Action/Adventure: April 02, 2014 Issue [#6246] |
Action/Adventure
This week: Collections Edited by: Leger~ More Newsletters By This Editor
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
The purpose of this newsletter is to help the Writing.com author hone their craft and improve their skills. Along with that I would like to inform, advocate, and create new, fresh ideas for the author. Write to me if you have an idea you would like presented.
This week's Action / Adventure Editor
Leger~ |
ASIN: B085272J6B |
Product Type: Kindle Store
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Amazon's Price: $ 9.99
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Collections
Do any of you collect something? I know someone who collects those candy Pez dispensers. She has more than 1500 Pez dispensers. (Pez only made 550 or so, I'm guessing there are pirate copies or duplicates?) I think most collections start with a few items and then blossom with interest. Well, that and your relatives find out you have an interest and next thing you know you're getting Pez dispensers for Christmas.
Collections can be small and intimate, or huge and bordering on crazy obsessive. And there isn't really a definition of "most". The record collection for the most bagpipes is 105. The worlds largest collection of pizza boxes numbers at 600. The largest collection of Pokémon memorabilia belongs to Lisa Courtney (UK), with 14,410 different items as of 14 October 2010, which she has been collecting for over 14 years. Some collections are weird, like the guy who collects airplane barf bags. Clean ones, I assume. He has 6,016 of them.
Like archaeologists, collectors have to dig deep and have a lot of connections to find the most valuable and collectible items for their stash. This might mean some off-the-books trading or bartering to get the one special piece to add to their collection. Some items, I'm sure, were stolen. Or uh, removed without the owner's permission. This, I think, could lead to some action and adventure. So if you have a collection, or know someone who collects, ask them about any stories they might know...it could lead to your next novel or character. Write on! |
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Excerpt: My sister presses her back against the door, a thin stream of blood trailing from her temple to trace the curved line of her jaw. I watch it, morbidly fascinated. They start banging on the door again.
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Excerpt: He saw a dark blue bottle with a cork stopper, half buried in the sand. Inside it, he could see a piece of rolled-up paper. He pulled out the cork, turned the bottle upside down and shook it hard trying to get the paper out. He gave the bottle a couple more shakes. The paper would not come out. The way the paper was curled he could see that there was writing on it but he could not read it. He replaced the cork and put the bottle into his bag. He would try again at home. He laughed. Already his writer's imagination was off and running. What was on the paper? It could be anything, even a treasure map.
| | Invalid Item This item number is not valid. #1983858 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: The sign hanging from the twin posts guarding the town’s entrance read “Welcome to Historic Elijah. Est. 1837.” The relatively fresh white paint implied that the town was inhabited. As Beth passed under the sign she noticed other signs of life. A chorus of neighs came from the inside of an old stable. Piano music and the sounds of conversation floated out of a saloon. And, of course, there were two men in Western garb playing checkers on a barrel.
| | Invalid Item This item number is not valid. #1983992 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: He is not like any of the hundreds of men I have comforted over the years. He fascinates me, along with his thousands of followers who wander through the deserts listening to his tales and sitting by his side just to be in his presence.
Excerpt: I leaned back against the wall, well out of the way, while two nurses and Darien's parents tried to calm him down. My hand covered my mouth so I couldn't make any sound, not that anyone would have heard me over Darien's yelling.
| | Invalid Item This item number is not valid. #1868036 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: "I still remember what a vision you were that day," Jerry said with a sparkle in his eyes as he thought of the first day they'd met, sixty years gone. "Remember when I pulled up in that old pick-up? I thought I'd died and gone to heaven, you looked like an angel standing up there on your daddy's porch,"
| | Invalid Item This item number is not valid. #1983090 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: The internet had informed me of every evil nuance to be found in Bangkok; every scam, every warning, every missing person, every murder, every false arrest, every depravity. I had read nightmare story after nightmare story until I really didn’t even want to go at all. But I had already bought the tickets.
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Excerpt: No, far safer to dance with the wallflowers. If he danced with several of them, no one could raise questions about his intentions. Not even his mother. While he was at it, he could give some poor debutante a turn on the dance floor.
| | Second Chance (E) A young surgeon discovers the real reason his fiancee disappeared two years earlier #661067 by Bobbi |
Excerpt: Tonight, by a bizarre twist of fate, her life lay solely in his hands. And he feared the conflict between his personal and professional feelings might somehow impede his skills.
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This month's question: What do you collect and how did the collection start?
