So I started working on my fifth story, then I realized I had nothing.

My idea for stories five through eight was to follow the exploits of one character at a time through a war and interrelate all four … somehow. So I started thinking of interesting scenes and ways to correlate and show both sides of the battle, such as a character that betrays his own side because he thinks the opposition’s god is superior, but is then killed for treason against his own people, because, after all, he could turn around and do it again.

I thought about a person on a warship (tentatively called the Omega) that gets destroyed and he has to swim for shore and fight for his life. Perhaps a native is bleeding to death and hands over their baby to a soldier, begging them to take care of it. Perhaps one of the characters sacrifices themselves to give civilians from the other side a chance to escape. Read the rest of this entry »

The third story was another one that I got about halfway through, but it was far more ‘rough draft-y’ than my previous two attempts. I think it was partly just me being exhausted (read: lazy) at times, and partly because days off tend to keep me away from home, meeting those unspoken quotas for visiting friends and family (read: more excuses :P).

And then came the fourth story. I guess I haven’t even talked to you about it, yet. It was a story about young children playing in a playground in a small town. And it seemed very slice-of-life, except, well, have you ever seen a movie based on a true story that ends with updates?

Such as:

‘Over the next 26 years, John went on to become one of the most influential writers of the century, publishing thirty more critically acclaimed novels.’

or…

‘Mary went on to found PAFFF, an organization devoted to destroying the world’s supply of fast food fries. She now lives in Birmingham, Alabama in a double-wide affectionately dubbed the ‘Birmingham Palace’, with her exceptionally healthy husband and two children.’

;)

I figured nobody would expect this kind of follow-up to a short story. Maybe it’s been done before, but I’ve never seen it. You get to know a bit about each of the children during the course of the story, then I drop the bomb of showing you what happened to them over the next thirty years.

Since the theme is still ‘death and cheating death’, one of them ends up dying at a young age which profoundly affects the others for the rest of their lives. Each of the children influences the others in some way, and there’s subtle clues to who inspired who.

And that’s it. I ended up finishing the rough draft for this one.

Last week, my aunt asked me to tell her about some of the stories I’ve been writing, and I actually started to cry! Especially when I was talking about this one, and the story about the girl who didn’t quite make it to the light.

To be honest, most of my stories bring out a lot of emotion in me, and I hope they someday are able to unearth that level of emotion in readers, too.

…has taken a lot out of me. Things were busy, work was  exhausting, and, well, I ended up about as far along on You  Don’t Belong Here as I got on The Never-Ending Night. But  there’s plenty of time left in this workshop and plenty of  room for improvement.

This coming week…

…is lots of things. Fun things, like my three year  anniversary with my wife. So I have some days off. My goal is to have a  complete rough draft (at least) for my third story by  Sunday.

(And I still have no idea what I’m going to write for my fourth  week, but I’m sure I’ll think of something.)

The idea for the third week (without the ending this time):

Some whimsical writers claim they get in this ‘writerly trance’, where  they write thousands of words in one sitting because faeries  are their muses, who fly around and whisper ideas in their  ears.

What if a writer took it literally? And how can I tie this into the theme of death?

My idea this time is there’s this girl who wants to be a writer, like her best friend. She loves life and wants to share that love with others. But, frustrated that she can’t come up with ideas  very well, and that she can’t write as well as her friend from the start, she follows instructions in a grimoire and summons a fae. At first  it works wonderfully, except all her stories are turning out  dark and evil, which is quite the opposite of her personality, so her friends and family start to worry.

“You can’t force them to come. You just have to keep writing. Then, one day, they gather on their own.”

What she didn’t realize was she summoned a dark fae. When she finds out, she captures it. (Or maybe the fae wants to leave but she won’t let it, then she finds out it’s a dark fae?)

Her friend warns her that the dark fae strike a bargain for being summoned; They take away what you fear most. But it will be worse threefold for imprisoning her. And she worries it will be far worse when she prolongs the imprisonment for years beyond that. What she fears the most is death, so she refuses to let it free.

“There is a difference between fae and humans, this you must  understand,” said Almina. “It is something we have in common  with the animals that you do not– When humans get caught in  a trap, they harbor hatred and plot revenge, where animals simply chew off their legs and move on.”

So, that’s the basic setup. You’ll have to imagine what the  ending is yourself (or ask me if you can read it someday!) :)

The new week begins, so I’ll need another concept somehow  related to death and cheating death, pronto!

And that concept is going to come from … Life Support Machines.

To me, they present an impossible choice. Especially when I  was a teenager, I often wondered if I’d ever have to choose  if a loved one lived or died. And, if so, could I handle it? Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s coming to a close, which means tomorrow I’ve got to start coming up with another idea so I can start writing another short story.

(Having already come up with an idea = Relief. Having to come up with another = Apprehension.)

