Straitjacket - courtesy of Marc NL

Yeah. I stinketh as a blogger: Occasional. Intermittent. Haphazard. All of those being circumlocutory descriptions of what I do with this bloggy thing.

But here’s the scoop:  I am trying to clear some things from my plate. For example, I have been reading blogs at lighting speed. Which pretty much means that in Google Reader I click on the post, see if there are any pretty pictures, then move on to the next one. All except for posts by Rob Wells or Marion Jensen. They are both certifiably crazy, and since I seem to be heading in that direction myself, I am curious as to how they are getting through life while wearing one of those fancy white shirts with long sleeves and shiny buckles. Oh . . . and that uncomfortable strap that wraps . . . is cinched . . .  OY!

(shudder)

Anyway, as I was saying, I am trying to clear things from my plate. So far it hasn’t worked really well. But would you call this progress?:

1. Today, while stuck in a lobby behind security doors and waiting on a customer to come fetch me into their inner sanctum, I spied something on window shelf that caught my eye. It was a decorative orrery. No planets marked. Just a bunch (9 to be exact) of movable rings around a central sphere, all mounted on a pedestal like a globe. And a very nice copper finish. It immediately got my mind racing. And in less than ten minutes, I significantly planned out some characterization ideas for a major new character in Heaven’s Garden.

2. Yes, that means I am writing again. Thanks for asking. In fact, I am almost half way done with the first draft. I fully plan on being done before the Christmas holiday. Some people are going to do the NaNo thing. I am going to keep going on this one. I have GOT to get it done.

3. And since we are talking about writing, I wanted to spotlight a new website by a dear friend of mine. And editor. And all around funny-bone tickler: Tristi. If you have ever wanted to be a writer, but just didn’t know how to get started, she is the writing instructor for you. Affordable. Smart. And she will have you in stitches (not the emergency room kind).

4. Last, but not least: THE THORN is now in the Kindle Store along with WATER, my short anthology. THE THORN print edition is linked to the Kindle edition as of last night. I was going to wait for Smashwords to get their system updated to push the books to the Kindles store, but decided that: A. I didn’t want to wait. B. I needed the experience of reworking the layout. SO… I reformatted the entire book in HTML. And learned how to place TOC links. And insert the cover art. I used the following tools to get it done:

a. Exported the DOC from WORD as an HTML file (the one that says Filtered).
b. Cleaned the HTML file up in OpenOffice by creating all of my paragraph styles and applying them where needed.
c. Opened the file in gedit for Linux. Did some fancy search-and-replace things on it.
d. Opened the file in vi to better see the file with syntax highlighting. Fixed other things while I was there.
e. Re-opened the file in gedit and finished up some inserts of TOC links, page breaks, the cover image, etc.
f. Checked the file in a browser, fixed a few more items, then uploaded the file to the Amazon DTP site.

Yeah. I’m a geek. But now I know the process. HTML knocked on the door. I opened and conquered.

5. I am also embarking on a super secret project with two other authors. Nope. Can’t tell you. You don’t have a high enough security clearance.

So, there you have it. I will be around occasionally. But next time you wonder where my blog posts have gone, just think of how much you are going to enjoy reading Heaven’s Garden when I am done with it.

Shameless Plug: Books only get considered for the Whitney Awards if they receive 5 nominations. If you loved THE THORN, have you nominated it yet?

Powerful words for the day: circumlocutory, certifiably, cinched, orrery, vi, nomination. Learn them all, you must. Use the words, you will. Especially the last one.

Ms. Bowzer (awesome teacher) did the same for me in my writing class–novel, essay, metered poem, haiku, free-form, and many more. We spent a lot of time learning about short stories. I suppose it’s because short stories are just the right format and length for grading. I also think it’s because short stories are fun.

But what makes a short story? How is it the same as a novel? How is it different? I am far from an expert, but let me share a few tips I have learned.

1. LENGTH: Like poetry, a short story needs to get to the point without a bunch of fluff. Words should be chosen carefully. Make every word count. Keep it… short. If you want to practice this skill, try to write a haiku. English haiku contains 17 syllables, metered as 5-7-5, in three lines, with the first and third line typically rhyming. This will get the creative juices flowing!

2. CHARACTERS and SETTING: As a short story writer, you don’t have much time or space to elaborate. Backstory should be as minimal as possible. Don’t tell everything! You need just enough description and personality for both the setting and character to interest the reader. Make the reader care. Illicit an emotional response, but don’t sell it all. Think of this as more of an advertisement for a character who could be in a novel someday. That will help you to use only the most important words about them and the setting in which you paint them.

3. THEME: A short story typically has a point to it, or a theme. Sometimes the theme is stated or obvious. Sometimes it is very subtle. Stated or not, you need to give the reader a reason to remember the story. If the reader comes away from the experience and says, “What was that all about?”, then the writer hasn’t done their job.

4. PLOT and ENDING: Just like a novel, there needs to be some kind of conflict, or the reader will be bored. And this is just my personal opinion, but the ending is critical. If you want the reader to remember the story, grab their attention at the very end. Make them fall out of their chair with surprise. One of the best examples I have ever seen of this is Arthur C. Clarke’s short story “The Star“. If you decide to read it, NO CHEATING! Read it slow. Treat the ending with respect without jumping ahead.

If you have a short story you would like to share, give us a link in your comments. One rule: Keep it clean. No “R” rated material or profanity please.

Here is one of mine:  “WATER” by Daron D. Fraley

Have fun!

Frequent word repetition can pull a reader out of the story. They make the reader stare at the page. Or the wart.

Them thar’ words might indicate a tendency for the author to write in passive voice (too many be / was words). Or they might be an author’s favorite word (like “just”). Sometimes they are simply a result of writing small amounts each day and forgetting what you wrote yesterday. I can’t remember what I ate yesterday, let alone what I wrote yesterday. And I like to eat. Even more than I like to write. Maybe.

But if the high-frequency occurrences are so undesireable, how can you squash all them little pests?

Here is a MS-WORD tip to brighten your day:

In your WORD tool bar, find the HIGHLIGHTER. Turn on a color. Any color. Except for pink. No pun intended for the word brighten in the previous sentence. Which I have now repeated.

In your Edit menu, click on “Replace”.

Fill in the fields as shown below:

First fill in your “Find what” field. Then click on the check-box for “Find whole words only”.

Then fill in your “Replace with” field. When I am editing, I find “was” and replace it with a “was” which is highlighted. You highlight by clicking the “Format” button and choosing “Highlight”. I leave these highlights in and then edit the entire manuscript for that type of word. Editing goes quite fast with the green and yellow highlights. Remember, no pink.

If I am only wanting a frequency count, I replace “was” with “ZZZZ” or something else, and watch how many it finds when I click the “Replace All” button. Once it is done replacing the words, I can change it back. Using a strange string of letters and choosing the “whole words only” option assures me that I don’t replace the was in washington by accident. We wouldn’t want to count that one anyway. The “ZZZZ” also makes it easy see, and easy to turn back to a “was”.

NOTE: Notice that your buttons at the bottom of the window will change (and the lable for the section also changes) depending on whether your cursor is IN the find field or the replace field. That will help you to not be LOOKING for highlighted text…. unless you really mean to do that.

I hope this was helpful for all you writers out there. Just kidding about the pink.

Have fun!