Short Story 9 - The Socialite

First off, I take this [belated] opportunity to wish you the very best in 2012. I'll just reiterate what I shared on The Walkabout regarding believing and persisting in the new year, as you work towards your stated goals.

Speaking of goals, resolutions are largely made up of these. The same post in the Walkabout links to a STOP DOING LIST by Jim Collins, which is in his opinion is the best new year resolutions you can make.
An opinion I agree with, to a large extent.

That said, today's post is about my ninth short story in the Counting Down the Days book, fast heading towards final touches and subsequent publishing.
Other short stories in this collection, which we have so far highlighted, are: The Right to Remain Silent, Networking or not working, The Dilemma, Power to the People, Counting Down the Days, Nothing and The Vigilante and Daughters of Eve.

The Socialite

Lying on the floor, under Alice's bed, is a brand new, razor blade. It remains unused, and continues to accumulate dust on the cold, tiled floor.

Until now.

Alice is the typical go-happy girl who smiles at all and sundry, and is kind to friend and foe alike. She has an impressive following on Twitter, and manages to engage with a majority of her followers. She is very active on Facebook, with daily witty, funny status updates that her friends look forward to reading and commenting on. On Google+ she is the darling of those who have added her to their circles. They invariably look forward to hangouts with her...

And hanging out she does. Beyond chatting online, Alice has time to party and attend many social gatherings. She is self employed, working in the online marketing and advertising field. With a flexible schedule and working hours, she can manage all the time.

Alice relishes safety in numbers, but that is not her choice. One on one meet-ups are her biggest fear, and those unfortunate enough to meet her alone never get to say anything about the other Alice that no one knows.

Elijah is in Alice's bedroom, making love to her...


My Current Reads




Towards year end, I started reading Sidney Sheldon's Tell Me Your Dreams. It is the fascinating story of Ashley Patterson, whose alter ego murders five men who romantically get involved with her.

It is a great book, fast paced as usual with the usual courtroom drama you come to expect from Sidney Sheldon.

I haven't finished reading it however, thanks to distractions during the recent holidays, a great deal of Internet reads [especially the International Herald Tribune magazine 2011 Global Edition] and another novel I started reading.

I happen to have started reading Dan Brown's Deception Point. Initially, I thought I hadn't read it all, I now realize I did while using a different laptop way back in 2008.
I never managed to transfer the PDF file to my current laptop, but having started it, I have decided to read yet again, the entire eBook.
Afterwards, I'll read the other Dan Brown novels I have in my eLibrary.


Have a great mid-week guys!
:)

Insights into Character Creation & Development

As I write stories for my upcoming Counting Down the Days book, I find myself in a continuous search for what makes a good story. This post is a follow-up post to this one on believable characters in any fictional work.

For characters to be believable, the author needs to know each and every one of them in a very personal way. How they behave, their looks, their thoughts and pretty much everything else about them.

One of the most effective ways of achieving this is through the use of a character questionnaire. It is by asking questions about your characters that you gain full understanding of everything about them.
There are two notable character questionnaires that any writer can use. Others exist, and the following can be tweaked to better address your kind of writing.
You may also want to have a look at this 30-question character questionnaire.

Quetionnaire 1
This one is from Gotham's Writers' Writing Fiction Workshop.

Down the character questionnaire here [.doc 24.5KB]

Questionnaire 2
This questionnaire is available thanks to French author Marcel Proust. It is worth noting that these questions are frequently used during interviews.

Download the character questionnaire here [.doc 26KB]

In other news, reading a lot, much more than you write is necessary for any writer. In this regard, I have come across the following Writes for All compilation that was published in May 2011. It features wonderful short stories from talented emerging writers.

Until the next insights in our Creative Writing insights series, do have a great reading and writing.
Cheers :)

Top 10 Fiction Writing Tips

It is no secret that I prefer to read stuff online. Or in digital formats [eBooks, eMagazines, eNewspapers et al] while offline.

Fiction Writing
Following are top 10 fiction writing tips generously shared by Rowdy Rhodes.

In a nutshell:

1. Poor writing is not bad
2. Why do your characters exsist?
3. Writers bleed into their stories
4. Cliches and stereotypes
5. Character descriptions and traits
6. Work on your dialogue
7. Read, read, read
8. Be thick skinned
9. First drafts
10. Have fun writing.

Hope you ;like the document above and the tips therein.
:)