 Short Stories: November 30, 2005 Issue [#746] |
  Short Stories
This week: Edited by: Red Writing Hood <3  
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"No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world."
John Keating in Dead Poets Society
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Find a fresh twist and shout!
Just as phrases can be cliché so can plots and characters. Giving an old plot or character a new twist is what we all (hopefully) shoot for.
Now that I’m back in college I use this tool for my writing there. How can I give a fresh new twist to an old assignment? Which isn’t easy to think of with five loads of laundry lurking in another room! How do I do it? I look at it in different ways: through the eyes of my children, my husband, the dog or even the laundry!
Oh Captain, My Captain!
Remember that line from Dead Poets Society? They got up on their chairs and tried to look at things in a new way.
So you’re thinking: blah, blah, blah, how does this apply to me?
Okay, say you’re writing a story and your topic is Christmas. Hmmmm, what’s new about Christmas? Well, I live in Florida and we don’t get snow at Christmas and usually one thinks of a Winter Wonderland and a White Christmas, etc. So I wrote about what makes Florida unique at Christmas, in “The Colors of Christmas”.
How about when you have a prompt you are writing for. Take this example from the 7-12-2002 Writers Cramp: A cat and a bottle of ketchup. (There may have been a third part to the prompt but I have forgotten it – forgive me The Milkman  !)
The first thing you think of is a bit of comedy and it was my first inclination, since I enjoy writing in comedic tones. However, I figured that was the direction everyone would be going, so I went completely opposite and wrote one of the best stories I had ever written up to that point: “Acceptance”.
Another way to add a fresh twist to your stories is to mix genres. We’ve all heard of a romantic/comedy or romantic/drama but how about a romantic/scifi or romantic/mystery? Not so much, eh?
Now my question to you is: what do you do to add a fresh perspective or twist to your short story writing?
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THEME: Fresh!
EXCERPT: I’m finally here, the time has finally come. I am going to walk for the first time in open air.
EXCERPT: Fumbling with the overstuffed shirt and pants, that made this giant of a man seem even ... gianter and pulling the latex wolf mask over his face, Jim made a fake lunge at me and growled.
EXCERPT: Mud squishes between young toes as fingers search for hidden treasure beneath icy water. Our jeans are rolled up to our knees. Well, they were, but they keep falling back down, their hems dipping into the lazily meandering creek.
EXCERPT: The smell of fresh cotton sheets floated lightly through the air, and the scent was greeted by a feeling of cleanliness that never seemed to escape the building. A few rays of the rising sun seeped through the pulled blinds of Norman’s window, and their irritating presence began to wake him.
EXCERPT: It’d been a long time since she actually thought she looked good. But, then she had just lost a fast 250 pounds.
Her divorce was finalized a few months ago. 
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Gotta question, answer, problem, solution, tip, trick, cheer, jeer, or extra million lying around?
If so, send it through the feedback section at the bottom of this newsletter OR click the little envelope next to my name Red Writing Hood <3 and send it through email.
Submitted By: demor
Submitted Comment:
I enjoyed your descriptions of modernism and postmodernism. It brought to mind the question of what is the definition of pre-modernism. Zeke
Good question, and one worthy of a future newsletter!
Submitted By: hdelphyne
Submitted Comment:
I like your concluding quote on postmodernism. It is short, concise and clear. Thank you. Thea
Submitted By: C.J. 
Submitted Comment:
Nice job with the newsletter on Modernism and Postmodernism; thanks for taking my suggestion and running with it. I hope this will help generate some more postmodern works on Writing.com, and I welcome anyone who has written in this style, or may be attempting it for the first time, to email me a link to their work. I’d love to turn out some reviews on postmodern writing. Cheers, cj
Submitted By: Mavis Moog
Submitted Comment:
I thought your explanation of modernism and post modernism was very helpful. One more common feature of post modern writing is morose self-indulgence. I often wonder who's the intended audience for some of the suicidal/homicidal ramblings of the so-called post modernists. Some writers use this genre as an excuse to build their self-pity into a sledge-hammer of nut-cracking capabilities. Then there are the masters; I suggest that any budding post-modernist reads widely, and thinks carefully, before indulging.
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