This week: What Are They Doing? 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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What Are They Doing?
This is the time of year when things get crazy chaotic for me and I desperately hoard my downtime. Not to say I'm a recluse, but it seems like the holiday frenzy can suck the energy from a person when they're not looking. I love to do stuff! Don't get me wrong, I go to holiday parties, but being an ambivert, I want to be home to recharge.
One thing I do at holiday gatherings is observe. I think it's a natural tendency of mine. I watch people. I watch how couples interact, how friends treat one another, and how family personalities mesh. It's interesting how a person might behave one-on-one with me, and how they act in a group. Sometimes it can be entirely different.
I don't necessarily write notes on what I see, but it helps me understand the nature of relationships better. This manifests later as character sketches or ideas for scenes. (Or those inner thoughts like, what are they doing???) My dialog with someone is not the same as how I see them interact with others. We all have unique ways of expressing ourselves. Add in a physical or mental issue and the conversation can be entirely different than the way I personally converse.
So when things get chaotic, and you need to withdraw, take the time to observe and fill the 'imagination bank' with some observations and ideas. We'll have plenty of time in 2025 to snuggle down and write.
Happy Holidays and Write On!
Leger~
This month's question: How do you refresh the 'imagination bank'? Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback!
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 WDC December Site Contest 
Excerpt: Character Prompt for December 2024: Write a story where a character who's been doing the same job for a long time realizes they want a fresh start. What job are they leaving and what do they do next?
Excerpt: Alaskans say that Tourists ask the darndest things. In the early days of tourism, such questions might have been frustrating to answer, but now it has become routine to provide just the right amount of education to those inquiring minds.
Tourist: "Where are your Alaskan Penguins?"
Alaskan: "Hm... Maybe you can find them at <insert name of such a place>?"
Excerpt: Oh -- why today of all days?
On any, literally ANY other day, I would've been cheering like the rest of my class, look at them yelling at the tops of their voices.
Excerpt: Tom stood in the shadows, shivering, as the cold December breeze frenzied the snowflakes falling around him. He glanced up at the tall Christmas tree, its colorful lights briefly holding his gaze, and then he turned to search the faces of the people strolling into the snow-covered plaza. Even the falling snow didn’t stop people from coming to see the tree on New Year’s Eve.
Tom looked at his watch again. It’s late, maybe she didn’t remember. He pushed his hands deeper into his coat pockets as doubt crept through his thoughts.
Excerpt: My name is Felix, and I must tell you about the most amazing young guy I had met at the nursery the other day. I met the strongest and most muscular kid ever, and it was just an incredible experience! Let me start at the beginning, the weekend before Christmas.
Excerpt: “But yet,” The man was saying, “On website is not saying horror house. Ghost in rooms house! No saying of this on website! You think okay but no!” He followed by saying something in Polish, or Russian to his wife before stalking off, dialling somebody on his cell phone. The woman followed him, leaving the receptionist looking warily at Sarah and her bags.
Excerpt: “How are you, little girl?” Doris asked. “Isn’t it a spectacular day?”
Excerpt: Traffic rushed on, buzzing and honking. Fake Santas rang their bells, letting out an occasional "Ho, ho, ho,". People trampled the freshly fallen snow entering and exiting stores, carrying Christmas presents. The late evening rush buzzed on as Harper rounded the corner, clutching her heart.
Excerpt: "Evening, Rick," said Sheriff Tolliver. "I found something of yours stuck in a car leaning against a tree a mile or so away.
Excerpt: Eric and Anna booked a condo on the Florida coast to celebrate Christmas this year. The Corona virus threat dampened the spirit of Christmas shopping and having house guests to celebrate Christmas. So, they decided to go away for a week to the Florida coast by road. The kids were excited. Eric’s college friend, Jake would join them with his family at the condo.
The kids, Tom and Lilly packed their backpacks with games, books and other knickknacks for themselves and the Jake’s kids Josh and Jen too. They were all in the same age group of six and ten. Jake was happy to be spending the holidays with Eric’s family considering his six-year-old autistic son, Josh. The boy knew Tom and Lilly and he appeared comfortable playing with them on the occasions, when he met them.
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This month's question: How do you refresh the 'imagination bank'? Send in your answer below! Editors love feedback!
Last month's "Short Stories Newsletter (November 6, 2024)" question: What is your biggest fear when making your work public?
dragonwoman  : I'm not sure I have fear anymore. All the WCDers have squashed that. If someone has a criticism, they're allowed. Sometimes. it's valid, sometimes I disagree. I just go on to the next story and try to do better each time.
DRSmith : The title and basic theme of your Newsie caught my eye as its theme resonated within the core of my first item I chanced drafting upon joining WDC nearly 18 years ago. Feel free to check out my "plate to pass", trembling when entering the literary craft.
🌕 HuntersMoon  : That someone will recognize me and call the police and they'll come after me... OHHHH, you mean written work... 
Pumpkin Harvest : That someone will judge me, not my writing.
Falling Potato Flake  : That people will call me racist or sexist or offensive in some other way. Alternatively they could just think my story's dumb and boring. Yep pretty sure those two are tied.
oldgreywolf on wheels  : That someone suffering from the brain infection known as "d!psh!t!t!s" will attempt a California-style pop-psych anal to discover the hidden layers of what I bluntly said.
Yes, I deliberately abbreviated the word "analysis" when speaking of this particular life form.
Dave Ryan : I definitely had sweaty palms when I made autobiographical material available, mainly due to what it revealed as opposed to any worries about critiques of my writing style. Since then I haven't worried about it in the slightest. I just write stuff for fun and have no illusions about my abilities, so it doesn't much matter in the grand scheme of things what reaction it gets.
s : That it won't be read. Even a bad review means it has been read. I don't want reviews or critiques, if I make a work public, in a space like WdC or in a traditionally published setting, I would like it to be read. Not liked, not appreciated, not fêted, just read.
CandyStaiNeCane  : Nothing, it's a grocery store.
WakeUpAndLive  : I set the bar really low. I write for the one reader. I don't care who it is, as long as it's one reader I am satisfied. My fear is that nobody will read it, not even one.
Jaycin Alexis  : I don't know what my GREATEST fear is but I know I share quite a few fears as some of these other comments. My work not being liked, or well-received. Being bad at writing and finding out only after you've shared it. Not having any sort of audience at all ever.
I like what @WakeUpAndLive~doingNaNo'24 has planned and I will try my best to incorporate that into my mentality because I know at least my housemates (my family that I love very much) will read it if no one else will. I just fear they won't enjoy it.
THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  : Writing Dot Com is a comfort zone now.
No fear making it public here! 
TheBusmanPoet  : No fear. If a reviewer likes what I write, they like it. If not, so be it. Not going to worry about something I can't control.
Blessed Christmouse  : That someone will confirm my fears that everything I write is sludge....or something worse.
kimauge : Nobody see my works.
Carycomic : All of the above.
jackson : None.
keyisfake : No one reads it.
Thanks to everyone for your responses! Leger~
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Short Stories: December 04, 2024 Issue [#12874]
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