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Printed from https://writing.com/main/newsletters/action/archives/id/2217-.html
Action/Adventure: February 13, 2008 Issue [#2217]

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Action/Adventure


 This week:
  Edited by: W.D.Wilcox Author IconMail Icon
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Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter

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"A kid is a guy I never wrote down to. He's interested in what I say if I make it interesting."
--Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)


Word from our sponsor



Letter from the editor


Writing for children can sometimes be a challenge if you don’t allow yourself to be child-like. Children have an endless imagination and can turn even a cardboard box into something magical. Oftentimes, writers try too hard, the story feels forced, and the arrow misses the target. My advice is to just let your imagination runaway with you. Be the child. Then, coming up with an idea for a good children’s adventure can be as much fun for you as it is for the little ankle-biters. This is a fantasy piece I came up with. It's not a complete story, but it is more of an outline of what could be...

Enslaved By Giants


There is a place, a ragged burnt-out place, where bright dreams go to die and dark dreams are born—a place where bones are gnawed by a sharp-toothed chill and nerves are frayed in fear.

Children live here, smiling on the inside where it is safe to smile. They live here in the winter when the snow salts the night with silence. They are here in the fall beneath the yellow mansion of the moon. And they are here toiling endlessly in the hot summer heat beneath the sun’s crimson house of fire.

They live as slaves, under the complete control of Giants, Pa-errants, who scrutinize their every move as if the children might attempt to escape their dismal fate. At night, when the darkness hangs with folded wings, they are kept in small rooms like a collection of dolls, eyes pooled into a mysterious blackness, their faces glistening darkly like the dim reflection of someone caught in the ripples of a pond.

Some are thin, a kaleidoscope of bones and skin as juiceless as dust, unfed because they refuse to eat what is proffered by their colossal keepers. It is then, in a storming cacophony, that the giants scream at them, “Eat your vegetables, or go to bed hungry!”

With all the solidity of quicksand, their sinking spirits march upstairs to their dark and lonely rooms, heartbreaking vulnerability glistening in their eyes.

Someday, they think. I'll be rid of them. Do what I want to do. Someday I will be free.

But as days pass, and the veiled sky continues to fold down to meet the hidden land, a terrible oversight is learned—an error—something not figured in the drift of stars, and the children are taken completely by surprise.

They awake one morning to find that a horrible magic has been cast upon them, an insidious trick, ripping away their youth, their imagination, and their innocence.

They grew.

No longer children, they had become what they so hated…Giants. And the Pa-errants they fought so hard against all their lives began to wither and die right before their very eyes.

Until next time,

billwilcox


Editor's Picks

There Are Stories, And Then...There Are STORIES!


Alien Sock Robbers Open in new Window. (E)
written for Sophy's prompt in the Writer's Cramp
#1178421 by Bianca Author IconMail Icon

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 Gucci shoes for little Maria Open in new Window. (ASR)
Little Maria is stubborn about getting Gucci shoes. And how?
#845891 by Dr Taher writes again! Author IconMail Icon

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#1342035 by Not Available.

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Ben And Rosie Open in new Window. (ASR)
"Tricker Tweat, Rosie. Tricker Tweat!"
#768672 by W.D.Wilcox Author IconMail Icon

 
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Ask & Answer

I've Fed You, So Now...Feedback


larryp
Submitted Comment:
Hey Bill.
Great info in this newsletter. You really did your homework and researched the topic well. I think the two most powerful things that bring back memories for me are the sense of smell and certain songs from my past. I think smells can even have an effect on us. I don't smoke, but somehow I find the smell of pipe tobacco to be very pleasing and calming.
Nice job Bill. Gives us something to think about in our writing. (I had no idea all those nerves were in my snoz!)
-kansaspoet


Anne Light Author Icon
Submitted Comment:
Smell is my favorite sense for all the reasons you outlined. To this day, a certain combination of lemon and cinnamon brings back the memory of my aunt's kitchen when we stayed with her when I was five. In writing, I find smells important to set the emotional atmosphere. Especially unpleasant ones can indicate that something is wrong. Or so I think. Thanks for this inspiring newsletter.


marykate Author Icon
Submitted Comment:
I thank you for your addition. I have found I too neglect the sence of smell. Thanks. I will be sure to use it more often in my works.


Cyanvia Author Icon
Submitted Comment:
I may don't have strong smelling ability but I can smell certain things. Anyway, this newsletter are as great as before. I also agree with you that smell plays important role in our life (and the story too). Smell can affect our mood and mental too. Thanks for sharing!


alanscott
Submitted Comment:
Thanks, Bill!
I realize that I can include smell in a short story that I'm revising, and it will add so much more.
Thanks!
-Scott


StephBee Author Icon
Submitted Comment:
Bill, great newsletter about the use of scent in writing. It's a great descriptive tool.

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