Last month's question: What is your favorite way to kill your character? And where do you hide the body?
This gets a bit graphic (in a fun way) but don't pop this open if you're squeamish...!
Click this for REPLIES!
monty31802 submits: Another good Newsletter, weapon is Gun or Knife and leave the body where it falls.
Shadowstalker-- Covid free said: I would have to say on the whole I like going the whole "blaze of glory" route. For most walk on villains and such I don't mind keeping it simple mostly, snapped neck, stabbed in the heart, etc. Because you don't expect the reader to be too invested in them. But if I kill off one of my main characters for whatever reason, I want them to go out fighting in that "feel good" way. Especially since I have invested blood sweat and tears into giving them a personality, a background, and on the whole making you feel close to them. To me they are like my own children sometimes. Once they die off, that's it. Having them come back in a surprise twist is one thing, but when I (the writer) know they won't come back, I feel I must give them my own 21 gun salute.
Raine tells us: Generally, I only kill the bad guys but sometimes, to move the plot forward and create the necessary tension, you have to kill a good guy. They've been shot (body reclaimed by partner), tortured (body hidden in a mass grave to be discovered later), blown up (no body), caught in a volcanic eruption (no body to dispose of that way), and knifed (managed to make it back to their team). It's never fun to kill a good guy but sometimes, it just has to be done.
Quick-Quill admits: In my novel a minor character dies. Its in the yr 2000 but he's been shot then disposed of in the old fashioned way; tied to a cinder block and thrown in the river. He's found when the current pulled the body back and forth and the rope rubbed along the cinder block and got cut. Body floats to the surface. Sometimes it doesn't have to be forensically elite. The old way works just as well.
bane1 advises: Great article. I've often thought, mainly while watching movies, how little grieving there is when a main character is killed. 'Oh how terrible they died, how will I ever go on.' then 'lets get revenge for his death.' then 'lets all celebrate our victory' and never again think about the loss of a dear friend in the process. It's very short sighted story telling in my opinion. Another thing... and this I learned from reading James Rollins is, you can never use a character is dead unless you actually saw them take there last breath. Rollins uses this a lot to add twists to his plots. A character you thought was long gone will appear, alive, and at the worst possible time, especially if it is a villain. In one book he actually kills a main character off (or so you are led to believe). He is sinking and sinking to his sure death under the ocean but you don't actually see him die. The characters are distraught over his death but at the end, after all is done, there is a small signal, that he is alive and in need of help... but the main characters don't get the signal. And that is how drama and cliff hangers are made. Use death to your advantage, I guess was my point of all this.
Red confesses: In the story I'm working on my characters fight demons and they usually explode, melt, or dissolve when they die.(That way their existence remains a secret.) But I do have some planned deaths for the human characters, mostly killed by some magic fire or lightning and the body is found later.
StephBee phones it in: My favorite way to kill a body? Umm… (punching in numbers) "Hello, is this Stephanie Plum?" heheh
BIG BAD WOLF Feeling Thankful answers: Personally, I don't like killing characters. However, I'd prefer to do it where they were trying to protect someone, or in such a way that the main character is forced to come to terms with the way things are, like having a soldier killing a respected Commanding Officer to prevent the C.O. from turning after he's been bitten by a zombie, in a story where the undead outnumber the living.
omikey numbers: Two types of killing for me. One you tell the reader and others coming out of the blue. But pretty much the same for those getting snuffed...never see it coming. Bad guys or good guys, doesn't matter, dying comes fast if they're lucky.
And those deaths you let the reader see coming...not what's expected. Glitches and twists will always fill best laid plans. Unavoidable. Let alone people fighting for their lives.
And then there can be the accidental deaths of MICs', mini insignificant characters you kill. For example a body's been decapitated and right away, known to be drunk driver. A broken whiskey bottle can been seen sticking out of the neck. Gruesome. And while death deserved, there's twists without emotion elicited because that's life and death for MICs. You save feelings for those characters who deserve better and their deaths helps the story unfold.
Excerpt: The Sergeant released the limb and yanked Bill’s feet just inches off the bottom of the hole —not out— he only needed to lift them to find ground but no strength remained. His boots kicked the sides several times in a death spasm while the three killers watched.
“Major,” smiled the Corporal, “You have a way with people. Don’t take long before strangers just open up to you.”
Thank you all for replying, they were fun answers!
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ASIN: B01DSJSURY |
Product Type: Kindle Store
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Amazon's Price: $ 5.99
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