Short Stories

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   Jessie L Watsonposted 6 years ago

   Sometimes I burn myself out drawing inside the lines of science. I need to exercise my creative side. I seem to get blasted with really great sci/fi fantasy ideas in the shower, at the gym, before bed... but never see myself having the motivation to sit and write an entire novel. Instead I might try writing 10-20 page short stories in PDF format and waiting until I have a large enough collection to publish. Part of this was influenced by my love for the TV series "The Outer Limits" and "The Twilight Zone". 
   
   Now if I could just get done with everything else I'm working on...
   
   

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   1. 81

      snakeslaneposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Do not adjust your set!
      https://youtu.be/4sDOwbYnvP4
      https://youtu.be/-b5aW08ivHU

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      1. 60

         Jessie L Watsonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Total nostalgia.

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   2. 0

      Dabby Lyricposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Hello Jessie,
      
      I hear ya!  I bit the bullet and started re-writing an original fictional work several months back. I'm now on Chapter 27 lol!  It's a great accomplishment for me eventhough I don't consider myself a great writer.  I've a handful of shorts that I have to dedicate myself to and get at it.
      
      You can do it, just takes time...which is a big one.  Getting that first word down is hard too.  Keep at it till you get it!

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         Jessie L Watsonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Congrats! Keep going. Share if possible.

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   Dabby Lyricposted 6 years ago

   Thanks!  I plan to once I remove it from another site first.

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3. 96

   EricFarmer8xposted 6 years ago

   I like writing blog posts, articles, and Hubs but I never tried to write a story. It is something I have thought at least trying once.

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      Jessie L Watsonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      It's a good exercise. Especially poetry.

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4. 96

   Gregory DeVictorposted 6 years ago

   I have never tried to write a short story. The closest I ever came to it was alluding to personal experiences in a hub about Erie, PA that I wrote recently. The hub is officially finished and I am glad to be rid of it.

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   1. 60

      Jessie L Watsonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Glad to be rid of it as in: it was therapeutic to talk about something personal?

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5. 81

   snakeslaneposted 6 years ago

   Short Story is a fairly simple format. There are some masters that are good to read for clues. Too many to mention except for the obvious. The Russians Chekov and Dostoyefsky I would suggest.

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   1. 60

      Jessie L Watsonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Do you mean the Brothers Karamazov? And I also have Dostoevskys 'Notes from the Underground' on PDF. Probably one of the greatest literary figures in history.

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         snakeslaneposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Yeah, I was thinking more of their short stories. Good stuff for any aspiring writer to explore.

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         1. 81

            snakeslaneposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            Sorry Jessie, I wasn't very clear with that. I should have said the Russian writers Anton Chekhov and Fyodor Dostoevsky,  my bad. And I usually get the spelling wrong with the Russian names too, (although they often have more than one spelling

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            1. 60

               Jessie L Watsonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               Ohhh! I heard a little about Chekhov a few months ago on a Literary Theory lecture from Yale.  Beautiful.
               
               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS22f07a2MY&t=2462s

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                  snakeslaneposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks for the link, I couldn't hear most of what he was saying, a speaker issue on my end maybe. Was he discussing Chekhov?

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                  1. 60

                     Jessie L Watsonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                     00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction
                     01:52 - Chapter 2. Anton Chekhov and Henry James
                     11:26 - Chapter 3. Author and Authority
                     19:36 - Chapter 4. "The Founders of Discursivity"
                     28:20 - Chapter 5. Critique of the "Author Function"
                     
                     There's also a closed captioning option. I usually get bored after he gets to Michelle Foucault and Jacques Derrida. Post modern criticisms are just dreadfully conceited and irrational.

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                        snakeslaneposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                        I will take your word for it.
                        Back to Chekhov:
                        http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/article … -character

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            2. 60

               Jessie L Watsonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               Professor Fry quotes from a play scrip of Chekhov and Henry James...
               
               "[Life is] at best a tin mold either fluted or embossed with ornamental excrescences or else smooth and dreadfully plain, into which, a helpless jelly one's consciousness is poured so that one takes the from and is more or less compactly held by it. One lives, in fine, as one can"
               
               I found this compelling because I'm a big fan of Oscar Wilde. A similar yet delightfully engaging use of language.

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6. 91

   poppyrposted 6 years ago

   Jessie, I’m exactly the same. Every spare moment I have to write I’m working on articles because they make me money and my day job pays peanuts.
   
   I used to write thousands of words a day as a teenager and had three books published at one point.
   
   Now I have a short story that’s been in the works for months because every time I get into my laptop, it’s to reach the article number count. It’s a shame.

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   1. 60

      Jessie L Watsonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      And this is what we've been reduced to haha. The time has come to revivify the imaginative spirit of our youth.

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7. 60

   Jessie L Watsonposted 6 years ago

   Interesting. Thank you

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