Process
Reflection
"This is a GREAT story! You should be a writer, honey!" The compliment felt great, but even at eight years old, there was plenty of skepticism stirring within. I bashfully accepted the compliment with gratitude, but did not have the intrinsic belief that this skill was one I could pursue as a career. Besides, I needed to get outside and play soccer.
By Brandon Phifer10 months ago in Writers
Down to the Nub. Top Story - September 2023.
Memories of my childhood are vivid but disjointed, like a movie trailer that flashes various exciting bits, but not in context and out of order. Thus I can't be sure which of the stories I wrote as a child was the first.
By Sonia Heidi Unruh10 months ago in Writers
My First Foray into Publishing Short Stories Online
First let me admit that I have a terrible memory. Because of my anxiety, my mind loves to focus on awkward and painful memories. The failures instead of the triumphs. How far back should I go? My elementary school scribbles were just glorified spelling and penmanship exercises. I mostly remember the short stories and essays I wrote for my advanced placement English class in the eleventh grade.
By Leslie Writes10 months ago in Writers
Examining My First Story
The recent fairytale challenge on Vocal had me digging deep into my computer’s memory to find a story that I wrote almost twenty years ago. It was a short story about a young girl who finds a coin in her washing machine on a very hot summer day. She makes a wish on it and it comes true; the temperature drops by twenty degrees! With a second load of laundry, she finds another coin in the machine and makes a wish on that one as well. That second wish is for an awesome thirteenth birthday.
By Rae Fairchild (MRB)10 months ago in Writers
Development and Delay
The first piece I ever wrote to something resembling completion was a short superhero story I did back in middle school. It was the first of a lot of stories and characters in a large super hero universe that I wound up scrapping due to how derivative and repetitive it was. This was one of the more original stories, a simple short about a telekinetic superhero tracking down his arch nemesis who could throw and manipulate fireballs. It ended with a showdown at a shipyard with the hero trapping the villain in a shipping container. It was simple, direct, and focused entirely on the epic battle rather than the headache inducing processes of worldbuilding and character development.
By Javert Boudreau10 months ago in Writers
The Modern Short Story Format
Part 1 of "How to Write Short Stories" ========================================= Let's get this out of the way: there is no one correct way to write a successful short story. Highly acclaimed short stories exist that ignore every single direction you will see in this series of how-to articles. Short story writing is an art, not a science, and definitely not something that should become a simple cookie-cutter task.
By Paul Pence10 months ago in Writers