The period, meaning the dot at the end of a sentence, is a pretty straightforward piece of punctuation. After all, it just comes at the end of a sentence, right? This is true, although it can be used a little differently sometimes in fiction writing. At the End of a Sentence There are five ways…
Typical First Date
Typical First Date The moon sparkled off the pond like the flash of a thousand smiles. It made me nervous, like a crowd was watching me. I pushed the box into the river and watched it bob away. Everything was inside: the bloody knife, the drop sheets, and the towel I used to clean up….
Hotel Limbo
Hotel Limbo At least two of the hotel’s 4 stars must have been photoshopped. Towels worn, dirty bathroom, shampoo bottles refilled. I sat on the bed, frantically searching flights. I had 36 hours to travel 2700 miles across Central Asia to make my next connection after my last flight had been cancelled. COVID Ugh, I’d…
Muse on Monday – April 4, 2022
Personally, I love the idea of doors, tunnels, and portals. They lead somewhere else, either to an actual magical other world, like Narnia, or maybe just to a whole new experience. They are a great inspiration for stories since stories are all about moving from one state to another: leaving here and going there, whatever…
Writing Corner: Exposition
Stories don’t happen in a vacuum. Conflict might be the seed of a story, but the story has to planted somewhere and be about something. We want to make sure the reader understands the ideas in the story. This is where we have to guess what they already know. We might assume the reader could…
Raiding the Trophy Case
Raiding the Trophy Case You need shoes fast. You have no money. There is only one option left. The Trophy Case. That’s where Devin shows off the footwear of all his victims. No one would ever think about stealing from Devin. But you’re thinking about it now. You’ll need a distraction. Devin parks his Mustang…
Muse on Monday – March 28, 2022
Stories are built on conflict and a lot of the conflict in life is built on either a lack of information or having the wrong information. Arguably, having the wrong information and thinking it is right is worse and so provides more conflict. Think about a love story where a misunderstanding drives the two love…
Writing Corner: Swearing
Today I’m going to talk about using swearing in your writing. Swearing as an idea is not very well defined but I am going to use it to mean any words that are crude, religiously profane, graphic, or sexual. Books are not usually rated, but movies are so we can think of swearing as anything…
The Tourist
This is a Friday Fictioneer story. That is a weekly writing prompt where you have to write a 100-word story based on a picture. The moderator, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields posts it on her site every Wednesday. Here is this week’s picture. The Tourist Through long wanderings in time and space, she at last made her way,…
Water is Self
Water is Self Olivia stepped into the small restaurant, letting the sound of Korean conversation wash over her. Everything was so wonderfully exotic. Finally, after years of planning she had made it to Korea. COVID had given her plenty of time to do her research. She had always loved K-pop and she devoured every new…
The Green-Walled Treehouse 