SleuthSayers: Politeness, a short lesson by O'Neil De Noux

SleuthSayers: Politeness, a short lesson: Perusing the previous SleuthSayer blogs, I see great advice and writing tips from so many writers. I'd like to add a comment or two abo...

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

Guest Post: WHERE DO IDEAS COME FROM? by Jan Christensen

Another week begins with an inspirational post by Jan Christensen.....

WHERE DO IDEAS COME FROM? by Jan Christensen

Every published author will eventually be asked, “Where do you get your ideas?”

Stephen King has his “boys in the basement.” Riffing off of that, I have my aunts in the attic. And sometimes the Mad Hatter. (And probably bells in my belfry, as well.)

Victor Banis has his muse Snotty. Other writers and artists have had muses throughout the ages.

A muse is defined as: a spirit or source that inspires an artist. Some famous writers, such as Hemingway, used real women as their muses, then married them. Unfortunately, the muses often divorced the writers. I don’t know what that did for the writing of the writers, but it couldn’t have been very good in the short term. In the long run, it may have inspired a lot of writing, especially about what women are like. Or what they thought women were like.

Do those who write both short stories and novels have different muses for each length? Would there be any upside in doing that? I think there might be. The short muse (of course short in stature) is direct, to the point, pithy, impatient. The long muse (tall, of course) is wordy, slower to react, and patient. Or perhaps one muse has a split personality.

For me, besides joking about the aunts in the attic and the Mad Hatter, I don’t really have any muses that I call on regularly. When muses are mentioned, I think of the aunts and the Hatter, but otherwise, not very much.

If you dig deeper into the idea of a muse as inspiration, you realize it is really only a trigger. Or something to get angry with when the inspiration isn’t there.

In order to really get ideas, I suggest more concrete tactics. To start, just pick something, anything. Animal, mineral, vegetable. Rock, paper, scissors. Then pick another and another. It would help if they are not usually associated with each other. An animal with scissors, for example. Next write whatever comes to mind for as long as you can. Eventually you most likely will get stuck and not know what to write next. Ask yourself, what if, and list all the things that could possibly happen next. Pick one, or combine some, and off you go again. It can be weird, strange, unlikely, odd, whatever. Quirky is good.

Other ways are to visit places you’ve never been before, people watch at the mall, look at pictures of strangers or even of people you know—one or two of their traits might spark something.

The trick is to absolutely believe that you will come up with something. If you write steadily every day for about a month, this confidence will come more easily. I’ve written so much that I never have any doubt that I can come up with something, that really, I’ll never have enough time to write everything I can think of into publishable form.

So, if you think having a muse will help, make one up or use a real person for inspiration. If you just want to go right to the writing, pick a few fun things to write about and Go.

Jan Christensen ©2017

Jan Christensen lives in Corpus Christi, Texas, and has had nine novels and over seventy short stories published. www.janchristensen.com

SleuthSayers: "Writing What I Knew" by SMFS Member John M. Floyd

SleuthSayers: Writing What I Knew: by John M. Floyd How many times have we, as writers, heard that we should "write what we know"? I'm not sure I always agr...