God, I hate people who think they're too good for challenges like NaNoWriMo and StoryADay and that these challenges are actively damaging writers. Newsflash: not everyone writes like you. And, no, these challenges do not teach writers that a more careful approach to writing and then taking a lot of time to edit is bad. It's that these challenges in particular are not focussed on that. These are focussed on getting words on the page. I'm very new to StoryADay, but NaNoWriMo actively tells people you'll need to edit afterwords if you want to do something further with your work. (And not everyone wants to - and that's okay!) That's just not what the challenge itself is about. It's for people who otherwise don't think they have time or just need a kick in the pants to get things written. Remember how you can't edit an empty page? Yeah.
I know I’m late in mentioning this, but StoryADay May has started, and I thought I’d mention it in case any of my followers who write are interested.
It’s a month-long writing event geared toward short stories, with a goal of writing a short story draft for every day of May. The great part (and the reason that I like it better than Nanowrimo) is that there’s no word count goal. Your story could be 5,000 words or 500 words or 50 words; as long as your story is a complete draft of a piece of fiction, you’ve met the daily goal. Which means that it can be relatively easy to catch up if you’re five days behind (as I am).
There’s a website here that provides prompts for each day (which are 100% optional), and they also have a podcast. Here’s a link to an episode about flash fiction. It’s kind of long (ironically), but it introduced me to a lot of exciting new ideas of what a short story can be, which is super helpful for getting enthusiasm for a lot of new ideas.
Anyhow, I got 2.5 stories drafted today, and I’m excited to see what the rest of the month can bring. (And if anyone’s interested in playing along, please let me know, because I want more people to join in on the fun).
Another round of little robots out, swimming around in and near the Kavachi underwater volcano. Of course, the usual sharks could be found swimming about, but it was a particular shark that stuck out to them.
He had the shark's tail like the rest of them, but the top half more similar to a man. There were crude gray scales across his human-like features, giving his skin a rugged appearance. His fingers and ears were webbed and surprisingly smooth, and gills were visible along his throat. He had seaweed-like hair that seemed to go no further than his shoulders, and a mouthful of viciously sharp teeth.
His black eyes struck fear into the hearts of those who discovered him. Some believed he was a monster to be slain, others wanted to make contact and see if they could discover his language.
From the lab, they would wait. Watching from computer screens, they guided their robots to find him again, and carefully coaxed him closer to a microphone. They learned he seemed to only communicate in a series of grunts and growls, or at least that's all they could figure out before their device was promptly eaten. (Or at least, so they thought, until the remains washed up on shore later.)
"He's still a shark!" Many argued in his defense, while others were frustrated and hesitant to consider it something that could be or could become "civilized".
In the end, they made another attempt. This time, they would try a hologram of a person reciting a basic alphabet; see if he could learn.
Through the burning orange glow, they found him again. They watched as he curiously studied the hologram, waving a hand in front of it, circling around the robot. And in the next moment, this discovery proved that there was much more to him than just a shark man.
"Hello?" His rough voice called out. He waved a hand in front of the hologram again. As the scientists on the other side were going wild with theories and excitement, he called again. "Hello?"
When the hologram could not respond to his words, he once again tore the device to shreds.
Word was abuzz about this strange creature. The public was hungry for knowledge about it. While scientists were debating on the creature's scientific name, the internet was more than eager to give it a personal name, at least until the creature might reveal its own if it had one.
Some referred to him after the geography of his home region; "Solomon", or "Kavachi" especially for those who believed he may be a god. Others went a more scientific angle, and wanted to perhaps give him a nickname depending on what genus of shark he was, or at least the half of him that was. There was also a large portion that thought it was disrespectful to give it a name, and be patient until it confirmed or denied having one already.
But that internet war was far in the past. It had been a year since then, and the reigning name ended up being the same as the creature's dwelling; Kavachi.
Ethan was the chosen one from their team to monitor Kavachi, occasionally checking on him through the robot's cameras, his brown eyes flicking around from monitor to monitor. Sometimes he even had the honor of speaking to him since they added two-way communication to the bots.
The merman had returned from bluer waters back into the volcano, encapsulated by its orange light. It was both a menacing and beautiful sight. Kavachi's hair elegantly swayed with each movement as he swam back to his habitat. "Scientist?" He called, his voice gruff.
"Yes?!" The curly-haired man flung his feet off the desk and sat up straight.
"Who am I speaking to?"
"Ethan."
"Ethan...yes, I remember your voice."
From the other side, his cheeks flushed, though he only felt mild shame for it, "Y-You remember me?"
"I do. I remember this is Ethan's voice."
"Oh, cool…" He responded, but then cleared his throat, "Erm...did you need something?"
"It's lonely. I just wanted to talk."
