Kate Flournoy

Actually @bluejay, my problem is not being unable to think of story ideas, but just the opposite! I see story ideas everywhere— in faces, in old buildings, in trees, in clouds, in poems, in blobs of paint stuck on a canvas. As @Daeus said, I

let my brain particles loose to search the universe for any possibilities and then have them come back…

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I don’t. Seriously, I don’t. At least not majorly. There have been times when I was having difficulty remembering why I had found a particular scene so inspiring and exciting, but never actually have I had a bad case of real writer’s block.

Sometimes when I’m having difficulty with inspiration, though, I’ll switch to a different project for a…[Read more]

I do 7pm to 10pm on weekdays, and all day Saturday since Saturday is seldom very busy for us as a family. 🙂

Oh! Okay, yes, that’s hilarious! Maybe just insert a little explanation like that into the story, otherwise it totally goes over the reader’s head. 🙂

What @Daeus said. 🙂

One line I really liked was

He is my Shepard, my Rock and my Song.

It’s beautiful. 🙂

What @Daeus said. 🙂

One line I really liked was

He is my Shepard, my Rock and my Song.

Hey, I like this! I love the quirky, matter-of-fact narrator voice and the concise, efficiently steady pace.

Only a few things— this line

and spoke a brief conversation in Swahili

is a little odd. I think it’s just the ‘spoke a brief conversation’. Is there another way to say this?
Also, I would have liked a description of Savanna…[Read more]

At the very least I’d be painfully aware of how much more capably my brother could handle the situation if he were here.

Yes, you oldest children have no idea… 😉 😛

Hm, for some reason my link didn’t work. I’ll try it again. short story forum

Let’s see if that works. :/

Yes, post it, @bluejay! There’s a for short stories here. 🙂

Well obviously it depends on their relationship… but for my part, if I had an older brother whom I really, really admired and looked up to, that’s what I’d ask myself, especially if I wasn’t very experienced myself.

@Daeus I’m sure we all thank you we don’t live in a black hole. We are very grateful. 😉

@Joy-Schmidt okay… I think I got it. I’ll just ask a few general questions to get you started. First off, is he cautious because he doesn’t have experience? If so, the caution is going to be one of uncertainty and indecisive fear, with lots of nail-biting,…[Read more]

Yikes… that depends so much on the guy’s personality. The prince’s, I mean. If I was the prince I would probably faint… but I’m sure that’s not helpful. 😛

Can you sketch out his personality a little? I could tell you so much more that way.

Ohhhhhhhhhh… somehow I missed that they were animals. *oops*
Sorry about that. 😛
Or… are they animals? Are Anna and her parents animals? Or are you just looking for a good line that will fit with both animals and humans?

If so…

Well, let’s see. Oh boy. Ummmm… *squinches eyes up meditatively* ‘Just because life is dangerous doesn’t mean…[Read more]

@rolena-hatfield I told her. She’s a quiet little thing of few words, but I could tell she was pleased. 😀

Hey Tessa Just! Australia— that’s so cool! 🙂 Welcome to the forum.

What about just ‘ Life is full of dangers, but that shouldn’t stop us from living it.”

My five year old sister contributes— I kid you not, she made up this word on the spur of the moment, and I was dreadfully impressed.

I don’t remember exactly what she made it up about— I think she was talking about my hair, which has a tendency to curl if left loose. Anyway. Here’s the word. You ready?

Swoogley. She said my hair was…[Read more]

Well, the way you have it seems good to me! Another way to do it would be to italicize and quotationize… *sigh* These made-up words will be the death of me yet. To italicize and place inside quotation marks the text messages, just to define them and make them more noticeably something not part of the actual text. (No pun intended).

Question—…[Read more]

Probably most the CleverNav— I only started choking when Sterling tossed it under the seat and it changed the voice chip.
Just the whole concept behind the malicious navigator was so hilarious… especially to someone like me who absolutely hates both giving and receiving directions for fear something will go wrong.
Also, the humor works with…[Read more]

Glad it was helpful! I wish I could find more to pick on, and so prolong the discussion of this topic, but I really can’t. Not that that’s not a good problem to have… 😉