This week: Do Whatever Works Edited by: Annette  
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"There are a few lucky souls for whom the whole process of writing is easy, for whom the smell of fresh paper is better than air, whose minds chuckle over their own agility, who forget to eat, and who consider the world at large an intrusion on their good time at the keyboard."
Janet Burroway in "Writing Fiction - A Guide to Narrative Craft."
If you are not one of  those people, then this newsletter on how to get started is for you. |
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Do Whatever Works
Some people are able to hammer out a short story in just a couple of hours. Other short stories need several years to be finished. No matter how long it takes to feel that a short story has reached its final form, every author had to overcome that first hurdle of getting started. Here are a few tips on creating writing habits.
Keep a journal
A journal that you write only for yourself gives you the freedom to fail. It gives you the ability to experiment, to hold on to ideas for now or later, to be your original self, and to grow. Ideally, your journal would be the paper kind. Something that allows freeform of thought. Something that can be (but doesn't have to) taken everywhere. Something that won't crash or accidentally delete your last hours, weeks, or months of writing. If paper doesn't work for you, a computer can be okay. Just be sure to back everything up.
Be a regular in the pages of your journal and create a steady habit of writing. Don't worry if you write long or short entries. Don't worry about the content. Choose a schedule of when to write in your journal and stick to it.
Freewriting
Put anything on paper. Spelling mistakes, punctuation issues, grammar ... just don't care about those. Write anything that comes to mind as long as you write. If your inner critic wants to stop you, you can even acknowledge that by writing, "penmanship is deteriorating" or "typos about on this page."
Use prompts
Prompts can help you get started and they also help you in keeping your focus on writing toward that prompt. Prompts give you writerly practice. Just how a ballerina won't perform a perfect dying swan the first time she tries, your first draft of a story is rarely going to be pretty or perfect or even stand up on its own. Frequently writing to prompts helps you to grow those creative muscles and help you to stick to a direction in your writing.
Exercise caution before letting in your inner critic
Freewriting is not meant to be perfect. That means, you will have to revise, edit, review, change, strike out, finish or abandon a story. This process begins the second you make your writing available to your inner critic. Therefore, make sure you are truly at that point before you let your freewriting become the victim beneficiary of your red marker.
Choice of subject
Some writing teachers preach that writers should only write about things that they have experience with. That's really not going to work for creative writing. Although you might have one or even a few stories that happened to you, are unique and worth telling, those stories will inevitably keep you in the realm of reality. Fiction writing is the opposite of that. Choose a subject that is exciting to you, rather than one that is familiar to you.
Writers must read
Whenever you read a book or short story, focus on the craft of the author. Analyze the techniques and methods you recognize in the text. Be a reader that asks, "Did this make me feel anything?" "Was this memorable?" "Did the story begin at the best time?" "How did the author gain my attention, keep my attention, and why did I keep reading to the end?" "What would I have changed?" "What did I learn from this story?"
What is your secret to get started writing? Will you share it? Please? |
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I received these replies to my last Short Stories newsletter "Be Dramatic Already!" . Do you dare letting it rip in your stories?
Elisa: Snowman Stik  wrote: I feel like my stories that incorporate "casual violence" tend either be somewhat long or were more common earlier in my development as a writer. That said, I'd be hard pressed to call many of my works tame. I certainly wouldn't call a story about students revealing a teacher's ethical failings tame by any measure. "Eight By Ten"
dragonwoman  wrote: Thanks for including my story The Signal. I'm sure most people had one.
Beholden  wrote: Thank you very much for including my short story, Undead Ambition, amongst the Editor's Picks. |
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Short Stories: March 16, 2022 Issue [#11248]
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