered the attack they grappled with the Russians,. It had been brutal and savage and by god, did they manage to survive. Other regiments wouldn't adhered endured the weather conditions as Gulliemont's regiment had. His 108th had survived against all the odds. They had fought the beasts, known as the Cossacks. They had pounded off the Russian soldiers now slowly regaining their strength.
Excerpt: Once upon a time there was an Abyssinian kitten named Schrodinger who thought he was human.
Everyday when MissFlowerySmells, the other human in his domain, sat at her desk, he curled patiently on her lap, listening to the click of her fingers on the keyboard. When Missy--that's what he called her, for short--when Missy sat down for dinner, Schrodinger joined her, perched on an empty chair at the table and watched. When Missy crawled into bed at night, he slipped under the covers with her. When she snored, he purred.
Excerpt: First let me set the record straight. Whomever coined this erroneous phrase has never been privy to all the facts. If I'm being generous, not everyone ever has been, privy that is. So, here's the saying passed from loose lip to glib tongue.Nobody has encountered an explosive daisy and lived to tell the tale. Does it sound believable? You hear explosive and kaboom, you think total destruction, am I right? They dwell upon the ex.
Excerpt: As I got on the train she was already sitting there, same place as ever, watching the snow outside. It was March but the winter did not want to give up, just like me. I took a seat opposite her and looked at her, fascinated by her charm and elegance. She wore a black coat, matching hat and pearl earrings. We looked at each other, I nodded, she too, that was all, not a word.
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This month's question: Do you find it hard to cut extraneous characters? Send in your answer below! Editors love feedback!
Last month's "Short Stories Newsletter (May 21, 2025)" question: Do you enhance the 'feel' of the story as you write or in edit?
vada  : In edits. First, I just get the bare bones of the story down.
S 🤦  : I go for the 'feels' as I write, as (being a pantser) those first impressions and those first emotional outbursts from within can be the most visceral and real. As I write - first emotional responses work best for me.
Jeffrey Meyer : Only by a word change here and there. I'll beef up transitions, or provide more exposition, but the moodier parts, I try to let the immediate impetus stay. Maybe a word here or there can be turned better, but I try not to fuss with it too much.
Lynn Nichole : The feel and feelings of my characters and stories are always at the front of my mind when writing or editing, for better or worse. Every time I sit down to write is an opportunity to refine and enhance the feel(s) I'm trying to capture. 
I'm a very character-driven, emotive kind of writer. Virtually all of my favorite stories or poems have these elements, and I genuinely enjoy the process of producing the intended feeling/theme/atmosphere.
THANKFUL SONALI Magical Days!  : As I write, mostly.
Brian K Compton : To step into short story, something is already cooking. I have to give whatever I got. But, I’m going to keep going when I edit. Longer fiction, I find writing introductions to scenes or chapters end up being prompts to finish later. Which, I never do. I get these little interruptions.
Mousethyme : I would like to hope so.
Dad : Both
Rick Dean - Dinosaur : Absolutely. That's a natural part of storytelling.
Daniel "D" Torres : I only have a few, but they are generally set in a different time period, so I've to do a lot of research for details.
jackson : I change a sentence or two, here and there.
Thanks to everyone for your responses, it's much appreciated! L~ |
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Short Stories: June 18, 2025 Issue [#13192]
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