This week: Are You Afraid? Edited by: Leger~  
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This newsletter aims to help the Writing.com short story author hone their craft and improve their skills. I would also 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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The Fear of Writing
When NaNoWriMo started, I saw a lot of new member posts saying they were nervous about posting their work even though it was unedited. Why?
If you get anxious, please realize that there's nothing wrong with you. It just shows that you care about writing. ~ Angela Booth
Confronting the fear of other people reading your work can be hard to overcome. The thought of someone else reading a story that so far, has only been read by you and your cat, can be intimidating. That fear can be dissolved if you look at success one step at a time.
Accept that you've worked hard on your story and it's ready for outside help. You've read your work hundreds of times. The edit process has turned your brain into swiss cheese. New eyes roaming over your story can help spot grammar and plot errors.
Topophobia ~ Stage Fright
Now come some reviews, lurking in your inbox, daring you to read them. Open them! Hopefully, if it's a well-written review, you'll get the good news and the bad news. Good reviewers will tell you what they liked about your story and what needs some TLC. Sometimes it takes a little detective work on the author's part to separate the good advice from the bad.
Papyrophobia ~ Fear of Paper
When I'm ready to edit a story, I print out the reviews I've received and then I bring out a highlighter. I highlight and separate the complimentary comments from the constructive criticism. I read all the change suggestions and examine the story to see if I agree. Some suggestions can be personal opinion about the story and some point out mistakes in plot and construction. I edit and save it as a new draft, I don't throw out the old until drafting is completed. Then I reread the story to see if the changes work.
Ataxophobia ~ Fear of Disorder
Writing is hard work. Not all of us have the time to sit and write eight hours a day. Not all of us have that attention span. But you can learn to write more effectively every day, use your time wisely, and improve yourself. Having help from your peers can help you improve technically. I think it's easier to hear criticism from a peer than fluffy compliments from relatives or friends.
So be yourself, and as always, Write On!
This month's question: What is your biggest fear when making your work public? Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback!
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WDC Site Contest for November
Genre Prompt for November 2024: Fantasy
Excerpt: Witch burnings tend to attract a big audience around here. Oh, I understand that it's probably inadvisable to be seen to avoid them, leads to questions, to suspicions.
Excerpt: Clarence Helmick was a slow-witted twenty-year-old unemployed glue-sniffing slacker who lived in the basement of his widowed mother’s house.
Excerpt: Luke was a warm and caring, young worm farmer from southern Florida. His career had crawled into his heart as a child. Few careers are ever children, but this was an exceptional career, especially for a caring, young man of 22 years who was also incredibly boring.
Excerpt: In the shaded corners of the cosmos, where the stars whisper secrets of ancient wonders, Samka the shapeshifter ghost drifted through the void in her spaceship 'The Transient Traveler'.
Excerpt: I awoke one morning to the sound of a faint, steady buzzing. I held up my hand to shield my eyes from the strong morning sun. There it was, flying back and forth among the motes of dust, as if it were pacing, waiting for an invitation. I felt my face twist in disgust.
This forum is designed to get your creative juices flowing. 10,000 gps will be given away every 24 hours!
Excerpt: There was something about November that made Loden McCrae especially restless. From dusk he wandered late into the night. He never had any direction in mind, and he always started on the street farthest from his home and worked back to his pretty house with the green door.
Excerpt: On closer inspection, she saw a photo caught in the grate and walked over and gently pulled it loose. She turned it over and three children looked back at her, dressed in older style of clothing. Checking the date, she wondered who had lost it, then dialed her friend Rhonda for help.
| | 54 EXCUSES (13+)
An aptly named racehorse sheds the cloak of loser and drapes it over its bevy of owners.
#1533412 by DRSmith  |
Excerpt: “Well, look who’s here,” Bob said, cheerily. “If it ain’t my dear friend, Trader Boo... maven of Chicago’s Board of Trade. Come in, come in. I’m delighted to see you,” he warmly said while leading me to his study. “So, how have the markets and horses been treating you these days?”
“No complaints. Been short the beans and long on horses lately. In fact, it’s why I’m in town. I have a filly running at Belmont tomorrow.”
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This month's question: What is your biggest fear when making your work public? Send in your answer below! Editors love feedback!
Last month's "Short Stories Newsletter (October 9, 2024)" question: How do you construct your story?
W.D.Wilcox  : I'm kind of an off-the-cuff kind of writer. I don't know where the story is going and have no idea what I am going to write. Sometimes it's scary, sometimes it turns out as a kid's story or a Christmas story. Staring at a blank page is my best friend. It gets the juices flowing.
foxtale  : Excellent description of the story arc. I will have to coagulate over this.
I mean cogitate.
Axel R. Lennon : I start with the conflict, or the ending of the story. Find the ending and the rest of it is simply figuring out how you get from point A to point B. To show you the three parts of my process
1. Oh this is a good day for the characters
2. Holy crap! oh my god! why would such a horroble thing happen?!
3. Okay, problem solved, we're good
oldgreywolf on wheels : Years ago, I used an old shirt, grey face paint, a wig, and fake blood (around her mouth, on her chin, and my handprint from her right shoulder fading downwards), and my 2nd wife's own actions, to tell the story of a man-eating monster that looked human (this was before the zombie bullsh--, uh, craze).
She scared a kid after her dentist appointment, sold no steak dinners at her waitressing job, was sent home early, and her manager told me if I dressed her up like that, again, she would be sent home immediately. Later, looking for the picture I took before her dentist appointment, it was gone.
To paraphrase using KISS: Use your imagination and improvise where needed.
pinkish.mold: I'm a messy writer. I don't have an organized way of writing, but I find inspiration in little details of everyday conversations I hear while taking the bus or accidentally eavesdropping on conversations in the hallway. I really like a simpler way of writing, without a complex plot, but finding the complexity in simple, everyday problems.
NaNotatoGo! : Well having had horror makeup applied, I'd say that rereading and what I wrote is like airbrushing a prosthetic. Sitting there thinking about scary stuff is applying the stuff that dries up your face so you can apply the makeup and not have it run. Then actual writing is applying the lowlights and highlights. And if I really screw up the process sometimes it's a Q-tip with fake blood jammed up my nose...which I then have to remove and touch up.
Carycomic  : One word at a time, just like everybody else.
Mouse says gobble gobble  : Most of the time something inspires me and I just run with it. I've gotten some interesting short shorts that way.
Jaycin Alexis : Con...stru...ct...
What is the meaning of this word? XD
Thanks to everyone for your responses, it's much appreciated! Leger~ |
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Short Stories: November 06, 2024 Issue [#12829]
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