  Short Stories
This week: Characters That Are Thankful Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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An Elf Short Story Newsletter
A bit of writing about giving thanks and the novel characters who have reasons for doing so. |
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It is about that time of year. In the US (and other places too), people have been posting things they are thankful for on facebook and getting ready for the Thanksgiving holiday. While many people have reasons to show appreciate, it's not just a real world experience. In our stories, the characters also have reasons to give thanks or show appreciation.
The question is: what things are your characters thankful for this year?
It doesn't have to be big things either. Sometimes it's the little moment or action that can be appreciated. For a present day example, I went through a drive-thru coffee place not too long ago on my way to work. Since we were going in earlier than scheduled, I was picking up a drink for me and one of my coworkers. There wasn't a huge line but did have a little bit of a wait with the person in front of me, which I didn't mind. When I got to the window, however, I discovered the guy who had been before me had paid for my order. It was a little, random act of kindness and I was thankful. Granted, some fantasy worlds might not have coffee shacks, but there are many small encounters your character can experience and appreciate.
And maybe it can involve coffee. In fact, if you write a fantasy or science fiction scene where someone has their coffee order comped by someone else, send me the link in an email. I would love to read what you come up with in that scene.
On the other hand, it can be a big thing. If the world is at risk and your hero needs devices or things to survive, then that is a good example of something they can be thankful for. I'm sure Batman was thankful for many of his gadget and for the one who took care of everything for him while keeping his secret. It can be a physical object, a situation or even a force of nature. A romance story main character can come to appreciate the storm that helped bring them loser to the love interest. An action character can say thanks to being able to make it through whatever obstacle lay in their path. And so forth and so on.
This might make an interesting character development activity, in fact. There are many forms out there, sheets and questions to fill out in order to get to know more about a character. What are they thankful for is one question that could make it on a questionnaire. As I work on my NaNoWriMo novel, I know that my two main characters are thankful for a number of things and if I did any prep work for it (I didn't this time as I picked a random novel right before midnight) one thing I might consider asking myself is the things the characters appreciate. Maybe I'll do that next time.
I'm thankful to keep writing and to share these random thoughts with you readers. Now, back to giving my characters things to appreciate. This time it's pancakes and apologies. Later on it might music and maybe a first love. Will have to get there in order to find out, as that's the fun of first draft writing when pantsing. May you, and your story characters, have many things to appreciate this week. And keep writing.
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Are your characters thankful for anything? What are your characters thankful for in their life/story?
Last week, since I ended up with the SS newsletter then too, I wrote about story collections due to inspiration from a writing challenge. A few people sent in responses to that one.
Comment by Elycia Lee ☮ 
I love the suggestion! I'm so gonna try it... errr... after Nano.
- hehe. Good idea. Not something to start mid or near the end of NaNoWriMo.
Comment by writingbyjazzy
Great newsletter, Dawn!  I myself am a mix of a novelist and a short story writer. Short stories, if I really try, I can pour out in a week. A novel? I want so badly to finish one, but my patience is not enough yet, I suppose, since a novel takes a lot of time. That's why we have NaNoWriMo! This newsletter is interesting. I would probably write a collection of stories with the same main characters. Here, to answer your question, I'm asking myself if I would rather write a series of novels with the same main characters or just the same world. My answer is the former. I guess it's because I would rather not have to start a new character and learn all about them, which usually takes a while.
- Thanks. I guess I am a mix as on occasion I can do a short story and even place on WDC but I'm more of a novelist than anything else. Yet the music album collection has appeal. Characters can be hard to learn about, same with worlds, which makes it helpful keeping it the same, for sure.
Comment by vada 
Your newsletter really got me thinking harder about the possibility of a short story collection. I do like to write 'short' and believe I'm fairly good at it. I'm leaning towards using the same setting, different main characters, though some could appear in more than one. Will have to give this more thought. Thanks for setting the wheels turning in my brain vada
- Thanks for the comment and you're welcome for the suggestion.  Having the main show up as a minor in a different story is a good idea too. Should be fun that way.
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Short Stories: November 25, 2015 Issue [#7342]
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