The Man with the Ketchup Bottle

The first time I saw him, he was digging ketchup out of a bottle with a knife. I was instantly intrigued by the determined look in his dark brown eyes. The way his thick, dark brows knitted together in such a worrisome manner was enough to make me giggle aloud. There he was sitting alone in the old, beat-up booth made for two, yet he seemed to be completely peaceful in his solitude. As I sat there in my own booth across the diner observing this interesting stranger, he suddenly let out a sigh of satisfaction as a large glob of ketchup fell from the glass bottle onto his hamburger. He gave a wide, toothy smile as he gingerly placed his toasted bun atop his simple burger, appearing to only have meat, lettuce, and of course the ketchup. I couldn’t help but to smile. His happiness with such a small accomplishment made my heart melt a little as I reflected on my own life. How often am I satisfied with something so small? And how often do I expect instant results for my own problems? Do I want a “right here, right now” answer, or am I persistent much like the mysterious man with the ketchup bottle? As I cleared my thoughts, I looked up to see a 20 dollar bill on the table, and an empty booth where the man was sitting just moments ago. This entire observation only took a minute or two, but such an odd yet enlightening experience is one I will not soon forget.

Finish This Story… “An Officer’s Loyalty”

I love taking a topic and getting several different opinions on said topic. It’s so interesting to me to see how different people think, and to see how they interpret things differently. (Hey, that’s what makes the world such an interesting place.) So, I thought it would be fun to come up with a little challenge: I’ve come up with a plot, and I’m writing a short story around that plot, but what I’d like to see my subscribers do is to write their own short story surrounding the same plot. Within the next few days I’ll post my story. I’d love to see how all you guys take the same plot and come up with different aspects of the story!

Here’s your plot:

A Homicide Detective is put on the case of a vicious murder. But when he begins investigating, he discovers that his own brother is the prime suspect. Will the Detective stay loyal to his job, or his own flesh and blood?

Take this story and make it as long short, and detailed as you’d like. Make it completely your own. When you’ve completed the story, you can submit it as a comment, or email it to me at newbiefictionwriter@gmail.com along with your name (or alias) and I’ll submit it here.

I hope you guys will participate in this challenge with me. It is my hope that seeing different perspectives on the same story will help me in my journey to becoming a writer. Thanks!

– Newbie.

“A Man and His Pants” a short story inspired by emojis

 

This short, and rather unrealistic story was inspired by the Emojis above.

In order, these Emojis are a Man, Pants, the Devil, a Plug, an Alien, a Bowling Ball and Pins, and Spaghetti.

A man once lost his pants- his favorite pants. He was so desperate to find them that he made a deal with the devil. The devil told him that the only way to gain back his beloved pants was to electrocute himself. Skeptical, the man said, “But I’ll surely die!” And the devil said, “You will not die. I will send someone to save you.” So the man electrocuted himself. In a flash of light, a tall, green alien appeared. “Fear not, my friend. My name is Tim and I am here to save you.” So the man reluctantly took the alien’s hand, and away they went. Tim took the man to a nearby bowling alley, and they shared a game or two. The man finally came to his senses, and in a moment of frustration said to the alien, “Wait, you were supposed to take me to my favorite pants!” To which Tim replied, “Well, I don’t know where your pants are, but there is a marvelous new Italian joint just down the road and they serve the best spaghetti in the tri-county area.” The man gave the alien a puzzled look, but went with him anyway. Tim and the man then enjoyed the best dinner that the two of them had ever had, and they remained best friends for the remainder of their lives.

 

Dialouge Will be the Death of Me… or at least give me a headache.

OK, I promise I’m not trying to fool everyone into thinking that I’m trying to write a novel, all the while making no progress. I really am working on it daily, I’m just having an awfully hard time with the dialogue. I recently was given the advice to not start writing at the beginning of the story, and rather write them in sections, starting anywhere I choose in the book. I.E. Middle first, then ending- or ending, beginning, middle. You get the point. I’d honestly never thought of doing that before, and quite frankly, I’m a little embarrassed that it never crossed my mind. (Don’t be too tough on me- there’s a reason it’s Newbie Fiction Writer.) But, since taking that advice, things are moving along at a much smoother pace. Although, as I mentioned before, the dialogue is driving me crazy.

I write and write, thinking that everything is going well, but then when I go back and read over my work, the verbal interaction between characters seems like that of kindergartners. The conversations lack intelligence and do not flow as a normal conversation should. I can see that this is definitely my weak area and will require a lot of practice before I can see a positive change.

I have however made some progress with the (still unnamed) novel. If you have any suggestions based on the synopsis below, feel free to shoot them my way!

