Monday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

THE SECRET TO WRITING A GREAT SHORT STORY

By: Amanda Patterson

Some of the finest pieces of fiction are short stories. Reading a short story does not take much time, but you may remember it forever. Some of Stephen King and Roald Dahl’s best work is short fiction. My favourite short story is Roald Dahl’s Lamb to the Slaughter.

Because they are short, with a simple dramatic structure, short stories are easily adapted for film. In fact, Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption became The Shawshank Redemption starring Morgan Freeman.

But what is a short story?

The simplest answer is that it is short. It should have an impact and a meaning, and it should be memorable. It is a retelling of an incident and it usually contains:

• a single main character (protagonist)
• a simple plot structure
• a clear beginning, middle, climax and end

There is usually no sub-plot and some of the secondary characters may be one-dimensional.

What makes a great short story?

. . .

Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. January 2015 Author Earnings Report – Author Earnings http://ow.ly/IFVZt
2. Hot Trends in Self Publishing - Bookarma Blog http://ow.ly/IFW6o
3. 9 Ways Writing Short Stories Can Pay Off for WritersWritersDigest.com | WritersDigest.com http://ow.ly/IGDld
4. Capturing the Vile Voice of a Villain - Venture Galleries http://ow.ly/IGDof
5. Beyond Beautiful: The Significance of an Objective Critique | Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction http://ow.ly/IGEcb
6. Reedsy — How To Make Blogging Work As An Author -- An... http://ow.ly/IGEgQ
7. Blood-Red Pencil: Writers Sit Without Back Pain http://ow.ly/IGEjo
8. Writer Unboxed » Six Things Every Writer Needs to Succeed (Psst: MFA is not on this list.) http://ow.ly/IGEmt
9. Branding 101: What’s Your Story? | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://ow.ly/IGEtu
10. Ban Psychics from Your Fiction | Linda S. Clare http://ow.ly/IGEAb
11. He’s a Pinball Wizard http://ow.ly/IGEK7 "... video games are so popular, it’s little wonder that crime-fictional characters play them."
12. Karen Woodward: Three Kinds of Micro Fiction: The Drabble, 55 Fiction and The Twabble http://ow.ly/IGFte
13. The Two BEST Reasons to Fail as a Writer http://ow.ly/IGFIt
14. Basic Elements of Flash Fiction: a Short Fiction Workshop Handout « Flash Fiction Chronicles http://ow.ly/IGFYH
15. Novel Publicity – Money, Money, Money: The Finances of Publishing http://ow.ly/IGG8Z
16. Karen Woodward: A Story Structure In Three Acts: Act Two http://ow.ly/IGHHu
17. Torture your Character - The Three Most Effective Types of Inner Conflict - Writers Write http://ow.ly/IGHNp
18. How to outline a short story for beginners - Writers Write http://ow.ly/IGJyj
19. 10 Reasons to keep a writing journal http://ow.ly/IGKsF
20. The Secret to Writing a Great Short Story - Writers Write http://ow.ly/IGOFI

Happy writing and running, Kathy