I cannot believe it. I had run out of ideas and was wondering where to begin my first story and now I have 21 potential starting points. Thanks a lot, all of you. Please keep the suggestions pouring in.
Thank you, Pete for reblogging since more than half of these suggestions come from your readership. :)
I may be a little slow on the uptake though since my stories take around a week or two to build. I will eventually get to your suggestion. Pinky Promise! :)
Hi friends,
I am going through a writer’s block regarding stories. Please send me the first line for a story, so I can build on it–any thing mundane or crazy would do.
I am picking this idea from Pete, who is by far, my favourite short story writer.
Thanks for the help in advance.
All in? Have you ever picked up a small dog or a puppy? (Of course you have!) Did you ask for their consent first? The first time I really thought about dogs consenting was when I read Gregory Berns’ How Dogs Love Us. He was very careful to ensure that all the dogs participating in […]
Dogs & Consent — The Thinking Dog
As someone who loves and is popular with dogs, I agree with this article by Pam. I would never pet a dog without their consent. But what does consent mean in doggie language? Read the short article.
It is finally here! My very own short stories collection: The Forest Bed and other short stories. After long delays for ‘technical’ reasons, my book is finally available worldwide as an ebook. What’s even better?
The Forest Bed ebook is available to readers worldwide for free on Amazon Kindle
Offer valid from June 22, 2021, 12:00 AM PDT till June 26, 2021, 11:59 PM PDT.
Or depending on where you live, you can find it on Amazon. Just click the relevant link below:
Just type in the comment box if you can’t find it. I’ll provide the link.
Book in Print: If you are more of a love-the-smell-of-books person like me, you can order the printed book from Amazon or Pothi and they will deliever it at your doorstep. Just click the link of your favoured distributor.
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| Amazon.co.uk | Black and White | Coloured |
| Amazon.com | Black and White | Coloured |
| Pothi.com | Black and White | Coloured |
Free sample: If you are wondering why you should spend your money on the book, here is a free sample with five representative stories from the book. Please click DOWNLOAD to take a sneak peak and provide reviews that would help me raise the sale.
Spread the word!
Share the post, if you will. Please, pretty please! 😇
Author’s note: I have always loved To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I never tried to dissect the love to understand why until recently. When I was reading it for the nth time, I realised…
The book sketches innumerable characters from a small town, I am not into documentaries and the entire thing should have been absolutely boring and I shouldn’t have been able to distinguish between characters. But I love it. The character sketch is woven into story and narrator’s interactions with them. It brings out not just the physical traits but the entire personality. Here are couple of excerpts.
“We lived on the main residential street in town—Atticus, Jem and I, plus Calpurnia our cook. Jem and I found our father satisfactory: he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment.
Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angles and bones; she was nearsighted; she squinted; her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard. She was always ordering me out of the kitchen, asking me why I couldn’t behave as well as Jem when she knew he was older, and calling me home when I wasn’t ready to come. Our battles were epic and one-sided. Calpurnia always won, mainly because Atticus always took her side. She had been with us ever since Jem was born, and I had felt her tyrannical presence as long as I could remember.”
“Dill was a curiosity. He wore blue linen shorts that buttoned to his shirt, his hair was snow white and stuck to his head like duckfluff; he was a year my senior but I towered over him. As he told us the old tale his blue eyes would lighten and darken; his laugh was sudden and happy; he habitually pulled at a cowlick in the center of his forehead.
When Dill reduced Dracula to dust, and Jem said the show sounded better than the book, I asked Dill where his father was: “You ain’t said anything about him.”
“I haven’t got one.”
“Is he dead?”
“No…”
“Then if he’s not dead you’ve got one, haven’t you?”
Dill blushed and Jem told me to hush, a sure sign that Dill had been studied and found acceptable.”
Also, the author was not in a hurry to give away everything at the beginning. It is almost half way through the book when you realise that Calpurnia is black and Dill’s character sketch waits until we are a couple of pages through with him.
Let’s learn from the masters.
In middle of all the confusion that encompasses my life, I missed a very important milestone: 400+ followers! Also, 14K views! Wow…there was a time when I had 3 views for one year…all my own.
Thank you, dear followers, for reminding me everyday that my blog is there for a reason: You! It is meant to show an upside down view of life, give voice to beings who often go unheard and spark a conversation. I had stopped giving political opinion last month because it hurt some very important people in my life but I still write about everything else under the sun, as long as it has the potential to stir a healthy conversation.
Sometimes, I do feel out of juice though until I see a photo, hear a story, read a word that makes my brain do somersaults until something spills out that is worth telling a story.
So, if you have a topic or a word around which you want me to weave a story, just leave it in the comments. The offer is open to anybody and anytime. You can throw the word in, in the comment box of any of my posts. I’ll pick up and see if I can weave something. It might take a few days…or weeks…months even, because my brain does its own calculation while I sleep, and churns out something almost perfect at unexpected moments, but it will surface, eventually.
So, give me inspiration, dear readers. I write for you.
Thank you again for following me. Keep posting comments whenever you feel like it, even if to just say, Hello!
I love talking to you all. You keep me alight!
