This week: Childhood Memories Edited by: Legerdemain  
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Childhood Memories
When I look back (way back) at my childhood, I can't believe some of the crazy things I did. Children are so unafraid. I got a few knocks here and there, but in that era, kids were expected to 'go out and play', so we did. We adventured together and built our own little fantasy worlds.
We played games, sometimes with very simple rules, like Red Rover, where we basically tried to break each other's arms. And Pirates, where the rules were very complicated. We didn't come home until it was dark and the mosquitos were eating us alive.
I use those memories and feelings all the time in my stories. Of course, I don't use the fear of getting home before the streetlights come on, but that rushed sense of place can be interesting.
My most hated memories was of Valentine's Day. We made these very elaborate mail boxes and on Valentine's your schoolmates put your Valentine cards in each box. I was very shy, so I didn't pick favorites, I made a card for everyone. But there was that moment, when you opened your mailbox, fearing no one sent you a card. Of course, there were lots of cards in there.
All those moments and feelings are kept somewhere deep in our psyche, ready to be dragged out and examined, then added to our stories in some way or another. I can identify those feelings in other stories and relate to them, making the story seem more authentic.
So look back, harvest those memories and Write On!
This month's question: Do you use childhood memories and emotions in your writing?
Answer below  Editors love feedback! 
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Excerpt: I found the raft above the tideline and jumped with glee. My favourite days at the beach were the days the local fishermen left these rafts behind and I could live out my adventurous fantasies of being pirate on the high seas. I didn’t hesitate before dragging it to the water’s edge and launching it.
Excerpt: My ship called the "The Soul of the Sea," was sailing through tumultuous waters, when a vicious storm descended upon the sea. The wind howled, the rain pounded, and towering waves crashed against the vessel. Lightning shot like a bullet out of the sky, illuminating the black clouds, and the chaos surrounding me.
Excerpt: "It's beautiful," Dave breathed, running his eyes over the sleek frame.
"Are we looking at the same ship?" Charlie scowled, "This looks like a Xunx used it as a baseball, lost its temper over losing the big game and fed it to a Ka'atrin, where it was promptly shat out into a recycling port."
Excerpt: Marcus ran up to the line with the $5 bill in his hand. He couldn't wait to see if he could lay his hands on real dragon eggs.
Excerpt: “Jack! You all right?”
“Yeah, Frank, I’m still here.”
“Jesus, that was close! Another ten feet and it would’ve landed right in our laps.”
Excerpt: "Wait up, Gina!" Ryan called to his wife.
"You're going too fast," his friend Pete added, wiping away the sweat slipping out from under his safari hat. "This Mesopotamian heat is overpowering."
"When she's on the trail of a crucial discovery, nothing else matters."
Excerpt: Arizona eased her vintage Z28 Camaro around the twisty curves of the Adirondack mountains. "The guy at the gas station said turn left at the big oak with a giant white boulder next to it."
Excerpt: As soon as our cat, Maisie, slipped through the back door, she darted to the corner of the room, her tail in a frenzied sway. This was the beginning of another adventure that always left me anticipating and fearing what she might bring back.
Each time Maisie, our fearless and independent cat, returned from her outdoor adventures, I braced myself for the inevitable. It was either a lifeless bird or a tiny mouse, both of which I dreaded finding in the house.
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This month's question: Do you use childhood memories and emotions in your writing?
Answer below Editors love feedback!
Last month's "Action/Adventure Newsletter (July 3, 2024)" question: Do you use videos to educate yourself in instances like this?
How do you use that in your writing?
s  : The use of YouTube videos has become a great source for comparison for me in writing. Google used to be good, but now its results are rubbish, so I rely on YT for it. The last one I used was the difference between a gun shot and a gun shot fired through a silencer. A lot louder than I had been prepared for!
****Yes.
I know little, and the more I learn, the more I realise I don't know. Now that Google is useless as a means for gaining information, YT is the only online place to go for easily accessible information.
