  Short Stories
This week: Research! Edited by: Leger~  
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c:violet}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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Research!
How do I add more sparkle to my story? (I don't mean the sparkly vampires...) 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 on fish 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!
This month's question: What are some of your favorite types of sites to research? How has it helped your writing?
Send in your answer below  We love to hear your thoughts!
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Prompt for June 2015: Write a journal entry from your character's point of view. The entry can be about anything, but it should be written in first person and give the reader insight into the character.
Authors on Writing.Com are looking for good, useful feedback... and of course, exposure within Writing.Com. You can do a good deed by reviewing any qualifying item* on Writing.Com and you might win! Enter as many times as you want to increase your odds of being selected as a prize winner!
Excerpt: "White Fire represents air, the people who possess this are noble in nature and are more adept to controlling the winds, aiding them in flight," said a young man with crystal blue eyes that flowed like the ocean and long, blond hair. He was teaching a class on Fire of Color to the young kids of his city. Even though he was king of the Yellow Fire Kingdom, he still interacted with his people constantly.
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#2047116 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: I didn't understand this mystery, but I am human, and humans are curious. I called up a map and planned a route to UNT. I have been living in a cave in Longhorn Cavern State Park. Groups of people come through it frequently, but it's not a problem for me to stay hidden. I easily joined with one of the groups and exited the cave then ran to the north. A few hours later, I arrived at UNT. I went to the admissions office and submitted transfer paperwork in the name, Otto Matone. The best way to solve this mystery was to be close to the scene. I received my class schedule and dorm room location. I continued to the dorm room. I was glad in a way that I was here. How could I be human without interacting with other humans?
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#2047075 by Not Available. |
Excerpt: "Is it just me or there's some sound that comes from there?" Amber pointed at the factory opposite as the bus passed by it.
"I think it's just you." Her sister Jo placed a hand over her shoulder. "Did you take your meds yesterday?"
Amber shrugged Jo's hand away. "Stop pretending. You heard it too. Ever since we shifted to this place two months ago, I hear screams every morning as we pass the factory." Amber turned her head to the two ladies behind. "You heard those screams, right? Right there from that factory." She pointed a finger at the factory that was now behind.
Excerpt: Hank shivered in the chilly air of the The Last Chance. His dress shirt, sweat-soaked from the searing heat of July in Oklahoma, clung to his clammy torso. He squirmed on his stool at the diner's counter and inhaled ancient scents of greasy hamburgers, cigarettes, and unwashed roustabouts. He checked his mobile phone. No signal. Awesome.
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Excerpt: The mountain rose high above me, its sides dotted with pines and scrub. Patches of rocks and boulders covered the right side. Toward the left, lay cliffs and insurmountable terrain. Ahead, a faint trail beckoned, one that wound clear around the mountain.
I took off my hot pink cotton/polyester jacket and tied it around my waist, drank a long sip of water, and murmured, “I can do this.”
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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?
Send in your answer below We love to hear your thoughts!
Last month's question: Do short stories leave you disappointed or wanting more?
PhantasmicAngel  replies: I think that if a short story is written right, then the story is satisfying. You don't get an infodump but you get more than the bare minimum of information that pushes the plot along toward the end. If you write a short story or plan to, that can be turned into a novel if you follow the character or it can stand alone at a short story. That factor is what I like most about short stories.
GaelicQueen  answers: I'm discovering that writing short stories, complete within themselves, but with a little something hinting at more, is a great tool to keep the Muse bubbling to write larger piece along the same story line.
chord0 submits: Some of my stories have incomplete endings or suspense endings, where the reader fills in the ending, another words; the ending is different depending on the reader. Anna Karenina, is a tremendously tragic love story, so of course, the ending is surprising and tragic. Plays like Hamlet, or Julius Caesar, end up in murder, so there is no happy ending.
The writer or the type of story determines the ending, whether happy or tragic.
Bob retired  says: I always read short stories with eager anticipation. Most I read are interesting enough to enjoy, some are a disappointment and some make me want more. What I like about the short story is that I can read it all in one sitting and not have to go to bed wondering what the protagonist might be doing while I sleep. I have no particular favourite genres or anything like that, I simply like to read to THE END.
willwilcox sends: Prolific writers have so many ideas they cannot turn them all into novels. I believe that is how good short stories have evolved today. Just ask any major author on the market today. Of course I'm thinking of Stephen King but there are many, many more who pen anthologies of shorts. Speaking of shorts, have you seen mine lately? 
Elfin Dragon-finally published  reveals: I love reading short stories, and writing them. More often they get my imagination going for what more could happen (just for me though). If the writer has written it well enough I'm not left "wanting more". Heck, my imagination goes stir crazy over the ending of certain movies! Like Chow Yun Fat's "Replacement Killers", to me the movie leaves a lot of "what if's" roaming around. But I love it and the ending anyway.
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Short Stories: July 01, 2015 Issue [#7081]
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