Some where in the middle of my back injury and, later, neck injury and, office work, I missed a couple of very important milestones: 500 posts and 350+ WP followers. YEEEEEEEEE!
I can also boast of 12 K views and nearly 5600 visitors. Thank you!
Your love has humbled me. I wish I had ways to allow everyone to comment on my blog and not just WP followers. As I always say, Every comment matters. It shows me ways to improve. So, let me know if you don’t like something. I don’t mind an open discussion. I am ready to be converted to your ways of thinking as long as your point can buy me in.
Just let me know. Keep following, keep reading so I can continue writing for you. :D
This is a basic publishing aid meant to help people create posts while using WP app on their phone. I am sure, most of you have already figured out the process, but in case you haven’t just follow these steps to publish the post.
(Note: The screenshots were taken randomly from two different sites I own over a period of three months. So, you may find some inconsistencies. Please bear with me.) 😁
Your main WP App main screen will look something like below. I have covered the logo, site name and WordPress address here since the site is not ready to go live yet.
1. Click Posts (highlighted in orange).
2. Click the red + sign to add a new post.
(The tabs on the top contain the following items:
3. Type the Title of the post (you can change it later, if needed), and add content. If you have a block editor, which is now the default editor in WP, every time you click enter, you will get a new block.
4. To add various items to the post, like heading, quotes, images, videos, space and separators, click the highlighted + sign at the bottom of the screen. Then, select one.
5. Once you believe that post is ready to be published, click the three dots at the top right, and select Post settings.
6. Select Categories. It is not mandatory, but it helps your audience later when you have, say 30+ posts. You can simply add some major category names to your top menu and the audience can find your posts easily by clicking them. You can add/change category even years after publishing, if (God forbid 😁) you feel like it.
7. Select the category.
If you are new, the page is probably blank, or does not have the required category. 😎 To add a new category:
Once you have selected the category, click the back button at the top left.
8. Select Tags.
9. Select the tag. If you need a news one, type a new tag. You can separate two tags with a comma. Do not add space. (Feel free to disregard the advice of your editor for a change, as I have. 😎)
Once done, click the back button at the top left.
10. To select the publishing time:
11. Click PUBLISH, and then, PUBLISH NOW.
Note: If at any point of time, you feel the need to stop writing and close the post, click the three dots on the top-right, and select Save. It will save your work on WP site online.
If you reopen the WP App and see Local changes message below a post, it is because you closed the application without saving it. Just open the post settings and click Save.
If you see the Version Conflict message below the draft/post, think of the last time you worked on the post.
Thank you! I am such a genius! 😎
I am notorious for celebrating milestones on my blog. I think it is because of my overzealous nature, but also because this blog means so much to me. So, here I am celebrating yet another milestone.
300+ WordPress followers! Thank you all!
Why it means so much? Because it means that there are people out there who would like to read my blog again. I know most of them may get busy and not return, but the thought counts. It almost feels like getting a Christmas card from a stranger…not expected but that makes it ever so much more wonderful.
And there are those other followers who come back nearly every day, a lot of them even comment and let me know if they agree, or not, or if there could be a potential for improving what I wrote–which is even more wonderful, almost like having a family online–Don, Petra, Chris, Alex, John, Lauren, Ngozi, R.E., Colin, Kim, Yvonne, Ellen, Sangeetha, Vaidehi and Pete. And then, there is Elizabeth, who is not my follower but still has been around for quite a few heart-to-heart discussions.
If your name is not here, I apologize. Trust me, I celebrate every single time someone hits the Follow button. It is just that you have been too quiet lately. You have probably been Liking my posts without leaving a Comment. And, unfortunately, my memory is shorter than that of a goldfish! So, please make a noise. Leave comments, Christmas messages, anything you want to share. I will reply.
So, thank you again for following my blog. You force me try writing better. You make me feel as if this isn’t just a whim! :D
Also, if you wish to share a guest post on my site, please feel free to mail me at shailygrwl@gmail.com. I will reply within a week’s time.
Thanks a ton!
Love you all!
Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful COVID-19-free New Year!
-Shaily
Thank you, WordPress! Thank you, Facebook! Thank you, Twitter!
After one year and three months of the rebirth of my blog, I can finally boast of worthy achievements. I am 400-Posts old. Most of them stories, in one way or other–love, hate, memories, nature, politics…things I stand up for.
And I can boast of 290 followers.
Well, in all honesty, I have 1 follower on Twitter (Thank you, Pete!), 38 on Facebook–family and friends who love me enough to support me even if I have an empty page, but still… And 246 on WordPress! Wow! I never thought so many people will deem me worthy. So, thank you! I hope I am living up to your expectations.
It have been trying to deliver a post a day. It is a difficult target considering I am considerably new at story writing and have a child who hasn’t started school yet. But I have crossed the one year mark and am still delivering, which means a lot to me. And you, my friend, are reading! Which means a lot more! Thank you for embarking on this quest with me.
I would like to remind you that I love sharing guest post. So, if you have something that you want to be read by my audience, please share with me and I will be happy to share. Please look at the guidelines to learn more.
Thank you! Looking forward to see your posts!
Cheers! 🍧 🍨 🍦
Short Stories | Fish-eye Perspective 