Massive Friendly Derg  : s - why do you say google is useless?
Elisa: Middle Aged Stik  : Massive Friendly Derg - A combination of (flawed) AI and sponsored posts have put a lot of questionable information at the top of Google results. I've seen less of this in other search engines.
s : Massive Friendly Derg - Because it is giving priority to sponsored sites... and not all are marked as sponsored. It is also utilising AI for answers. So, an example shared a month ago was someone asked if women should smoke during pregnancy, and Google gave an answer of, "Yes. Doctors agree women should smoke during pregnancy."
Notice how Reddit appears near the top of Google search results nowadays? that's because Reddit is the main site that has given Google permission to scrape for AI learning, so Google will become just another Reddit poster.
Sure, there are correct answers there. But more and more these answers are tempered by the AI scraping and usage in the company.
Massive Friendly Derg : I play Medal of Honor to learn about WWII. I especially like Frontline for using real videos, original radio recordings, and just being so well made. All MoH games feature real people, missions, and weapons.
Robert Waltz  : Nah, mostly I use videos to watch idiots misuse fireworks and guns.
Mousethyme  : Didn't need videos when I went to school to learn things..why should I need them now?
deltablue  : No. I read.
Monty  : In answer to your question, no.
bobconstable: Nope! Only for pure escapism.
Bonnie8910 : No. I've never thought about doing that. Maybe I should.
Jeff  : I go down many a deep YouTube and/or Wikipedia rabbit hole… 
MayDay : No, I read about how other writers portray those things, and I do something similar.
oldgreywolf scribbles : Google sucks. So does James BOND.
And a lot of those jerks on Youtube shouldn't be trusted with a burned out match. There're a few legitemate firearms channels on Youtube. WARNING: They're boring, because it's a lot more than load, point downrange, and pull the trigger.
GOOGLE: When the Dept of Defense released the WWW to the ignorant civilian population, google didn't require Boolean search like a real search engine, so people flocked to it. So did the sites that had money, as they PAID google to put their sites at the beginning of searches, regardless of the search filters. They still do, probably something like the winning bid for the Superbowl halftime show. It used to be given that if you saw a product ad seven times on the internet, you'd probably become a customer. Don't know the figure, now; probably higher. You can specify what search engine your browser uses, so If you're more inclined towards information content than shopping, skip google. (Now, of course, the Boolean search parameters are automatically built into the search filter you enter.)
Annette in Paris  : I rarely use videos to educate myself as I prefer to read information. I guess it would make sense to watch a video or listen to a sound recording when trying to discern the difference between sounds and come up with the best words to describe them. I often find videos that are meant to explain something to be tedious and needlessly long with added information that I didn't need. Another reason that I avoid videos is because they can appear to give complete information, but then they don't teach/explain the one thing I came to learn. That's happened to me a few times and it made me even less likely to open up a video instead of reading up on the subject somewhere else.
Whenever I use researched topics in my writing, I include my newfound knowledge in all parts of the story. Whether narration or dialogue, I will try to fit it in the best place that seems logical to me at the time.
brom21 : One time when was about ten, I was in our downstairs neighbors' and there was this boom we thought was a gun shot. I was about to run outside and see if it really had been a firearm discharge, but the mother of the downstairs neighbors' household shouted at me to stop. And, thankfully, it was indeed a fireworks item that was set off. Considering how loud some of the more powerful, more expensive fireworks are, perhaps ear protection should be implemented just like recreational gun firing requires. Nice NL!
Twilight Sparkle : I sometimes watch videos for research. Most of the time I prefer print sources because I can skim for relevant information. Although I did stumble into this YouTube channel by a user called The Analyst that explains some of the darker things in life. I think their videos would make excellent inspiration for Sci-Fi or Horror.
Thanks to everyone for your responses L~ |
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Action/Adventure: July 31, 2024 Issue [#12670]
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