Short Story Tips -- Thoughtful advice

Question from the e-mail: You give lots of tips about writing long fiction, but do you have some for those of us who still like to write short stories?

Answer: I used to have a list of tips for students, when I taught short story writing. Haven't done any for years, though. See below:

Twelve Tips for Wriitng Short Stories

1. A short story should be short. The longer your story is the more difficult it will be to sell.

2. A short story should be fast-paced and never boring. A short story needs to move quickly and take place in a short length of time.

3. A short story should be written in scenes and all scenes, if at all possible, should be from a single character’s viewpoint.

4. A story plot should contain an Objective (the main character’s goal), Obstacles that stand in the main character’s way, and a clearly defined Outcome, that results from the characters actions (not from coincidence!).

5. A short story is about a main character who wants something and whether they get it or not. If there’s no problem, there’s no story. Some central problem should face the central character and how the main character solves that problem is what the story is about.

6. A short story should have a theme, some grain of universal truth that becomes the central theme of the short story.

7. The Protagonist (main character) should be someone whose motives the reader will understand, whose mistakes the reader will forgive, and whom the reader will identify with and root for.

8. Action and dialogue should rise as the story progresses. Scenes should build upon one another to increase the reader’s involvement. Action should be believable. Dialogue should stay on the point.

9. A short story should have a bleak moment, just before the crisis, when it looks as if the main character will never get what he or she wants.

10. The crisis should be realistic and the reader should be experiencing both tension and suspense as to the outcome.

11. The resolution should explain everything, and tie up all the loose ends. It should be satisfying to the reader, even if it is not a “happy ending.”

12. Dialogue in a short story should always move forward and be about the point of the scene. Small talk has no place in dialogue.

Banana Bread -- recipe

Carlene Dater’s Banana Bread

½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 ripe bananas
2 eggs (or half a cup of egg substitute)
2 cups flour
1 tsp. Baking soda
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Cream together, butter, sugar, bananas, and eggs until well mixed. Stir in 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp. Soda and ¼ cup chopped walnuts. Placed in greased loaf pans or bundt cake pan.

Bake in a 350-f or 177-C degree oven until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about one hour.

Contributed by Carlene Dater, author of AN EXTRA PAIR OF EYES. The stories in this book will introduce you to a side of police work you’ve never seen, and a group of heroes you’ve never met. EYES puts the reader in the front seat of a police unit, lets us experience some of the drama, the danger and the joy of volunteers helping law enforcement in all kinds of situations.

Common Writing Mistakes

Question from the e-mail: What is the most common mistake you find in submitted manuscripts?

Answer: There is NO writing mistake that I haven't made myself, so I do know them all. When you are concentrating on what to say the grammar rules are not necessarily in the forefront of your consciousness.

Having said that, the most common error we find in submitted work is capitalization errors, followed closely by apostrophes used incorrectly.

I find capitalizations mistakes in almost ever file I see. It's easy to use search and replace to fix them, but we will have to read a little around what is found to determine whether actual errors in capitalization problems exist:

For instance Mom or Dad gets a cap when used as a name, but NOT when used as a pronoun.

“How you feeling, Mom?” gets a cap as Mom is the name and it's used as a proper noun.

“My mom feels bad.” gets no cap, as the “my” before mom makes her one among other moms and so she’s a pronoun. Mom, or Dad or Aunt and Uncle only get caps if they are used as a name or are part of a name.

The same cap rule applies with military rank, or learned titles, etc. If you use military ranks, or titles like Sergeant, Professor or Doctor, while you are working on the book, they get caps if they are a name, but not if they are a pronoun.


“I was late, because Doctor Malkus gave me a prescription.”

“I was late, because the doctor gave me a prescription.” (A pronoun because “the doctor” is not part of his name.)


“The captain of the Revenge led his crew of pirates in an attack.”

“The crew of the Revenge was led by Captain Edward Teach.”


"I was late to Professor Hargreave's class."

The professor was very angry with me.



It can be a good idea to search these kinds of things AFTER a ms. is completed, just to double check, because again, when we wear the creative hat, the rulebook may go out the window.

Potato Puff -- recipe

Nancy Madison's Potato Puff

8 ounce package of cream cheese
4 cups of mashed potatoes (about 3 large bake potatoes)
1 beaten egg
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup drained, chopped pimiento
1 teaspoon salt and dash of pepper

Soften the cream cheese, blend with mashed potatoes. Add the beaten egg, finely chopped onion, drained, chopped pimiento, salt and dash of pepper..Bake in buttered 1 quart casserole 350-F or 177-C for 45 minutes. Serve at once.Serves 4.

