Alexandra's World vs. Christina's World

Alexandra experience grass for the first time recently. After luxuriating in the texture, she looked longingly at her brother, scampering about the lawn.

 

 Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World immediately came to mind.

Christina's World is in the style of magic realism. Something about my kids that day made me feel they were, too.

Writer's Wednesday: Short Story Pointers

Edgar Allan Poe is considered the father of the American short story. The man knew how to tell a creepy tale.

I've taught short stories--both studying them and writing them. The most effective way to learn about short stories is considering Poe's rules. 

Here are a few that will help you create a better short story.

• The story can be read in one sitting.
• The story focuses on one element: plot, character, theme, setting, etc.
• Limit the number of characters.
• Confine to a single setting.
• Follow structure: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement. (Most of the story leads to climax.  The falling action and denouement can be a paragraph or even a couple of lines.)

***Most importantly, each word or phrase is present to create a single effect/mood/emotion in the reader.

Follow these rules and you might even make Poe proud.

Go ahead and enter it in a contest. OWFI is accepting entries until February 1.

Journal: setting and mood

Setting and mood have a lot to do with a scene. Consider a birthday party, for example.

Now consider a birthday at a zoo.
And a birthday in a hospital room.

See? Different.

Journal: Write two scenes using the same premise, but experiment with setting and mood. Use my example if you like.