Short Stories, Anyone?

In my younger days, I loved short stories. Reading them and writing them. I remember racing home during my lunch hour to read Hemingway's Nick Adams stories over a tuna sandwich. Nice break from my secretarial position in the district attorney's office.

I enjoyed reading the short fiction in Cosmopolitian, Redbook, Alfred Hitchcock magazine and Ellery Queen. Literary magazines cluttered my coffee table. Sadly, and in spite of all my creative writing classes, I never mastered the beginning, middle and end of the short story. Most of my rejections came back with "nice slice of life but not a short story." At some point I gave up. Unfortunately, I gave up reading them too.

Recently, I stumbled across a fun little literary magazine that has whetted my appetite for short fiction again. Check out The First Line. This is no fly-by-night literary magazine. The First Line has been around for ten years, and their purpose is to jump start the imagination and help writers break through the block that is the blank page. Each issue contains short stories that stem from a common first line. Can't get much more fun and challenging than that. How many different directions can we take when we start from the same place?

I have my very own copy of the Fall issue of The First Line, and I'm impressed. Want to write short stories? Believe me, it's a nice break from the long stuff. Why not accept the challenge The First Line offers: Create a story using their following line:

Sometimes the name they give you is all wrong.

The Deadline is Feb. 1, 2008. Check out The First Line for details and submission requirements. In fact, go ahead and subscribe. You won't regret it.

Sometimes the name they give you is all wrong.

Works for me--I've never felt like a Jessica!

For Your Information

Here are a few quotes that also serve as writing tips:

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and lightning bug. ~Mark Twain

There are a lot of ways to enjoy a civilized life while keeping your feelings hidden--but not at the typewriter. ~Bob Baker

Typewriter? what's that? :)

I divide all readers into two classes: those who read to remember and those who read to forget. ~William Lyon Phelps

Begin every story in the middle. The reader doesn't care how it begins, he wants to get on with it. ~Louis L'Amour

All writing is a form of prayer. ~John Keats

And my personal favorite:

A bad book is as much a labor to write as a good one; it comes as sincerely from the author's soul. ~Aldous Huxley

Plotter? Pantser? You Decide

My partipation in NaNoWriMo has been a learning experience. I had a very vague idea, made notes on the first three chapters then sat down and started writing something entirely different. So far I have little more than 10,000 words and I have no idea where they came from. :) I've never done this. I've never just sat with laptop in lap and pounded out a story. It's fun. I like my main character. She's a little ditsy but not unlike the rest of her family. I especially like the hero who's a pretty straight-forward kind of guy. :) I never did like (or trust) beat-around-the-bush, secretive people. Maybe that's why I have such a rough time with politicians, but we don't need to go there, do we? :-(

This spontaneous seat of the pants writing is teaching me that I can do it. More than that, it's showing me some bad habits and weaknesses I have. Funny how those things are jumping out at me now when I'm not supposed to be paying attention to anything but getting the story down. So, these 40+ pages I've typed are riddled with yellow and red highlights. I can't edit, but I can sure highlight where I want to go back and cut or flesh out. I guess that really does make me a plotter. I'm plotting my rewrites.

If you want to read more about plotting or seat of the pants writing, check out these sites. You can even take a quiz to learn who and what you are--writing-wise, that is.

And if you didn't participate in this year's NaNoWriMo, plot to participate next year. You won't regret it.

Check the following sites to learn more about Plotters and Pantsers:

Karen Story

The Writing Life: All Kinds of Writing

What kind of Writer are You?

NaNoWriMo

What fun! I'm all geared up to participate in this year's National Novel Writing Month and my computer is on the blink. It's so slow. But that's okay. I've plotted the first few chapters of a new idea. I'll be writing but I might not be posting too much.

Chris Baty is my hero this month. I've listened to a couple of radio interviews he has given and he sounds so . . . enthusiastic. His voice makes me want to sit down and produce something. This morning I read every word of his On Your Mark, Get Set . . . Dear NaNoWriMo participant and I like what he said: There is a door in your brain. That door has been there your entire life. ... Once you've stepped through that door into the vast reaches of your imagination, you'll be able to return there as often as you like. This is one of those quotes that find a special place on my computer so I can read it over and over and over again. :)

I'm a real sucker for contests and challenges such as this. I wrote a novel when I belonged to Survivor Writers, a Yahoo group. If we didn't produce seven pages per week, we got the ax. We'd have to sit out a week before we were invited back in. My group was actually the mini-group. The "big girls" had to produce fifteen pages a week. Whew!

My husband thinks I'm nuts when I do this sort of thing. He wonders why I have to have a carrot dangling in front of my nose to motivate me. I have no idea. I guess because . . . I like carrots. :-)


Am I the only person out there who requires a little something extra to get her going? I sure hope not!

Happy Noveling all you NaNoWriMo partipants. It should be real fun.

Talk To Me, David and Maddie!

Do you ever listen to people talk? Funny, huh?

Years ago I attended a great RWA workshop on dialogue. The editor who spoke to us was from LoveSwept, one of my favorite romance lines. Unfortunately, LoveSwept is no longer around. The editor shared a great tip with us. She said to watch the sitcom Moonlighting, pay attention to how Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis sparred with each other and we'd learn how to write dialogue.