Contributed by Nancy Madison, author of Whispers. In the wee hours of her wedding day, whispering wakes New York heiress Layne Hamilton. Investigating, Layne finds herself in the darkened hall outside her guest room. Through a closed door, she hears her fiance and maid-of-honor planning her death

New Books Released March 1

New e-books Released in March:

HANNAH'S GHOST
by Robert Kanehl

It started as a practical joke, but Hannah turned it into the adventure of a life time. Who drew the portrait of the founder of the first law school in America is a question that has haunted historians for 200 years. With the help of a spirit Hannah discovers the truth and even more about herself! While working on a school project, Hannah is lead to the answer by the ghost of Anna a spirit trapped in this world. As a reward, Hannah must try to bring Anna some final rest. Can she do it?


THE ALBERMARLE AFFAIR
by C.M. Albrecht

When Corky Middleton thinks she may have found her birth mother, she hires a Foster & Hall to investigate. Wow, does she open a can of worms! Instead of finding Corky's mother, the shamuses trip over a corpse, and that's just the humble beginning of an escalating case that climbs to the top of society in this twisted tale. Can Foster & Hall Investigations go back eighteen years to unravel this tangled web of deception and bring a murderer to justice?


THE MIRRORED WORLD
by Meghan Roos

Living in a small California town in the mid-1960s, Rebecca Gallagher and Riley Parker are two young playmates, neighbors, and best friends when they first see a mysterious light glowing from a dark grove within their neighborhood. More than a decade later, nearly every other factor in their lives has changed, and it seems the only things that have remained true are their unfaltering trust in each other and the existence of that same hidden light. Now, as one of the nation’s biggest political scandals of the century rushes into front-page newspaper articles and onto television screens across the globe, Rebecca and Riley encounter an unusual man who carries the keys to the past – and to their world’s future. In this whirlwind adventure encompassing two best friends’ race to the truth, Rebecca and Riley discover the shocking power time holds through its influence on history – and how one mistake can threaten to send the lives of an entire civilization into chaos.


LOOKING FOR MIDNIGHT
By Helen Chappell


Sculptor Jane Constant is artist-in-residence at Green Gardens, an ancient seaside mansion turned artist’s colony. This summer’s crop of eccentrics and other creative types include the handsome actor Gabriel Hardy rehearsing for Hamlet, the stoner musician Dink Sheldrake with an opera to write, the alcoholic abstract impressionist Ted Mitran and Midnight Bunting, a retired madam who wants to spend her summer writing a tell all memoir about her rich and famous clients. Then there’s politically ambitious next door neighbor Barbara Barkley, who wants Green Gardens closed down as a disgrace to the upscale seaside community and a Chief of Police who’s interested in more than Jane’s art. When Midnight Bunting is found dead in Gabriel Hardy’s bed, suspicion falls on everyone, and things look desperate for the continued existence of the beloved old artist’s colony. . .


THE MISTAKE
by Bruce Castle

A couple is brutally murdered in Pittsburgh. Months later, several murders strike Baltimore County. Undoubtedly, these seemingly unrelated killings would have become a cold case if Detective Sergeant Aubrey McKensie of the Maryland State Police had not been assigned the case as she solves unsolvable crimes, not only by her intuitive talents, but by a paranormal ability that has been invaluable in her police work, but a disaster to her social life. Susan Gardner is a clinical psychologist and Sherman Langston is a businessman with political aspirations of becoming president. Both have lovely families and are respected in their fields.

They have not seen each other since graduating high school and neither would have any reason to be suspicious of a stranger entering their lives through murder and deception. During Aubrey’s investigation, fate links her up with Detective Joshua Greenberg from Pittsburgh whom she is highly attracted to. A heartfelt romance develops while these two masterful detectives pursue an oddly behaving killer with a secret past and an equally secretive future. Then, an unexpected turn of events occurs; a grotesque and murderous scheme is launched that Aubrey and Josh are desperate to end without further innocent lives being destroyed.



New Print books with Advance copies out in March:

A FRIGHT OF GHOSTS
by Helen Chappell

Holis Ball and Sam Wescott Series, Vol. 4

Watch out for trouble on Maryland’s Eastern Shore when Hollis Ball and her ghostly ex, Sam Wescott are on the case! Hollis’ waterman brother Robbie, desperate to support his growing family through a hard winter, has headed down the Bay to isolated Shellpile Island, where he hopes to make money oystering with island local, Sluggo Fotney, a slick operator with a slippery moral sensibility.

When Sluggo is found dead, Robbie, the outsider, is charged with the crime.

But when Hollis and Sam head to Shellpile to investigate, they find plenty of local suspects to chose from, including Sluggo’s fellow watermen and his three ex-wives.