"What did you want to talk about?"
"Anything."
"Okay. Um…" Ethan wracked his brain. What could a fish man in a volcano hold a conversation about? It's not like his life was anywhere near similar to the scientists', or the rest of humanity in general. "Uh...have any tourists been bothering you?"
"Most are afraid of me since I drown them," he answered, sending a wave of uneasiness through his conversation partner, "but the locals are kind. They've been visiting and helping me learn your cultures faster than I could on my own, even after a few hundred years."
"Well...that's...good then."
"Are you still doing research?"
"Yes, it's my job," Ethan answered a bit awkwardly.
"What are you trying to learn?"
"About you, and where you live, and how you live there."
"I have answered your questions already."
"Well...we still need to see it. And we don't want to ruin your home or anything."
The merman scoffed, "The outsiders seem to not care. Why do you?" His shark-like tail flicked about, propelling him through the turbid orange water. Though the temperature grew hotter from Ethan's readings, Kavachi was unfazed by it. He merely continued on his way, searing water flowing around the protective lids over his eyes.
"Well, our job is to research, not destroy."
"I see…"
[This is currently where the story ends. But, a side note:]
(So I wanted to translate Kavachi’s dialogue into Pijin, but I realized it would take more time than I was willing to devote at the time I wrote this, so I kinda gave up on it for now. I might try to go back to it later if I remember, but know that I imagine Kavachi would likely speak a common language of the Solomon Islands based on what he’s picked up here and there from watching people from a distance.)
Case 4213-1: Suspected Interaction with SCP-004-14.
Note: Coincides with date of Case 3901: Perceived Disappearance of SCP-004-14. Code blue incident—no civilians seem to have any harm done and the only recollections are that of Subjects 9102 and 9103. This account is written by Subject 9102.
The first weird thing I remember is probably the one that happened…it would have been sometime in early July. I’m going to guess sometime between the fifth and the sixth; they blur together during night shifts. It was a fairly quiet night, which was really nice, since I think I’d just gotten over the initial shock about the tentacle. The first time I saw it, Rob, the janitor, had to make sure I didn’t scream bloody murder and tip the customers off that something weird was going on. Now, it feels weird that I was that scared of it—I mean, it’s never hurt anyone, it just likes to explore, but…that was years ago, and I was less indoctrinated to whatever went on in Tommy’s.
I’d also sort of learned that sometimes, time wasn’t what we thought it was. I’d only been there about a couple weeks, and I’d already experienced the…surreal sensation of time getting soft around the edges. It wasn’t…wrong, exactly, it just wasn’t right either. It tended to happen around three, I think I noted that before. But it was only around midnight when the guy came in with the box. Marion was the one who seated him, and I remember her pulling me aside and whispering, “Keep an eye on him, I’ve got a bad feeling.” It had only been a couple weeks, but I learned that Marion’s ‘bad feelings’ were pretty much gospel. Even now, I can’t remember one time where one of her ‘bad feelings’ didn’t lead to something happening that’s incomprehensible at best. So I kept a close eye on him, and just after I took his drink order, I noticed the box,
At first, I’d thought it was a briefcase, but when I saw it more clearly, I could tell that it wasn’t. For one, it was too big to be a briefcase, and it was more squarish than rectangular. And for another, it had a lock on it. It wasn’t one of the tiny combination locks that you’d expect to see on a briefcase, it was a big, ancient-looking thing that seemed like it would take a pretty big key. Definitely not the type of thing you’d bring to a diner. When I asked what he’d like to order, he seemed vacant. I got the sense that he was taking a long time to answer, but then something sprung back into place, and without me registering it, I’d written down his order and headed to the kitchen.
After what felt like an eternity and a moment all at once, I was bringing his food back to him, setting it down, and he stared ahead, catatonic. Then he was eating. Then, slowness. It was almost like someone couldn’t decide whether to fast-forward or slow down a movie scene—I didn’t feel like I was living it, but I must have been, since the order got taken. Marion said she didn’t notice any strangeness in what I was doing, but she did tell me that she knew something wasn’t right and had been keeping an eye on me. I swear, that old lady is the reason I’m here right now. Especially because of what happened after the guy left.
Weird time stuff aside, he ate, paid, and left. It all seemed fine. But when I went to bus the table and see if he’d left a tip, I noticed he left the box too. I mean, it was right in the middle of the table—how could he have LEFT it? It looked perfectly deliberate; it was sitting exactly in the table’s center, with a large key in front of it, pointing to the lock. It was begging me to open the box. I knew that it was.
