What The Fuck Was That Editor Smoking? untitled Brainstorms & Bylines fiction by Diane Holmes, (a) Chief Alchemist of Pitch University, (b) lover of learning, and (c) writer of fiction, non-fiction, and the occasional manifesto. Story openings are magical. There’s something that happens in that first line, on that first page. Just words. It seems simple. But these opening words somehow, cleverly, shoehorn the reader into your story and the next umpteen pages. It’s that last piece that’s key. Good openings trap them. It’s one thing to talk about that magic and examine an already-published passage. There is no magical shoehorn app. Until technology catches up with us, we’ll have to look at manual methods for creating Opening Magic. Here are mine: #1 Regret There’s something about knowing a regret of some sort exists that creates a reader-compulsion to Find. This seems useful. #2 Mystery, Lies, and Secrets Again with the compulsions. And here’s the key. Secrets and lies imply there is huge and dreadful meaning that matters to a human being or two. #3 Danger in the Air
short stories at east of the web A game of Scrabble has serious consequences. - Length: 4 pages - Age Rating: PG - Genre: Crime, Humor A semi-barbaric king devises a semi-barabaric (but entirely fair) method of criminal trial involving two doors, a beautiful lady and a very hungry tiger. - Length: 7 pages - Genre: Fiction, Humor ‘Bloody hell!’ - Genre: Humor Looking round he saw an old woman dragging a bucket across the floor and holding a mop. - Length: 3 pages Henry pours more coal onto the hearth as a gust of wind rattles through the cracked window frame. - Length: 14 pages - Genre: Horror ulissa Ye relished all the comfortable little routines and quietude defining her part-time job at The Bookery, downtown’s last small, locally-owned bookstore. - Length: 8 pages - Age Rating: U The forest looked ethereal in the light from the moon overhead. - Length: 15 pages - Age Rating: 18 Corporal Earnest Goodheart is crouched in a ditch on the edge of an orchard between Dunkirk and De Panne. - Genre: Fiction - Length: 20 pages
Quotable Quotes on Writers and Writing These quotes come from a variety of sources, and due to my laxness, I haven't bothered to document their origins (nor am I likely to start now). If you'd like to find out who said what when, there are several on-line sources, as well as print sources (i.e., Bartlett's) for that sort of thing. Otherwise, you'll just have to take my word for it that I didn't just make them up. To view the quotes, either scroll down the page, or if you're looking for a quote by someone in particular, click on the first letter of his or her last name. If you've got a good quote you'd like to contribute, if you see a shameless typo on my part, or if you've just got a comment to make, send it to jon@logicalcreativity.com. I love deadlines. - Douglas Adams There are two kinds of writer: those that make you think, and those that make you wonder. - Brian Aldiss A writer should say to himself, not, How can I get more money? - Maxwell Anderson - Sherwood Anderson - Anonymous - Aristotle - Matthew Arnold - Isaac Asimov - S.
Ink - Quotes about writing by writers presented by The Fontayne Group Writing "I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark." Henry David Thoreau "Writing is an adventure." Winston Churchill "Know something, sugar? "Whether or not you write well, write bravely." "The first rule, indeed by itself virtually a sufficient condition for good style, is to have something to say." National Punctuation Day Advice on Novel Writing < Back to darkwaves.com Foreword by the Author Developing Efficient Work Habits Elements Of A Successful Story In the opening... In the body of the story... In the conclusion... Afterword by the Author Foreword by the Author A little later tonight (Thursday, Nov 5 [1992]), I'm going to start sending in a series of items about writing fiction for the mass market. Altogether I'll be sending 17 separate “handouts” from my commercial fiction course. The files total about 180K--enough for a short book. Why am I doing this? Crawford Kilian Communications Department Capilano College 2055 Purcell Way North Vancouver, BC Canada V7G 1H7 Usenet: Crawford_Kilian@mindlink.bc.ca Developing Efficient Work Habits Different writers face different advantages and drawbacks in forming good writing habits. Writing habits flourish best in routine, but the efficient writer also exploits opportunity. Keep your writing equipment (paper, pens, software manuals, etc.) in your writing place, close at hand.