But first…

THE WEEK IN REVIEW:

The theme:

‘Death and cheating death’

My goals were:

Speed~

:(

I failed at this. I think I’m in ‘editor mode’ right now, because I was only able to write about half of my story, but what came out felt more polished than what a rough draft should be.

But, what I fail at during this week, I can always succeed at during the next.

This story is something I’m going to want to revisit after the workshop is over because I really like the idea behind The Never-Ending Night.

Quantity~ Read the rest of this entry »

Okay folks, this is how I write a short story.

THE THEME~

The theme for my first four stories is ‘Death and cheating  death’.

Why did I choose that theme? Because some of my favorite  stories deal with death.

Here’s an example:
http://www.flashfictiononline.com/f20090201-golden-pepper-jay-lake.html

When I think of death, I think of how hard it can be to say  goodbye, and how everyone meets death in the end, regardless  of how high and mighty their station might’ve been in life.  While some people welcome death, most people fear it. Near  death, many people wonder if (and how) they’ll be  remembered. When people kill, they’re doing something that  they know absolutely nothing about to someone else.

Besides inevitability, dying represents the unknown and has  fascinated cultures for thousands of years. Most societies  agree that death should be feared, some even going as far as  to never mention the names of the deceased again. But other  cultures have dared to ask the questions, “Should death  really be feared?” and “Why can’t it be celebrated?”.

No matter what society, almost everyone reserves a fear for  death. After all, it’s the ultimate unknown.

Do the stars and space have something to do with death and  birth? There are so many concepts involving infinite cycles  and the afterlife, but how many unexplored possibilities  remain?

And what if death was a living being? Had feelings? What if  Death is/was? a nice person? If he/she?/it? could speak to  us, what would he have to say for himself? What if he’s  bound to take souls to the afterlife, even in situations  where he doesn’t want to? Can death really be cheated? Is  Death immortal, a demi-god, or is being ‘Death’ merely a  curse placed upon unsuspecting souls?

So I chose this subject because no one will ever mine all  the narrative possibilities. Until death is completely  cured, this subject will always be relevant to our world.

AN IDEA WORTH WRITING~

When I generate story ideas, I try to make them play nice  with the following…:

1. I prefer to have a definite beginning, middle, and end.

2. I prefer endings that are either inevitable, profound,  emotional, or create some kind of infinite loop. Or all of  the above, if possible.

3. At least one character must change, for better or worse,  over the course of the story.

4. If I can make it work in a fantasy setting, all the  better.

…because they are characteristics typical in the short  stories I enjoy reading the most.

THE CONCEPT~ Read the rest of this entry »

One thing I like about workshops is they tend to get us out of our comfort zones, so we learn more than we would otherwise.

I can’t begin to tell you how many writing prompts I’ve let pass me by without bothering to give them more than a glimpse, such as this one from Writing Excuses:

Writing Prompt: ‘Take a protagonist younger than 16 and put him or her in charge of a group of adults.’

Sure, I read it, but do you think I actually bothered to write a story about this? Nope. I didn’t even put a single word to paper. But maybe I should start thinking about these more. After all, thinking about writing prompts helps keep your creative juices flowing; a good thing, to be sure.

Usually writing prompts are just words, but sometimes they can be pictures. Either way, they’re supposed to serve as kindling to jumpstart a story. A tiny spark of an idea born from a writing prompt could ignite and blaze to become your next novel.

Merrilee had us look at three pictures and derive three story ideas from each.

The first picture was the easiest to draw ideas from:

Here’s the three ideas I came up with:

1. In the future, there’s only one way to get ahead in the corporate world: Freestyle Dance-offs.

2. A street magician who makes women’s purses ‘disappear’.

3. “And have you seen her nose? It’s like THIS big– …Oh, hi Susan.”

The second picture was a bit trickier:

And the three ideas were:

1. A billionaire obsessed with rebuilding his childhood home on the sea, but it’s never quite right and he keeps starting over.

2. “We ‘ave ta drove those houses across the whole of Australia. But careful o’ the green ones, mate– they’re particularly nasty.”

3. A war: houses vs benches. This one hides in the bushes, hoping he wasn’t spotted by the platoon of houses that just landed ashore. Then he notices the many church pews floating lifelessly in the bay. (Wood War I? :P)

The final picture was the trickiest of all:

The ideas:

1. Scientists didn’t realize the galaxies are also in orbit with each other. This is a spectrogram of the paths they take. They overlap, and once every 373 billion years, two of them collide. This will cause universal magnetic catastrophes. The implications of this– both scientifically and socially– are staggering. And, of course, the next collision will occur later this year.

2. ‘Midnight bowl’ wasn’t enough to save the bowling industry anymore. The answer? Bowling balls that glow in the dark. And play techno.

3. He knew how he’d get the Great Lord to appear; he’d smash the Orb of Souls.

As silly as some of these ideas were, the point was they got the creative juices flowing, so I’m going to run with this and try to come up with a good idea for a short story worth writing this week. Good luck, everyone!