Emily Albright is the girl that guys want to date and girls want to be. She is a senior at Serenity Grove High School, with a full scholarship to The University of Florida. Emily’s future is set until she meets the new kid in town, Adam Highland. Adam moved to Serenity Grove with his father, Wes, to start a new life as they have done so many times before. Emily is taken by Adam and the two quickly fall for each other, but soon details emerge that suggest Emily’s new love has a dark secret. The Highland’s seem to have brought with them a dark cloud that looms over the picturesque town of Serenity Grove. When Emily learns the secrets of Adam’s past, will she stay by his side, or run for cover?

Basically, girl meets boy, they fall in love, but boy’s father is a serial killer setting his son up to look like he is the one committing the crimes. Girl thinks boy is a killer, girl dumps boy, boy convinces her that it is not him. It might sound a little weird, but the story line is a good one, with a lot of twists and turns. Like I said, suggestions about a name would be great 🙂

Thanks for reading!

– Newbie.

Fresh Eyes & Writing Prompts.

I’ve decided to take a pause from writing my main story, which, to my dismay still does not have a name. I’m so funny about names; I feel like they’re so permanent- it’s a huge commitment in my mind. I know that’s probably weird.

Each time I sit in front of my computer to continue writing the “main” story, as I’m currently calling it, the ideas simply do not flow. Previously, it seemed as if my fingers were typing without me even thinking about what I want to write. To me, if the ideas flow that freely, they’re meant to be. I feel like if you have to think hard about your ideas, they just aren’t right. I heard someone say once, “Think Long, Think Wrong”, and that has since become my motto in life.

I’ve been looking up some Writing Prompts on the web, and I’ve found a few that piqued my interest- but the normal prompts don’t always speak to me. I’ve found through my writing that I’m better with the mystery genre- it seems like I always reach for those. Even when I start a story off meaning for it to go in a different direction, it always ends up leading into a mystery.

I was looking around and I found a writing prompt that said this:

“At a garage sale, your character buys an antique urn which she thinks will look nice decorating her bookcase.  But when she gets home, she realizes there are someone’s ashes in it….”

I’m currently working on a short story from this prompt, and I’ll be sure to post pieces as it progresses.

The issue I’m facing right now is trying to make this story short enough. I tend to get into whatever story I’m writing and it ends up being much longer than originally anticipated. We’ll see how this one goes!

(The writing prompt listed above can be found at http://www.creative-writing-now.com )

Thanks again for reading!

– Newbie

A Little About Me, and My Story.

Since this is my first post, I thought I’d introduce myself and give you guys a little synopsis of the project I’ve been working on.

Well, I’m 22 years old and I’ve always had a creative imagination. When I was in school I took classes in Creative Writing, but never went any further than that. I started doing theatre when I was 8 and continued to do so until I was in my teen years, when I slowly lost interest in performing. I got married at 18, yes, so young. I decided to start journaling again when I got married because I wanted to be able to look back later on and have detailed memories about my experiences as a newly-wed. I’ve continued keeping a journal to this day, and slowly went from writing about my personal experiences, to writing details of different characters or scenarios that I’d created in my mind. I never put much effort into writing stories around those characters or scenarios because I felt that I wouldn’t be any good at writing and I decided to spare myself the embarrassment. One night I was incredibly board and decided to jot some of the details down that had been swimming around in my mind, once I did, I realized that I’d filled up three pages worth of dialogue, character descriptions, and the basic synopsis for my story. I typed it all up and did a little bit of editing, (Hey, it was nearly 2am when I wrote it down!) and I was impressed by what I saw. I shared the synopsis with my husband who gave me an ego boost and encouraged me to continue my story. Right now the main story I’m working on is sans title, but so far I have one chapter and part of the next. I’m also working in a creative writing book as well as searching the web for some writing prompts to help me get used to writing in book form and to get the creative ball rolling. Hopefully I’ll be able to post the first chapter of my story soon, and I’ll post the creative writing exercises that I’ve been working on as well.

Here is the synopsis for the unnamed story I am currently writing:

Emily Albright is the girl that guys want to date and girls want to be. She is a senior at Serenity Grove High School, with a full scholarship to The University of Florida. Emily’s future is set until she meets the new kid in town, Adam Highland. Adam moved to Serenity Grove with his father, Wes, to start a new life as they have done so many times before. Emily is taken by Adam and the two quickly fall for each other, but soon details emerge that suggest Emily’s new love has a dark secret. The Highland’s seem to have brought with them a dark cloud that looms over the picturesque town of Serenity Grove. When Emily learns the secrets of Adam’s past, will she stay by his side, or run for cover?

The genre for this book would be mystery/romance, and could go for teens or adults. The two main characters, Emily & Adam are high school age in the beginning, but I plan to show them growing up in later installments. There are simply too many plot twists to contain the story to one installment- I didn’t want to sacrifice the plot twists in order to condense it down to one book length. If all goes well there will be several.

I want to thank you for reading, and I hope that the synopsis above piqued your interest. I’m always looking for tips from experienced writers, so feel free to comment!

Thanks again!

-Newbie.