Story Competition

Can you write a story about time travel in less than two weeks? Would you like an amazon gift voucher? Then you need to go to Indie Writers Monthly Blogspot for details of their competition.

The competition closes on 15th June. Good luck if you go in for it!

Not Editing!

Yesterday I started with "It was the longest day she could remember" and got a space story. Today I wrote a story about the dangers of crocheted socks. I wonder what tomorrow's story will be.

Free book

Simon Kewin, of #1 Writing Tip fame, is making one of his stories available free for this month. Just pop over to his blog and read all about it.

I got my ePub copy on Smashwords and it is only $0.99 full price but if you use the code Simon gives on his blog, you can get it free. I've read other of his short stories and enjoyed them so it's definitely worth a look.

Extinct stories

In case you missed it, Phoenix Sullivan is calling for submissions for an anthology called Extinct doesn't mean forever.

I first met Phoenix on Evil Editor and she's now so good at critiquing query letters that she has her own blog for people to submit revised queries to, after Evil Editor has done his worst. Now here she is branching out into publishing!

The deadline for stories is the end of January, and it's a paying proposition. You might want to pop across and take a look.

First Contact

For those of us interested in science fiction, I wrote in a previous post about the problems of talking to aliens. How could we communicate with beings so vastly different from us? Most of us have enough problems understanding someone from France or Russia.

A lot of people seem to think that drawing and maths are key. I recently came across this article which makes some interesting suggestions.

I'm not convinced that even simple drawings would be understood across such a vast cultural gulf. Suppose the aliens "see" by echolocation? But if we're writing stories we have to assume a lot of commonalities or there would be nothing to tell. Or would there?
 

Secret

I've got a couple of short stories on the go at the moment but I can't talk about them. As soon as I tell you what I'm writing I'll lose impetus and stop.

I've lost track of the number of stories I've started. It's possible that telling someone about my work in progress isn't the problem. Maybe keeping my writing secret is like touching a rabbit's foot for luck, and what I really need to do is to get the end of the story clear in my head before I start so I don't get bogged down in the middle.

Even so, I'm not going to tell you what I'm working on till it's a lot further on than it is now. I need all the help I can get.

That's my theory today. I may change my mind next week!

Do you keep your writing secret?

More About Endings

I was Stumbling around and came across a page on Endings - which is about endings in science fiction series. The author made a point about the emotion generated at the end of a series which I think also applies to any story: whether book, film or tv series.

Happy or sad is good. Disappointed, angry or indifferent is bad.

I must admit that I prefer happy to sad but the other feelings are in a different category. Anything that comes under the heading 'unsatisfied' can spoil the whole story for me.

Satisfying story endings that I have come across recently include Son of Rambow, which I saw last night. It was a very enjoyable film and the ending felt satisfying. If it hadn't, for me it would have spoilt the entire film.

Bedtime Stories

I'm guessing that anyone who has children has at some time told them bedtime stories and I was no different when my boys were young. I do wonder though what kind of training that gives us if we later want to get into professional fiction writing.

I'll take my own stories as an example. It was bedtime, my sons needed settling down and I didn't want them to have bad dreams. So I told them stories about the Tooth Fairy and her wonderful castle. I had memories of Enid Blyton stories as I spun a tale about my two boys visiting a wonderful land and having feasts of sausages and jelly and ice cream.

There was no tension, no plot and not even any very funny jokes: I didn't want to get them all stirred up before sleeping. (My Beloved had other ideas and used leave them rolling with laughter at tales of Humphrey Wobblebottom but that is another story altogether.) My stories were guaranteed to have the listeners dropping off to sleep. What kind of a preparation is that for fiction writing?

High Tech Storytelling

The 21 Steps is an experiment in telling stories using Google maps. At each location in the story a Google flag appears with an information panel giving the next part of the story. The reader clicks on the panel to move the story on.

It's intriguing to watch the journey as the narrator travels around London and further afield. Sometimes the journey drags a little and it isn't the best story I've ever read. It's more like the plot for a point-and-click adventure game. The medium is innovative and Six to Start have got more stories planned, using different media.

I love all forms of storytelling including adventure games. The Longest Journey and The Dig are personal favourites and they are basically interactive stories.

I can't see electronic technology taking over from the basic paperback book. It fits in a handbag, it's silent and you can take it anywhere. Unless epaper really takes off and we have epaperbacks to sling into our pockets.