I came up with a theory that story telling would be a fun way to improve my style and narrative structure in fiction. Does anyone have any experience doing this? Currently, I am making up mostly bed time stories for children and some stories during car trips with adults.
We resumed our way, until we finally exit the woods and reached a
valley. Two ridges stood on both sides, meeting together on the far
horizon. In the middle was a river, its quiet surface perfectly
reflecting the moon in the sky. There were no trees. Only bushes and autumn-colored
shru...
Weekly Writer's Chat is back on a regular meeting schedule after a hiatus. We meet Tuesdays in The Overlook Hotel starting at 1700 UTC (1pm EDT) and generally wrap up anywhere from 2pm to 4pm Eastern, depending on how much people feel like chatting.
What we do in chat:
We have informal writing...
I don't know that we need to be so formal as what Kit originally decided way back when this was new.
Nobody has time for the long-form exercises anyway... we haven't bothered posting them.
A bunch of us tried to do a "pass around the story and add a chapter", but it died after two chapters.
As far as I'm concerned, the "timed exercise" has merged with the weekly exercise, and we just post them here any ol' way. I prefer to use gdocs because I keep a log of them.
She looked at the candle's flame. It flickered in the silence of the night. Flickered like the last leaf on a tree in Autumn. Flickered like Hope. She was sitting in a small room, the walls closing in on her. "How much longer?" she wondered. It was the last candle left with her. She had thought about it but had decided that it was time. Since the time she was a little girl, she had always been afraid of the dark. Her thoughts rolled back to a few days before when she had awoken to the sound of strange men in her room. She had tried to scream but they were quick to silence her…
He stands in the dining room, lit faintly by the glow of streetlights through the windows and, more immediately, by the dying flames of the Chanukah menorah. Last night, so eight candles -- plus the helper candle, the one that does all the work so the others can stand tall and pretty and proud.
The menorah is one of many craft projects that the kids brought home from school, wood and glue and paint full of more love than skill, but he wouldn't trade it for the fanciest wares in the window of Goldberg's, a shop he's never ventured into. He thinks back to when he brought such projects home…
I am a new author and as I am writing my novels, I need a little revenue.
Are there sites that would pay for articles being written?
Any suggestions would be great!
@MonicaCellio I liked your work. Has a touch of nostalgia
I really liked this part: "He thinks back to when he brought such projects home to his parents -- a tradition that may be as old as his great-grandmother's Shabbat candlesticks"
In a way I'm glad that we went with this candle topic. I was going to try to fit a love story into mine but I panicked at the last second and decided to leave the romance out, or unstated. I don't think I have the experience yet to sketch that part convincingly.
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 both of us read something "dark" in the topic
I had initially thought of a small village in flood time with someone trapped in a house or something sitting and watching the last candle burn itself out
@MattЭллен at the moment. :-) (We just finished the festival of Passover, so festival candles were on my mind I guess, and that naturally led to Chanukah which is full of candles...)
@MattЭллен that was nice, short and simple, though when you said ping i immediately thought microwave, which really painted a strange image in my head, even if only for a second
It’s funny, she thought while she lay down, watching the sun set in front of her. I never thought it would be this way. A train whistled in the distance and she shivered. You’re my best friend, Maria. It was getting dark. She sat up, lit the candle in front of her for a little light and lay on her back to watch the stars appear before her eyes.
Her friend would tell her do not be afraid, if she could. Another train whistle, a little closer now. She trembled now but felt somehow at peace with the stars twinkling above her, a little glimmer of hope. She thought back to when they were kids. Maria was yelling at a group of boys that teased her. A few years later, Maria was in high heels and stepped on her exes’ foot for cheating on her. She giggled.
Always the strong one, defending me until death. Truly best friends forever, she thought. You’ve always been strong for me, she thought. Another whistle, maybe a half mile away by now. The ground started shaking. Or was that her? She was scared and couldn’t decide. She looked at the candle resting between her rib cage. That was Maria, always being the ray of light. Maria had had her secrets, of course. Everyone does.
She wished that Maria had told her how life really was at home and how scared she was. In the end it had been too much and she gave up on life. Tears suddenly started streaming down her face. She missed Maria so much. She heard a train whistle. I’ll see you soon, she thought. A rush, a burst of wind, a whistle, a flash. The last candle blew out. Together, forever.
While reading it I thought of another story that I had read several years ago
in which a man who has become hopeless goes to a railway station and lies down on the track. However for several hours the train does not come and he later finds out that there was an accident somewhere else and the trains were running late. He eventually goes back home
and at the same time I thought (while reading) this time she is not going home
We resumed our way, until we finally exit the woods and reached a
valley. Two ridges stood on both sides, meeting together on the far
horizon. In the middle was a river, its quiet surface perfectly
reflecting the moon in the sky. There were no trees. Only bushes and autumn-colored
shru...
Just the guy with his hands on the girl's shoulder. How do I perfectly describe this? please help. Thank you so much!
Weekly Writer's Chat is back on a regular meeting schedule after a hiatus. We meet Tuesdays in The Overlook Hotel starting at 1700 UTC (1pm EDT) and generally wrap up anywhere from 2pm to 4pm Eastern, depending on how much people feel like chatting.
What we do in chat:
We have informal writing...
I am a new author and as I am writing my novels, I need a little revenue.
Are there sites that would pay for articles being written?
Any suggestions would be great!
The Overlook Hotel
The Overlook Hotel