But do you ever listen--really hear--the way real people talk?

I have a friend who ends every few sentences with the phrase, you know what I'm saying? I want to shout, "Of course, I know what you're saying, I'm not a complete idiot." I just grit my teeth and listen.

My husband ends every few sentences with the word right. No, I don't grit my teeth and listen. Sometimes I say Right! right back to him. Other times I say wrong just to get his attention about right. Once I even asked what I'm supposed to say when he says right. I haven't received a satisfactory answer.

My stepson ends his sentences with the word anyway. Something like, "We were driving over on I-10 and this car came out of nowhere and sideswiped the car in front of us. We thought they were going to crash but they didn't. Anyway. . ." And that's the end of his sentence.

In college I had a photography professor who used a word over and over again. It drove us crazy and by his own admission, drove him crazy too. One day he brought an empty bucket to class and told us to toss a coin in it every time he said that word. (Wish I could remember what it was--but too many years have passed.) Of course, you know what happened. We tossed our coins and he went home with coffee money. :) I wonder if he's still saying that annoying word and making money from it.

Before you decide I'm a meany for making fun of my family and friends, yes, I have a word I use too. It's not unlike how my stepson uses anyway. My word is . . . so . . ."I went to the ACFW conference and met my crit group there. We sat in one of the rooms and hate chocolate and discussed our plans to meet with editors and agents. I haven't really decided how I want to proceed from here. So . . . (shrug)" And then I'll look at you in a way that invites you to finish my sentence and tell me what to do. :-)

The point here is, we can't write our dialogue the way we talk in real life, but we can learn from those silly sitcoms. Try this: Sit with your eyes closed and listen. There's a rhythm to their interaction that you'll hear and feel. Listen to what they're saying and how they're saying it. Pretty soon, your dialogue will be just as snappy as your favorite TV characters.
Right?
Anyway. . .
So. . . (shrug)

Hooking an Editor: You Tell Me

When you go to the book store, do you flip open one book after another to check out the first sentence or two? That's what I usually do. If the first paragraph grabs me, then I turn to the back cover to read the blurb. Then I thumb through to see if there's more narrative than dialogue. The book goes back on the shelf if I don't find a lot of dialogue on each page. Supposedly a good opening line is what will get an editor's attention.
Tricky, huh.

Read what a favorite editor wrote about opening lines.

Now in your opinion, what makes a good opening line? What grabs you?
And how do you know if your first paragraph has what it takes to hook an editor or an agent? I don't have a clue so if you have tips, leave them in the comment section.

Take a look at these first couple of sentences from published books:

1. Mary Alice flung her purse on my kitchen table, where it landed with a crash, pulled a stool over to the counter and perched on it. "Perched" may not be the right word since Mary Alice weighs two hundred and fifty pounds. Murder on a Girls' Night Out by Anne George

2. Chicago wasn't at its best on a snowy January day, but Allison Sayre had lived in Illinois's largest city all her life and she was accustomed to the capricious climate. The inclement weather hadn't caused her mournful face and melancholy mood. Heiress by Irene Brand

3. "I love you, Sarah. Will you marry me?"
Sarah Brannan sent the message mentally, then watched closely as the man sitting opposite her at the dining room table took another bite of chocolate meringue pie. The Husband Hunt by Linda Lewis

4. So in the end, this was where a treasure hunter went when he died. It seemed anticlimactic--almost sad--considering the adventurous life he'd led. A Bride to Be by Kristin Morgan

5. Under normal circumstances, getting a Louisiana PI license is so routine as to be boring--you take a course, you pass a test, and you pay your money. Louisiana Bigshot by Julie Smith

6. "Miss McNeil, could I see you in my office right away, please?" The intercom speaker echoed with a loud click as the company's president hung up. At Arm's Length by Gail Sattler

7. About hundred yards below the house, to the south, the woods began, and it was here that Luisa said the devils lived. Some of them were shut up in the old well, now gone to salt and useless, and covered with a concrete slab. The Cannibal Heart by Margaret Millar

8. "Hey, Mom! Look at those women tearing the clothes off that guy!"
Erin pulled into the parking area beside a huge red and black tour bus, slamming her foot on the brake of her custom van just as two screaming females darted in front of her. The Groom Wore Blue Suede Shoes by Jessica Travis

9. Frank Daggett sure hoped that was a town up ahead and not a mirage. he had been in the saddle so long he felt as if it were fused to the seat of his pants. Gerda's Lawman by Lena Nelson Dooley

I pulled each book off my shelves (and floor)at random. Which one of these openers make you want to buy the book? And why?

Chicken Soup for the Chocolate Lover's Soul

Chicken Soup for the Chocolate Lover's Soul should have hit the stands today. What fun to be included in this book. I have to admit I've been trying for years to get accepted into a Chicken Soup book. Being the analyzer that I am, I've taken a hard look at my submissions that were rejected(ignored)and this one that was accepted and here's what I've come up with: my other submissions were painstakingly constructed. With this submission I sat down, whipped it out and sent it on its way. The difference I believe is that The Dud in White was written from the heart and with passion. Too bad I can't sit down and whip out my novels in one passionate moment.

Do you think we sometimes edit the passion out of our books and stories?

If you get a chance, pick up a copy of Chicken Soup for the Chocolate Lover's Soul and read my story.