  Short Stories
This week: Edited by: Leger~  
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The purpose of this newsletter is to help the Writing.com short story author hone their craft and improve their skills. Along with that I would 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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** Image ID #1377581 Unavailable **
How do I add more sparkle to my story? How do I make my characters seem authentic? How can I make scenes feel real?
Research!!! Online catalogs and trade newsletters for professionals can help.
One way is to use the language of your character. If your character is a chef, then drop in cooking words. Fire up the salamander (not the reptile  ), tie on a four-way apron, take out a terrine, pick out some nice truffles and whip up some quail and foie gras. Or if your man is a mechanic, know what a gear ratio is, how to cure vapor lock and adjust rear toe. How about an architect? Would he design a bungalow or specify a mansard roof? A beautician would use words like double process, electrolysis, and use a Wahl clipper.
Another way to help your locations to seem more authentic is to use real places. In Ireland, your character could protect Ulster at the Enniskillen castle. In Alaska, watch eagles feasting at the Chilkat river in January. How did Mayans live in Mexico? Or did your character meet a beautiful woman in Cozumel then lose her to the historical smallpox epidemic? Tourist guides and history sites can help you with these answers.
Finding a few specific points of interest or using job-related vernacular can take a writer a long way in enhancing your story. Your readers will get more involved in the scene or relate better to the character if you immerse them with real words and authentic-feeling locations. Doing the research and reviewing it as the author can also help inspire you and draw a better picture in your mind as you write.
In the end, a little research can help your writing gain another level of excellence and stretch your imagination a bit further.
Write on!
Leger~ |
| |  | Red Turbo (E)
This is a short story about Cole's last memory of his father.
#1151107 by Dave  |
Excerpt: I remember rain flowing down the windshield of my dad’s gold Buick Skylark while I waited, fidgeting with the metal buttons on my yellow raincoat. I lightly brushed my thumb over the embossed tops and tried to read the words without looking, pretending I was blind. One of the buttons half tore off from the fabric and hung loosely, dangling there, waiting to fall. My dad and social studies teacher, Ms. Kovalsky, spoke privately in her classroom at my church school while I sat fidgeting in the Buick.
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#1377264 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: The day had been cold and dreary, when that afternoon the clouds finally opened up. Elaine dashed through the glass doors of the museum of sculpture to escape the deluge. She was finishing her Christmas shopping in the Arts District of the city when the downpour caught her just outside the exhibition.
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#1175218 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Angel felt the chill of the park bench against her upper thighs as she sat down to eat her lunch in the mostly deserted park. Her cheerleading uniform did little to ward off the chill of the mild November day. She was smart enough to wear a hoodie to school, but she purposefully forgot the sweats. She wanted one last chance to enjoy showing off her tan legs while it was still in the 60’s outside. She was glad to be done with school for the day. She had text messaged her friends with no luck, every one of them was busy, no doubt making out with their boyfriends.
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#1376848 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: “How much Paul?” Said Kathy, visibly irritated.
“How much what?”
“How much of your pay check did you spend on the lottery?”
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#1091795 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Sophie, an up and coming artist, attracted increasing interest from the art buyers of London and Europe. Her picture The Devil Within hung in the autumn Tate Modern surreal exhibition. It had caught the eyes of the art critics.
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#1373629 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: It was a crisp morning in the rare month of October, its spell lasting only a handful of days. Pumpkins lingered, longing to come to life with the gift of fire. Harlequin leaves waited their turn to waltz with the wind picking them up, swirling them into a dance as Jamie Halloway dawdled homeward.
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#1290945 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Rivulets of sunlight streamed through a forest of dark legends. Secrets took root in the shadows of tall evergreens where light never sunders a tale from the truth. Alaska was a fertile land in flora, fauna and imagination.
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#1312338 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: Like a stray hair upon a nectarine, a curly lock of sunlight weaved its way through darkness, landing on one of Persica’s twisted, mangled appendages ever so gently.
Excerpt: You are John Adams. When you hear the bell ring, you will begin to do as I have told you. I will start the countdown. When I get to one, you will wake and feel refreshed and relaxed. Five, four, three, two, one.”
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#1356943 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: The young carpenter scrounged around his tiny workshop, intent on finding the missing tool. Curlicues of wood shavings stuck on his clothes and hair. He looked under pieces of lumber and under his workbench but to no avail. As he walked about the mud brick hut, each step left an imprint in the sawdust that blanketed the floor.
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This month's question: What are some of your favorite types of sites to research? How has it helped your writing?
Last month's question: Have you found funny sentences? Let me know!?
Comments on last month's dangling participle newsletter:
revdbob : Well explained. Good job. This should help many newer writers. Inf act, I suggest you get it linked to the newbie newsletter and maybe the author's newsletter as well!
DRSmith  : Leger, if I may be so bold to suggest... if I were you, I'd repeat this little blip on dangles every other month or two. So few words, yet so strong of an example. Aspiring writers could use this little reminder. It's really quite easy to fall into such trappings when words are flowing. We KNOW what's in our mind, and intent. But when moving on to pen the next phrase or two, we fail to see the football player we left flitting about the flowers like a bee.... not a pretty sight, doncha see. Enjoyed.
larryp: Nice touch of humor in discussing the dangling participle.
Zeke : Great point about the order of sentences. Sometimes our mind outruns our ability to communicate clearly.
Mark : A teacher (way back when) used to tell our 9th grade class that "it only ever took [her] paying a bit of attention to understand how everything was misunderstood" - her favorite demonstration was "Through me down the stairs, my shoes." I laughed thinking of her today, and reading along with your version of that same lesson. (her name is "Miss Looney" btw, really...and my daughter, a HS senior this year, has her for Adv. Lit.)
Thanks for the laugh, great lesson, and for making me feel old, all at once. 
NickiD89  : Hey Leger! Just a quick thanks for the refresher course on the dangling participle. I see this mistake a lot (and have been guilty of making it myself on occasion!) Keep up the good work!!
Anne Light : A participle at the beginning of a sentence always refers to the subject, right? Ah, the pitfalls of grammar. Great examples!
Maria Mize  : Thanks for the excellent tips about "dangling" participles.
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Short Stories: January 23, 2008 Issue [#2183]
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