Liberian Literary Magazine
Promoting Liberian literature, Arts and Culture
to get into the hearts, minds and souls of
your audience. You want to know them so
that they can feel the story like you do. One
of the best ways to do this is to take them
along with you every step of the way. Here
are five ways to accomplish this: I must
admit, most of these tips will work for those
that have some experience in writing. Those
that are beginners, you may be wondering
how do I do this or that. Rest easy, we will
get to that in the next part.
’Right Better: Tips for
Improving: Short Stories
Build Relationships. Using Time your audience are strangers, people
you’ve not met and most likely will
never meet. The primary basis of your
relationship is the words you place
before them and the characters you
give them. Hence, it is critical to use
the [short] time wisely. Be efficient
with their time. You should at least
give them a good story in a short time.
By
removing
time
from the
relationship, you increase the
chances of having them come back for
more. Some may be annoyed you cut
the story too short-they wanted
more- but that could work in your
favor. It tells you they enjoyed it and
but did not have enough of it. The
next time they get the chance, they’d
want to be satisfied. You also make
it easier for them to go back to their
lives, which never stopped demanding
from them, but because you
temporarily stopped time, they would
be grateful. Trust me, they won’t
forget this. Audiences tend to
remember things and people that
please as much as those that
disappoint. Wasting their time, will
only incur their wraths and perhaps
get you a few swears. It would
certainly not bring them back to your
work. Make the best use of the
strangers’ time.
Give Readers Characters They Hate
Or Love. Fewer things are more
powerful than hate or love. These
emotions can make people do things
Friday, January 15, 2016
KWEE: LLM
Short stories. I love them. They’re good
therapy if done properly; can be read
anywhere, anytime, by anyone, and most
importantly, they are not jealous. They
don’t demand too much of your time or want
your commitment for anytime longer than
they are, which by the way, is not long. The
truth is, short stories are…. well short.
When I began writing, needless to say it
was clumsy, I soon found out I wanted to do
short stories. However, it became apparent
that my greatest obstacle was time. There
just wasn’t enough of it. For example, I
needed to describe my characters, their
environment, present their dialogues,
express their emotions, it seemed I could do
nothing meaningful. It was frustrating. The
options then were clear; I could quit or find
a way around the problem.
Audience
Your audience is one of the most important
part of your story, yet, when giving tips, we
tend to focus on what a writer should or
should not do. Not often do we consider the
people who would be reading our work. The
fact is every great writer knew their
audience hence, they factored their needs.
Every story should cater to the audience
from its inception to completion. Finishing a
story before mentally noting what one’s
audience will think or feel is perhaps one of
the biggest fails of writers. The goal here is
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