Friday, June 23, 2017
Monday, June 19, 2017
Little Big Crimes Review: Short Story by Karin Slaughter and Michael Koryta
Little Big Crimes: Short Story, by Karin Slaughter and Michael Koryta...: "Short Story," by Karin Slaughter and Michael Koryta, in Matchup, edited by Lee Child, Simon and Schuster, 2017. I'm not a...
Guest Post: HOW JOURNALISM GUIDELINES CAN HELP FICTION WRITERS by Jan Christensen
HOW JOURNALISM
GUIDELINES CAN HELP FICTION WRITERS
If you ever took a journalism class, you know the basics
of writing nonfiction for newspapers and magazines. However, these basic tools
can also help you hone your fiction into tight, sharp writing that is both
clear and complete. This is, of course, especially important for short story
writers.
The basics are: who, what, where, when, why, and how.
Every journalism student has to memorize those words. Usually in that order.
Sometimes one or more can be left out, but it should be a conscious decision
with a good reason. Not long ago, for example, our local newspaper had an
article about making the city greener, and explained about an organization
giving away free trees in a few days. They did the who—the name of the
organization. The what--a giveaway of three trees to anyone who showed up; the
when--the date; the why--to make the city green. And the how--go and get the
trees. They left out one vital fact, however. The where. No address, no clue
about the location of the giveaway. So, both the reporter and the editor missed
something really important. Oddly enough, they reported on the event after it
was over (I believe this is yearly and they always give away the trees in the
same location), told how many trees were given away, and—you guessed it, the
location where it all took place. In this case, NOT better late than never.
The reader of fiction almost always needs all these
elements, too, for the story to make sense. Leave one vital part out, and
you’ve lost her. A good rule of thumb is to be sure you have them all there
when you are finished with all your edits. Because you may have put them all in
when you wrote the piece (or you may not have), and you may take something out
that was really needed, or miss that something was left out in the first place.
But if you look one last time for each element, you should be fine.
Jan Christensen ©2017
Jan Christensen lives and writes
in Corpus Christi, Texas now, after living on the road in an RV and writing
wherever she happened to land. She concentrates on mysteries, both short and
long. More about her here: www.janchristensen.com
Friday, June 16, 2017
Monday, June 12, 2017
Guest Post: STAGES OF WRITING A SHORT STORY by Jan Christensen
STAGES OF WRITING A SHORT STORY
The steps below help me keep on track when writing a new
story. Through trial and error, I've come up with these ideas to stay
organized.
1. Get idea. Get
excited about your idea. Start
outlining, mental planning--whatever you do to get going. I always just dive into the writing.
2. Start writing the story. Open a second document on your
computer. I name mine [NAME OF STORY] notes.DOCX. Keep it open whenever you're working on this
manuscript. In it note each new character's
name and description as you write about him or her, and any descriptions and
names of specific places. If you’re in
flow and would rather wait until the end of your writing session to put this
info down, that's fine, but it will take you longer to find it again to copy
and paste.
After the list of names, do what I call a "post
outline." In a few sentences, write
down what happened in each scene. You
will bless yourself later for this when you are revising, writing your query
letter, and submitting
In the next section of your notes, copy and paste or type in
research you did and other items as they come up. To keep good track of your
research and to make it easier to go back to it, include the links to the
material if you found it on-line.
3. Revise.
4. Submit. In your notes document, make a table to show
where and when you submitted the story and the results of the submission. If
you need to write a cover letter, first write it in the notes doc, edit it
carefully, then copy and paste it into an email submission or into an on-line
form if that’s the way submissions are handled by your target.
5. Instead of waiting to see if it’s accepted, get to work
right away on a new story.
Good luck!
Jan Christensen ©2017
Jan Christensen lives and writes in Corpus Christi, Texas
now, after living on the road in an RV and writing wherever she happened to
land. She concentrates on mysteries, both short and long. More about her
here: www.janchristensen.com
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Little Big Crimes Review: Summer of the Seventeen Poll by Aoife Clifford
Little Big Crimes Review: Summer of the Seventeen Poll by Aoife Clifford: "Summer of the Seventeen Poll," by Aoife Clifford, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May/June 2017. I like stories of p...
Friday, June 9, 2017
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)