This is where I can’t really tell what I actually remember and what Marion told me, so take it with a grain of salt, but apparently I had picked up the key and almost opened the box, but Marion smacked it out of my hand and pulled me to the back. “Absolutely not,” she hissed. “That box isn’t right, and it’ll be a cold day in hell before I let you get us all killed or worse.” I can’t remember how I responded or anything—I probably just nodded. Marion wanted to call the manager and ask him how to respond to something like this, since we didn’t have any identifying information about the customer (he’d paid in cash). But when she went to go look at the box to get a basic description, it wasn’t there.
We’d both sworn it was there, we knew we saw it, but there was no way to prove it. We only had one security camera at the time and it was pointed at the hostess’ stand. Besides, we didn’t have access, and it was always grainy and cutting in and out. It was about as helpful as a fan in the Arctic on a good day, so it wasn’t like we could check that. But we both knew—or thought we knew—that it had been there. It was unsettling, strange. It put us on edge and gave us this impending sense that something had just gotten shifted around in the world, and now nothing was right.
Author Interview: Jerry Spinelli on How to Start a Story
We’re partnering with StoryADay for Short Story Month this May, the perfect opportunity to track a new NaNoWriMo goal, or start a new Young Writers Program personal challenge. Today, Newbery Award author Jerry Spinelli shares advice to questions from Julie Duffy at StoryADay:
Q: How do I decide what to write about?
A: Ask yourself "What do I care about?" In fact, make a list of five or ten things. There’s your start.
Q: But all I know is my family and my town. All I do is go to school and hang out with my friends and play a sport. Is that enough to write stories about? Don’t I have to have had real adventures?
A: That’s all you need to know. Every human life is an adventure. That person sitting across from you is a walking, breathing story, even if he or she doesn’t know it. Your job starts long before hitting the keyboard. At this point your job description has only two words: Pay attention. Get out of yourself and into everybody and everything else. Find a place at night where light pollution is minimal. Look up… look up, dissolve yourself into the universe and wonder. Every good writer is a terrific wonderer.
Q: What if I don’t really know how to go about writing a story?
A: Start by writing story elements. Just a few lines, a half-page. A dialog between two kids arguing here, a description of an abandoned dog there. Stories are patchwork quilts you stitch together with words. And this: read. Read. Read. Read.
Q: How can I made readers care about my story and my characters?
A: By caring about them yourself. Pour that caring, that paying attention, into your story and they will care.
Writing Dare from Jerry Spinelli
Play a game one day. Call it Seed Day. Spend the day paying attention. Try to see, try to feel a little deeper than everyone else seems to be doing. At the end of the day identify at least one thing that you suspect was noticed by nobody but you. That’s your story seed. Now one more thing. Ask yourself: Does this touch my heart? If it does, that’s the water. OK, you’re ready... write!
Jerry Spinelli is a Newbery Award author. Spinelli’s hilarious books entertain both children and young adults. Readers see his life in his autobiography “Knots in My Yo-Yo String”, as well as in his fiction. Crash came out of his desire to include the beloved Penn Relays of his home state of Pennsylvania in a book, while Maniac Magee is set in a fictional town based on his own hometown, Norristown, PA.
Julie Duffy is a writer and the host of StoryADay.org – a creative writing challenge that happens each May (and yes, you’re invited). She writes articles and courses to help other writers get their creative groove on, and speaks to writers’ groups and conferences about creativity, short story writing, self- and e-publishing, and social media.
Ngumiti ako at tumingin kay Andrew at sabay tingin sa orasan sigurado ako na nan duon na si Aling Marisa sa kainan para mag bigay ng maiinit ng kape at pagkain. ‘Halik Andrew baba tayo sa tagpuan’ sabi ko sabay tayo at bitbit ng aking telepono at manuscript ni Clive, matagal na akong editor ng libro ngunit ngayon lang ako nakakilala ng manunulat na puno kathang-isip na binase ang knayang mga tauhan sa mga totoong mga kwento.
Ilang lakad pa napadpad na din kami sa tagpuan kung saan madalas kumain ang mga nag tatrabaho sa kumpanya. Pumunta ako sa counter at humingi kay aling Marisa ng sisig na may kanin habang si Andrew naman ay mas pinili na lang ang adobo, gabi na at iilan na lang kami sa loob ng gusaling ito. Madalas ko itong gawin kapag malapit na mag alas dose ng gabi lagi akong kakain sa tagpuan mag isa o kaya minsan kasama ang isa pang editor na si Helen na kasalukuyang naka sick leave.
