  Short Stories
This week: EEK! A spider! 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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EEK! It's a SPIDER!
Okay..it doesn't have eight legs. It might have six or twenty, there isn't a set definition for this organism. This is about brainstorming ideas. Sometimes it is impossible to work on whatever project you might be writing. You might be stuck on a character flaw, wrote yourself off a cliff or in my case, broke the character's nose in a cafeteria and feel a little lost. I know where I want the story to go, I'm just feeling distracted by all those sandwiches in cellophane.
This is about brainstorming. Perhaps you want to start fresh or there might be a contest you want to enter, but ideas aren't gelling in your head. Try pulling out a few sheets of paper and surfing images. Put in a few key words, like the genre of the contest, or if your character is a redhead, type that in. Then start flipping through the images on Google and see what happens. Once you find something that feels intriguing (or scary if your filter is off)) stop and look at the image. Then write a main idea in the middle of your paper, draw a circle around it and then imagine "what happens next". For each idea, draw an arm off the main circle and write that idea in a new circle on that arm. If the idea blossoms, keep drawing arms and circles until your mind stops. Your drawing should end up looking like a spider with real big joints, and if they're like mine, kind of lop-sided and lumpy.
Nevermind. Keep thinking, keep brainstorming. Go through your images until you have a few sheets of paper filled out. Then, I like to wait a few days...or uhm, months and come back to those spiders. Hopefully you remember where you stashed them. Look behind the pile of recipes, that's where I found mine. If the idea is for a contest, you might want to get to it the next day. Then look at each spider and rate them for suitability to the contest. If it's just for a new story idea, go with what still interests you. Can you add more arms? Can you expand the ideas in the circles? Highlight the best ideas and start your story. I generally don't keep the inspiration image because I don't want to get locked on it, I want it to be merely the basis for my ideas. I find the best characters will stick and I know them pretty well.
Now it's time to start writing. If you're an outline person, start that and work your story into your plot points. If you're a wing-it kind of fellow, start typing and let the story unfold. In the end, I hope a wonderful story ends up in your portfolio. Write on!
This month's question: Give us your brainstorming tips!
Send in your reply below 
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Excerpt: However, this was no ordinary cottage; this was the home of Old Meg, a witch who could brew a love potion so strong she once made a Faery fall in love with a Troll. This day, the village butcher had decided to pay her a visit. The blacksmith’s daughter would surely be unable to resist him once he slipped her the special love potion from Old Meg
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Excerpt: The early morning sunshine lit Maggie’s sparkling kitchen, bathing the room in yellow warmth. The sight of the gleaming floor, spotless counter tops, and clear windows filled her with satisfaction. Her back stiffened when she spotted a flaw in her glittering kingdom. A fat, grey spider sat smugly on one polished countertop and stared at her. Her eyes locked on the eight-legged intruder and the skin between her shoulder blades crawled. Like a General about to pounce on a private whose shirt was untucked, she rolled up a copy of Home and Garden, and gave the dirty thing a good hard smack
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Excerpt: Placing his right hand up to the leaf, he waited patiently as the arachnid stepped on to his palm as if some instructions were being followed. It was a handsome blue/grey in colour, with a body size of about one inch and legs of around twice that length. Johnny never ceased to be amazed at the reaction which the species engendered amongst humans – what was the saying? ‘If you wish to live and thrive, let a spider run alive.’
Excerpt: My momma used to tell me that if I wanted me a man, it wasn’t enough to be pretty or to be good in the bedroom. I also had to know my way around a kitchen.
Excerpt: “We have so much to learn from nature, Mr Greenfield.”
Excerpt: I live in my car. It has been many months since I have learnt to call my ride a home.
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#1940772 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Sonya gave him a sidelong look, her shoulder-length blonde hair waving in the wind. “You would say something like that, wouldn’t you?” she replied, drawing her hand away. “My Aunt Gertrude doesn’t like surprises. I’m telling you this right now. No one in my family does.”
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This month's question: Give us your brainstorming tips!
Send in your reply below
Last month's question: What tricks do you use to trim the fat?
Ẃeβ࿚ẂỉԎḈĥ  replied: My fat-trimming tips:
I've done a lot of reviewing and judging, and noticed the overuse of adjectives, adverbs and unnecessary descriptions. This is especially true when it comes to the official WDC contest. You want to make every word count and pull the judge right into the story.
Thus, I've tried to learn how to trim the fat from my shorter stories by reading others, and choosing the spots in theirs that could be tightened-up. When I start penning descriptive ramblings, I just think back to the last review that I commented to the author about, for doing the same thing. 
It's humbling, indeed! 
StephBee  responded: I trim the fat looking for adverbs. Once I find them I underline them, do a re-read and see if they're really needed. One or two sentences placed in the right spot can help a reader visualize a scene without getting too descriptive.
Vampyr14  answered: Great newsletter! I always think a few well placed details go a long way. Just describe the most important element in a scene, the thing that will tell the reader everything they need to know about the location, rather than pointing out every nuance of the place.
And use all five senses. Descriptions shouldn't always be visual. Sometimes a scent or a sound will evoke the scene just as clearly.
Dawn Embers  sent: While I'm not the most descriptive person, I do need to cut down on unneeded words. These are sometimes adverbs but are often other weak words like "seem" "little" and "feel" that aren't needed in the story. Then I look at what I have and ask myself what do I need in the story and what is extra. Though for my novels I need to learn how to describe things a bit more. Good newsletter.
Quick-Quill  submitted: First I look for all "the's", "that's", "were" "So", etc. I have more of a tendency to cram as much information into a sentence than I should. Trying to cut word count. I probably need to ADD not subtract detail as I write Plot versus Setting.
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Short Stories: July 03, 2013 Issue [#5760]
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