07.03.2009

Most Recent Stories

View from the Top: Katy's failed her midterms, as the poor hot-pad soaking up her tears can testify. Matt, could you please put down the basketball and do something to help her?! (Complete)

Tripper: Strangers on a bus. Storm. Enough with stories about being trapped in an elevator. Seriously. (Complete)

Completed Stories

Sync: It's a sort of unrequited-ish love poem, hopefully minus the blatant unrequited-ness. :) (Complete)

Shuttle: Strangers on a bus. Various mishaps. Love? Maybe. (Complete)

Recommendations

Author: its.Nothing.Special. Trust me when I say she rocks. Like, truly. My favorite of her stories is Okay Then.

Story: Picture Perfect by Candii-apple. Oh my stinkin' hilarious!

Long Story: Dreaming of Billie Winters by lennon coben. Nerys Powell is a regular schoolgirl in Wales, but gets a little more attention after she punches Billie Winters, classmate and basketball star, on a school trip to France. It's a cute, cliched concept, but written in a very nice, very refreshing, understated style. It has its moments of drama, but I feel I can swallow them comfortably, rather than try to choke them down forcibly--as I do with so many other high school stories. READ IT!!

Stories that I'll Read

-- I rely heavily on summaries. I don't read stories that say "Sorry. Bad summary. Read anyway." No can do. If you can't write a decent summary, then, if the truth be told, the story is most likely not worth reading. You've got space for about 45 words, plenty for a little teaser.

Tip: Choose one of the best lines of your story to put in the summary. One that'll give a taste of your writing and draw the interest and curiosity of the reader.

-- You may have got me with the summary. However, if the beginning of your story consists of the protagonist being woken up by Mom, the dog, the crazed younger sibling, or the alarm clock, then you can be sure I'll be hitting the back button. Starting off your story like that is a cop-out. I've done it before, but I like to think I've mended my ways. There are so many other delightful and creative ways to begin your story. Having your character wake up is too easy, kind of like ending a story with "And she woke up. It was all a dream!" because you don't know what else to do with it. Sometimes you don't even need a "beginning."

Tip: Start in the middle of your scene--you can build the beginning gradually as your story progresses.

-- I love a strong paragraph, proper grammar, and good spelling. The meat in your story comes from the right balance of dialogue and description. Not too much of either. I'm still working on perfecting that balance, but I find that it gets wearisome to read stories that rely too heavily on one or the other. Dialogue by a new speaker always begins a new paragraph, and punctuation in dialogue always goes inside the quotation marks. If you've got faulty grammar, it makes it extremely hard for the reader to understand what's going on.

Tips: 1) If you aren't sure how to spell certain words, Google them or something. The recommended spelling will most likely pop up (along with the correct definition of the word--always important). 2) Read your stuff aloud to yourself and listen carefully to how you've worded things. 3) Reading aloud will also help you determine if you've need to shave the description or pump up the dialogue, or vice-versa.

-- Finally, I love humor. Drama and angst has its place for sure (I love a good cry every now and then), but I am, and will always be, a gal that loves to laugh. So make me laugh. Have jokes and funny situations. The trick is to make them subtle and incorporate them into your story so that they seem genuine and real. Because real people laugh, and real people are serious, and real people cry, and sometimes, real people are supremely over-the-top. But you can make it all fit. Just think. And watch. You learn so much just by watching and being. Then you write about it. And you work hard and just keep practicing. Because one day you'll write something that'll make you happy and will leave the readers feeling satisfied and full. Like they've eaten a three-course dinner, plus extra dessert.

PS. Those stories are the best.

Hey there...

I...

...am called that.

...live there.

...play these games.

...don't play those games.

...believe this.

...look kind of like that.

...like that stuff.

...don't like this stuff.

...am about that old.

...wish for those things.

...am about that tall.

...dream about these.

...laugh about them.

...cry about those.

...hope for that over there.

...write about what I know, from now on.

...don't know that much.