Stephen L. Thompson's Blog, page 46

30 Stories in 30 Days #01 – “Figures”

FIGURES

“What the hell?” Tom paused as if giving his laptop a chance to explain. When it didn’t, he continued, “When I click on that file, that means you open it.”

Tom sat back in his chair with a grunt. He swiveled it around to face the window and watched the gentle rain. “Hope it lasts,” he muttered. It had been hot and dry for a couple of weeks, and his yard was on the verge of dying. What it really needed was a long, soaking rain.

Looking back at this laptop, he saw that it was still debatin...

Stephen L. Thompson’s May 2013 Newsletter

Howdy,

Welcome to my electronic newsletter, covering May 2013.

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My publication news for the past month:

Publication of my short story “Four Score and Dear God!” on my Bubblews Profile.

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This month I wrote 5,699 words giving me a yearly total so far of 46,381. To reach my goal of 120,000 words this year, I’ll need to step things up.

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Something that should step things up, is that in June I will once again have my 30 Stories in 30 Days Challenge. For the past week or so, I’ve been feeling...

Wednesday Writing Prompt

I will start with a note. You may have seen in a previous post, that during June I will be attempting to write thirty stories in as many days. It is challenging and time consuming, so I need to limit my other activities, such as putting up a prompt each Wednesday. So this will be the last prompt until July 3rd.

You can read all you want about writing, but the real test is to actually write something. Hence, a short exercise for those of you wanting to hone your craft.

Quick, compose a sentence...

Some advice for writers

(I just posted this on my Bubblews profile, but it could also go here. )

I’m a writer. Mostly of short, science fiction stories, but I dabble in other lengths and genres. A year or so ago, I started on this little bit of advice for writers, but I never got around to polishing it up. I was cleaning up my files on my computer and came across this, and I figured I could polish it up for Bubblews.

I believe the best advice I can give to any writer is the need to expand yourself and your writing....

Another year, another 30 stories?

It’s almost that time again for my self-inflicted insanity. This June will mark my sixth attempt at my 30 Stories in 30 Days Challenge. In case you need it spelled out, this is where I attempt to write thirty stories – most of them very short – within a thirty day period. I’ve succeeded in four of my previous attempts at doing this. In 2011, I only wrote nineteen stories, but I was in the process of moving that month, so give me a break.

As with the last couple of years, the stories will be po...

Wednesday Writing Prompt

You can read all you want about writing, but the real test is to actually write something. Hence, a short exercise for those of you wanting to hone your craft.

Quick, compose a sentence using the words “first” and “new.” Leave it as a comment.

Dream notes

It seems that I get a lot of my ideas for stories when I’m trying to sleep. As such, I keep a small notebook and pen by my bed to jot down my ideas in the hope that come morning, I’ll be able to read my handwriting. But this morning, something different happened. This may have happened before, but I don’t remember if it has or not. Anyway, I had a dream this morning where my family went to some medieval amusement park type place. I don’t remember much, but I do remember at one point I picked...

Wednesday Writing Prompt

You can read all you want about writing, but the real test is to actually write something. Hence, a short exercise for those of you wanting to hone your craft.

Quick, compose a sentence using the words “minutes” and “prompt.” Leave it as a comment.

Rejection

Last night at the meeting for one of the writing groups I’m in, one member had a list of how many times famous authors had been rejected. I do keep track of my submissions, but I had never counted up how many times I’ve had stories rejected. So I just did a quick count, and not counting stories entered for contests or stories I assume were lost, I came up with the following numbers. I have had 48 stories rejected 169 times. That’s interesting, but I guess I should get back to writing.

Wednesday Writing Prompt

You can read all you want about writing, but the real test is to actually write something. Hence, a short exercise for those of you wanting to hone your craft.

Quick, compose a sentence using the words “books” and “windows.” Leave it as a comment.