Writing Short Stories

Recently I have been working on my story for my portfolio to apply to grad school. I have this story, I am part a group who does weekly writing prompts, and I try to utilize the prompts into my story. I am an avid reader and lover of Virginia Woolf. I adore her writing style and with my own writing have adapted a few techniques frequently used during her writing period.

My story has gaps. I have chapters that could or could not go together. Recently though I thought maybe I need to go backwards in the story and tell how my character got to where she was at currently, so with that in mind I started in her childhood. I did not start with her being born, but at the first time she remembered magic.

Here is part of the story:

Melanie’s first remembrance of something magical happening was when she was four years old.

She was out with her mother grocery shopping and she felt agitated at not getting what she wanted at the store checkout. She remembers thinking she should throw a fit to get what she wanted; she closed her eyes, and in a moment reopened her eyes and saw that everyone except her mother and her were frozen in time. Her mother got down close to her face and gently said “You cannot have everything you want in life. Things do not make people happy, love does. She hugged her daughter tight and in a split second of being in her mother’s arms she released time and let everyone go back to normal.

The rest can be found here: Melanie's Story

I realize writing is important and if I ever want to try and turn these into a book I needed to first bring my readers into her past. I will do another part, part 2, of her life, but for now I feel this part is a good start. I will next probably jump to somewhere in the teenage years. Learning what is not important and what to leave out is a challenge every writer faces. Recently while reading a book, the author put something like, And she did not know him, even though they met as children, but she had since moved away and could not think who he was in her past.  Now some of that might seem misplaced in the story, but the author told it to let us know more what the character is thinking then who this character knew. Sometimes the extra sentence is worth it. Sometime it is not and it is up to us authors to figure out what to include and what to leave out. 

So now as writers we are the magicians of our story and so I an including your next writing prompt:

Think about what you see. Think about the light, the mood, the day that perhaps happened to bring this scene about. Have fun writing and I hope you all are doing super!! If not I am here if you need some help or advice in your writing journeys.

Your story teller/Poet
Debbie
xoxoxo