  Short Stories
This week: The D&D Edited by: Shannon  
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Welcome to the Short Stories Newsletter. I am Shannon and I'm your editor this week. |
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The D&D
I just finished watching Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father. This is how Netflix describes this amazing documentary: "Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne's poignant tribute to his murdered childhood friend, Andrew Bagby, tells the story of a child custody battle between the baby's grieving grandparents and Shirley Turner, Bagby's pregnant ex-girlfriend and suspected killer. Initially, Kuenne made this documentary as a memorial for Andrew's loved ones, but it morphs into an emotional legal odyssey when Turner goes free on bail and is allowed to raise her son."
Dear Zachary is one of the most touching, emotionally devastating films I've ever watched. It is heartwarming--and heartbreaking--to see how thoroughly this young man's brief twenty-eight years on planet Earth affected so many people.
"What in the Wide World of Sports does this have to do with writing?" you ask.
Everything!
How do your characters affect (influence, touch, or move) each other, and more importantly, how do they affect (influence, touch, or move) the reader? If your answer is "I dunno," then you've got some serious work to do.
Fantastic characters, whether good or bad (or perhaps a little of both), leave an indelible impression on us. We feel as if we know them (or wish we did know them), and years later can still recite their names: Huckleberry Finn, Annie Wilkes, Hannibal Lecter, Michael Corleone, Kunta Kinte, Piggy, Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, John Rambo, Atticus Finch, Tony Soprano, James Bond, David Copperfield, Josey Wales, Rooster Cogburn, Ebenezer Scrooge, Holden Caulfield, Jay Gatsby, Benjamin Button (one of my favorite F. Scott Fitzgerald characters), Captain Ahab, Jane Eyre, Robinson Crusoe, Hester Prynne, Sherlock Holmes, Don Quixote, Clark Kent, Harry Potter, Romeo & Juliet, Anna Karenina, Dr. Frankenstein ... and the list goes on and on.
What do these characters have in common? They are memorable for moving each and every one of us in a dramatic way. So allow me to ask you again ... how do your characters affect (influence, touch or move) each other, and more importantly, how do they affect (influence, touch or move) the reader? If the reader isn't affected in some way, shape or form, the reader won't keep reading, period.
Write, edit and edit some more. Try your characters on for size--give them a public showing and listen carefully to the feedback. For instance, whenever I enter a story in a contest here on WDC, I try to get it done at least two weeks early, then I unveil it to the public so I'll have a good fourteen days for the D&D--the down and dirty rewriting necessary to hone it, shape it and perfect it as best I can before the judging begins.
"Well how do I know what to change and what not to change?" you ask. Stephen King says to give copies of your finished story to several trusted but brutally honest friends. If one person says you should change something in your story, consider it a tie (you vs. the reader), and in this case the writer always wins. But if you get three, four, five people all saying the same thing, chances are it's something you need to address and rewrite until they, the readers, are satisfied.
It's a scary prospect, revealing your work to the world for the first time. You wonder if others will love it like you do--if they'll cheer right along with you as they, the babies you breathed life into, take their first independent steps. You take each and every negative comment personally, and sometimes you even get angry. Oh my God, they hate it! I'm a failure. I should never pick up a pen again.
Relax. While writers may never fully embrace the cutting, editing and rewriting process, we eventually come to accept it as necessary. After all, what good are all those words on the page if you are the only one who will ever see them? The only one who will ever love them? It's okay. Everything will be alright. Take a deep breath, copy and paste the section you're about to cut into a separate miscellaneous file somewhere (you never know--you may be able to use it later), and hit the dreaded delete button. I promise your writing will be the better for it.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Short Stories Newsletter. Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement, and I look forward to next time. Till then, write on!
Kuenne, Kurt. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father. Netflix. 2008. 13 Sept. 2009 <http://bit.ly/7XHzD>.
Kuenne, Kurt. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father. 2009. 13 Sept. 2009 <http://www.dearzachary.com>.
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Feedback
The following is in response to "Short Stories Newsletter (August 26, 2009)"
Fyn  says, "Excellent newsletter :) Such an important concept!" Thank you, fyn! Glad you liked it.
lkokko says, "An excellent newsletter with some valuable insights into reading to write better. I know when I was young, I loved to fan the pages of a new book and take a deep breath of the heavenly smell." Ah, a man after my own heart.  Thank for the feedback, Larry.
Zeke  says, "Daily reading has been my habit for the last fifteen years. I have been writing for twelve of them. I love to vary the things I read and I do study each of them for the writer's style. So far, I have gotten a much better appreciation of how publishers make their decisions." And it's nice to know what you're up against. I read with a highlighter nearby. Things that move me get highlighted immediately, making them easier to find later. Thanks for the feedback, Zeke.
Ladyoz says, "Thank you for quoting from King's fabulous book. Now I have to go read it again! " You're welcome! And I hope those who've never read it will be inspired to buy a copy.
ragefire2000 says, "Thanks again for featuring my item!  I totally agree with Stephen King (and loved On Writing.). I read voraciously... between audiobooks on the commute to work, and book-books in my free time, I probably pack in 60 books a year... 100+ screenplays a year for work and fun... and untold quantities of short stories, articles, essays, blogs, etc. It's an addiction! But as someone who never really learned proper writing, I can attribute almost all of my writing ability to the books I read growing up--several hundred by the time I was in elementary school. I can't tell you what a present participle is, or what it means to conjugate a verb (which may explain why it's so difficult for me to learn a foreign language!) ... but I know what a good, bad and mediocre sentence looks like. I can instinctively tell when something I write 'sounds right' or not. So put me in the same column as Stephen King ... to write well, you have to read! I couldn't agree with you more, and I couldn't have said it better myself. Oh, and you're welcome, Jeff. It was my pleasure to feature The Boy At The Lake.
Lorien says, "Great newsletter! I think this is something that's often overlooked: in order to write well, you need to love the written word, and the best way to do that is reading. You'll discover new words, new styles, new genres, new turns of phrase ... innumerable tools for your own writing. Great newsletter!" Thanks, Lorien! I appreciate the feedback, and I'm glad you liked it.
bishop4real says, "I totally agree with Stephen King: if you don't read a good book (or even a bad one, for that matter), you can never know if you have just written a good book or a bad one." Indubitably! Thanks for reading and commenting, Bishop!
AliceNgoreland says, "Love this newsletter. King's On Writing was a great read. It was different than what I was hoping for, but still good." Thank you, Alice! I'm glad you liked it, and thanks so much for the feedback!
Tania says, "This was probably one of my favorite newsletters to date. It's great advice, and I've read the book." Thank you, Tania!  I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment.
Mara ♣ McBain  says, "Great newsletter Shannon and thank you for the shout out to 'Old Glory'. It might not of placed among the tough Short Shots competition but has recieved a lot of positive comments.  " My pleasure, Mara. It's a great story. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Vlad says, "Hey, Shannon, I have a lot of books, too!" 
Veritas says, "Excellent article this newsletter. Someone just asked me for advice on how I learned to write the other day and I sent a long email back on this exact subject. If you don't read and read a lot; you'll never learn to write. Plus by reading unknown authors you're supporting the same people who you want to one day support you. I haven't read On Writing. I'll have to pick it up next time I get to the bookstore!" Thank you, and enjoy the book.
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Short Stories: September 16, 2009 Issue [#3246]
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