Ngunit ngayon iba ang pakiramdam ko. Hindi normal na si Andrew ang kaharap ko ngayon sa madalas kong upuang lamesa, Alam ko sa sarili ko na gumagawa lang ako ng dahilan para hindi ko masilip ang kaba na nararamdaman ng puso ko ngayon. Huminga ako at bago ko pa man mailabas ang hangin sa aking ilong nag salita na si Andrew ‘So sis tell me the story yung extended version’
Katahimikan ang bumalot sa amin pero agad din itong nabawi nuong nilapag na ni Aling Marisa ang pagkain namin. ‘Alam mo hindi madali para sa akin ito’ sabi ko sabay subo ng aking kutsara na may sisig at kanin. Ngumiti si Andrew at alma kong hindi siya tatanggap ng hindi.
Huminga ako ng malalim at nag simula ng mag kwento. High school na ako nung nakilala ko si Janville we’re actually close friends that turns to be fuck buddies. Hindi naman ako pala ayos at boyish talaga ako, madalas kong kasama ang tatlong lalaking nag ngangalang Gerald,Vincent at Janville. Kaming tatlo ang mag kaka tropa at dahil dito mas napalapit ako kay Janville.
Kada sasapit ang alas-kwatro ng hapon pag sapit ng uwiaan mag kikita kami sa aming tagpuan at duon mangyayari ang mapupusok na sandali ng aming kabataan. Ang mga labing sabik na sabik na lumalapat sa aking mga labi na tila ba para akong inaanyaya na ipaubaya ko na lang sa kanya ang lahat. Halos araw-araw itong nangyayari, wala namang masama kung wala naman talagang dapat maramdaman.
Pero katulad nga ng sabi nila nasa huli ang pag sisi. Ika-dalawampu’t siyaw nuong pebrero 2016 nag desisyon akong itigil na ang pag kakamaling ito. At dito ko na siya madalas na iwasan, nag tataka si Gerald at Vincent ngunit hindi namin sila kinikibo dahil alam naming isang malaking lihim lamang ang mabubunyag. Dumaan ang mga araw na iniiwasan ko na ang tumabi,lumapit at makipag-usap sa kanya, pikit mata ko siyang tinataboy nag babaka sakaling mawala ang nararamdaman ko sa kanya.
Ngunit hindi pala ganun kadaling tuluyang mawalan ng pake sa kanya, hindi ko maiwasan ang pag titig sa kanyang bawat galaw at kung titingin man siya sa direksyon ko agad ko din babawiin ang aking tingin.
Kaya’t napag desisyunan ko na bago kami tuluyan nang mag hiwalay ng landas dahil sa nalalapit nanaman ang aming pagtatapos ng high school, napag desisyunan ko na mag tapat ng nararamdaman ko sa kanya.
Bago pa man ako mawala ng tuluyan sa buhay niya. Nag kita ulit kami sa aming tagpuan pero alam ko naman sa sarili ko na ito na ang huli, huminga ako ng malalim hinarap ko siya at duon sinabi ko ang tatlong matamis na salita pero para sa akin napaka pakla neto nung lumabas sa aking bibig. Alam ko nama sa sarili ko na hindi ako yung tipo ng babae na magugustuhan niya sa huli kaya bago pa bumagsak ang luha ko sa aking mga pisngi nagpasya na akong umalis.
Pero hinigit niya ako sa aking braso at mabilis na hinagkan. Tinulak ko siya at tumakbo paalis, simula nung mag practice at maka pagtapos kami hindi na kami muling nag usap pa.
////
Tapos ko na ang aking sisig habang naiwan namang nakatanga sa akin si Andrew ‘ano? ganun lang iyon?!’ malakas na tanong niya sa akin. Ngumisi ako at tumango ‘hindi naman kami nag katuluyan at sa pag kaka alam ko hindi naman ako yung babaeng gusto niya’ sabi ko sabay ngiti kay Andrew na tila ba parang gusto na akong sabunutan.
‘gaga bakit kase di mo pinag salita?’ tanong niya bago pa man uminom ng kanyang kape, mag aalas-onse na ng gabi ang inabot ng dahil lang sa kwentong matagal ko nang kinalimutan pa. ‘Ayoko na kaseng umasa at masaktan’ sabi ko sabay ngiti. ‘dagan mo’ sabi ni Andrew tinaasan ko siya ng kilay at ngumiti
‘Ikaw naman mag kwento’ sabi ko sabay ngiti, ngumiti siya pabalik at sabay hinga ng malalim.
‘sge sabi mo eh’ sabi niya at duon na ulit siya nag simulang mag kwento.
StoryADay starts in two days, and I'm so exctied!! This will be my first time participating after having seen it mention in an issue of Writer's Digest. It's similar to NaNoWriMo, but focused on short stories rather than a single novel. The goal is to write (and finish!) a short story every day durint the month (it runs in both May and September). Optional prompts are posted to the site each day, and going through the archives, I like them, because they're all sorts of different prompts, sometimes more broad, sometimes more specific. I can't wait to get started!!