And behind the Shellpile Islanders’ wall of stony silence, there are bigger secrets than who murdered Sluggo Fotney. Secrets that could land Hollis into deep, dark waters, even with the help of a special guest ghost, a long dead pirate who knows all the island’s secrets.


SNOW ESCAPE
by Roberta Goodman

Set against the backdrop of a historic snowstorm, Snow Escape is the story of one woman’s innocent foray into the world of online dating turned deadly.

Allegra Maxwell is a 30-year old, single school teacher looking for love. Having chosen to use the Internet to meet the opposite sex, she encounters an articulate, prospective beau on the night the biggest blizzard in history is blanketing the Big Apple. Their pleasant conversation soon turns sinister when she discovers that "Charles" has been stalking her for weeks and claims he lives in her building. With threats of destroying her little by little are made, Allegra must stay one step ahead of the mind games. Turning to neighbors for help, tragic consequences ensue.

When her sanity is questioned, because the online evidence her stalker exists disappears, Allegra must prove he does exist and she isn’t losing her mind. When a power outage thrusts her into darkness, will she be able to overcome the helplessness she feels? Placed in a situation that’s spiraling totally out of her control, while trapped in her apartment building with no escape, will she survive until the authorities can reach her?

Catching UP!

The following books went to press, or back to press, this week:

A HOUSE TO KILL FOR, by Judy Reveal
INSIDE INFORMATION, by Michael E. Field
OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS, by Michael E. Field

Print Galleys went out to authors, or went out again, this week:

HIDDEN GOLD OF MU, by Milton Brown
CLASS REUNION, by Michael E. Field
DRAGON-SPEAKER, by Ray Morand

Work began or continued on the following print books this week:

SNIPER ON THE ROOF, by Warren Graffeo
LAST STOP FREEDOM, by Anne Heinz
PORTALS, by Eleanor Cross

Authors who have not looked at final galleys before going to print, and are thiiiis close but won't send an okay!!

COLLECTED STORIES OF VICTOR URIBE, byVictor Uribe
A GRANDFATHER'S GIFT, by Hugh Vinson

Best NOOK sellers for Write Words in February!

1. All four of Elizabeth Eagan-Cox's Ghost books did well, with
GHOST AT STALLION'S GATE, selling the most.

2. MYSTIC FIRE, by Monette Bebow-Reinhard

3. A MEDIC IN IRAQ, by Cole Bolchoz

4. FELLING OF THE SONS, by Monette Bebow-Reinhard

5. A FRIGHT OF GHOSTS, by Helen Chappell

Am I too nice to my characters? -- writing tip

Question: My writers' group keeps saying I'm "too nice to my characters." What are they talking about? I like my characters and want other people to like them, too. So what's wrong if, on her way to being arrested for a murder she didn't commit, my character goes shopping and buys a dynamite dress? Why shouldn't nice things happen to characters in a story, too? Why shouldn't she be wearing a great dress when the cop who will later be the love interest slaps the handcuffs on her?

Answer: Nice things don't happen to people in stories, because nice things make for boring stories. Stories are about people who meet a challenge, people who strive toward something, people who are in danger of losing whatever they want most. If there's no suspense about the outcome, there's no story.

Instead of what she wears to be arrested in, you might want to concentrate more on what she's thinking and feeling at that moment. Did she know the deceased? Hate him? Wish he was dead, but someone else got to him first? Is she worried about why the cops will think she did it?

That can be hard to do, especially if you like your characters. You want them to be happy. Because of their active imaginations, most writers have lived a rich fantasy life. But fantasies are about happy events. Stories are about bad things happening to good people.

My good friend, Carla Neggers, says that you create a character, then you put them in a big hole and throw dirt in on them. Every time they try to climb out of the hole (solve one problem), you throw more dirt (give them another challenge to meet), until the arrival of what Carla calls the "big gloom" when it appears to your reader that there is no happy solution available to your character at all.

It's a hard fact, but true, that "What's bad for the protagonist is good for the story."

This is hard for all writers. We create our characters and in many ways they are a part of us. It's hard to throw dirt. We want to make everything all right for them. I had a student once who wrote a western story where the heroine was tied to the railroad tracks -- a suspenseful, if trite plot turn. The hero was riding to the rescue. The train was coming. The heroine was screaming. And the train ran out of coal and lost it's head of steam. Then the hero came and untied her. When I asked my student why she had the train run out of coal, she said, "Well, I didn't want it to run over her, in case he didn't get there in time."

But it is the possibility that he won't get there in time that keeps the reader on the edge-of-the-chair and involved in what's happening in your story.

After that, comes the resolution. Either the character will succeed, or not. Either way, the situation is resolved and the story is over.