Anna's Writing Nook: Short & Sweet Short Stories

Hi everyone! Happy Wednesday, aka Writer’s Nook day! I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying your summer. Last week and the week before I threw a lot of stuff at you about worldbuilding, so this week I’ll chill a bit. Let’s talk about short stories! And better than that, let’s write a short story!

Okay, first of all, disclaimer: short stories are my enemy. I can’t, for the life of me, write anything that could fall under the definition of “short,” which made my four years of being a creative writing major the WORST because of course I couldn’t throw a novel at my professors (even though I wanted to). But don’t get me wrong: I like writing short stories, IN THEORY, because I love writing stories in general, HOWEVER, the short part is where I falter. Because, in case you haven’t noticed by the, uh, everything about me, I like to ramble. A lot. I like to word sprawl. And a lot of times, the ideas I have are best suited for novels because my brain works primarily in big pictures and not so much in zoomed-in scenes. And zoomed-in scenes are exactly what make a short story.

So rest assured, friends of mine, that just because I eternally struggle with writing short stories doesn’t mean I can’t or don’t know how. I do, I just get carried away, hehe.

Anyway, let’s get into it. I’ll start us off with an activity I’m totally stealing from one of my creative writing professors (one of the best I had tbh): story kernels.

If you’re like me and don’t know how to write anything short ever, story kernels will (hopefully) save your life like they saved mine. We’re going to start with an anecdote: a short narrative of something that has happened to you. Just think of a memory -- it can be recent, or from your childhood; it can be sad or funny or weird or even just mundane and normal -- and tell us what happened. Plain and simple. 

As my professor said, “This is the what happened that will allow you to later imagine the what could happen.” The idea is to take one (very small, very short) experience that you had and just write it down. But here’s the catch: don’t make it longer than like, two pages. Yeah, I know. I hate it too. But that’s your absolute limit: two pages. Or if you prefer, 500 words. Single-spacing and tiny fonts count as cheating!

The great thing about the story kernel strategy is that it gives you a really easy start for a story: it starts you off with something you know better than anything – your own life. And it also helps you keep your story zoomed in and specific – because of the length limit and because you’re writing about a snippet of your life. 

All right, guys. Break time. I want you to grab a notebook and pen or your laptop or whatever it is you use to write, set a timer for twenty minutes, and just write. Don’t stop. Twenty minutes. I’ll allow you one (1) snack break. But then back to writing! Write your life-based story kernel. Remember, no more than two pages! And at the end of twenty minutes, stop wherever you are (but, like, you can finish your sentence, that’s fine). If you didn’t get a complete story down in that very short time frame, that’s okay! But hey, you have more words now than you did twenty minutes ago! And that’s an accomplishment!

Now that you’ve got something started, hopefully you want to keep going until you finish it! And if you are motivated and pumped and want to go do that right now, go for it!! I won’t be offended if you stop reading because you just NEED to get some more words down. In fact, I encourage it.

But if you wrote for twenty minutes and are like “Okay that’s quite enough for now,” I feel that, and that’s valid too. In that case, I’ll give you something (hopefully) worth reading up ahead!

If the story kernel is your first step toward a new, original, short (emphasis on short) story, then step two is to shift perspectives a little. Keep using the same story/scene/memory you used for the first kernel, and now write it again – but from a different point of view. If you wrote the first part from your own perspective (which you probably did, since you wrote about your own memory), write it this time from the point of view of someone else in the story. And yes, I’ll let you have a little more wiggle room. You can make it 3-4 pages now (or between 1000 and 1500 words). You’re welcome ;) 

So now that we’re shifting perspectives, your story is moving a little bit more toward fiction. It’s less autobiography, more making things up. Get into another character’s head (even if that character is someone you know in real life). When I did this activity in my class, I wrote the first kernel about going for a walk with my dog in a cemetery, where we saw a few deer. The first one was from my point of view, but I wrote the second one from the deer’s perspective, just to give it a different and interesting twist. So do something like that with yours! Think outside the box, really work your creativity and start to mold your personal memory into a new story.

Short stories can get overwhelming sometimes when you get wrapped up in how much you want to accomplish in such a small space, and then you end up writing a whole novel like me. Again, that’s why the kernels are helpful: they keep you confined to a single scene/event, and that you dig into details more than you would writing longer fiction. Short stories are about zooming in, taking a big world and focusing on something small. And then you make that small thing seem like the only important thing in this big world.

I hope you guys find the kernel method helpful! In my writing class, we went through like four phases of kernels, changing them and lengthening them with each rewrite. It really is a clever way to build a story, so if anyone’s interested I’d be happy to share the further steps. For now, I’ll leave y’all with just the first two, but feel free to reach out if you want more!

What I’m Writing: Since July is coming to an end it’s also the end of Camp NaNoWriMo! I’ve mentioned NaNo a few times before because I just love it, and this month I’ve been unusually productive. I started the month with a goal to write 80,000 words, and with two days to go I’m almost there – only 3000 words left! I’ve made a ton of progress on my fantasy book called The Oracle Stone, and I’m very excited to be done with it so I can look into self-publishing (and so I can go write something else).

What I’m Reading: I’m in the midst of The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski, and I’m enjoying it a lot! It’s an intriguing story with awesome characters and a really well-built world. I’m interested to see how everything will turn out; I love fantasy with a touch of mystery!

That’s about all I’ve got for y’all today! Try out the story kernels! Let me know how it goes! Tell me about the stories you write! And stop by the library to say hi :D

Oh! And one more thing: don’t forget to enter the Fanart Contest!!! You can find information about it here on the blog (right here!) or ask about it at the library.

Summer Take & Make Craft - MINI ZEN GARDEN!

Stop by the library this week to pick your Take & Make Craft Kit of the week - Mini Zen Gardens!  These are only available until supplies run out and they are going fast, so stop by soon.

This week's kit contains all the supplies you need to make your own mini zen garden.  It comes with a plain metal tin which you can choose to decorate any way you want. I decided to decorate two of the tins. One I painted with acrylic paint and the other I used a decoupage technique with paper and glue.  I love how they came out! 

Check out the video below where I tell you how I decorated my mini zen gardens, and demonstrate an easy decoupage technique.  

Did you make a mini zen garden? Did you decorate it? Let us know in the comments how it turned out. 

Reminder: there is still time to sign up for Teen Thursday Online this week, Thursday 7/30 at 4pm.  This week we are having FUN WITH QUIZZES! You do have to sign up in advance so we can send you the meeting link.  Sign up here:

Teen Thursday Online - Kahoot Trivia & Other Quizzes

Check back next week for the. Next Teen Craft of the Week!  

Hope to see you soon!  

- Dori 😍

Summer Take & Make Craft - Mini Cereal Box Notebooks!

Each week this summer, pick up a new Teen Take & Make Craft Kit! Each kit will have supplies to make a craft at home. 

Week 4: Mini Cereal Box Notebooks

Week of 7/20/20

Stop by the library M - F, 10 AM - 6 PM, to pick up a kit. Kits available while supplies last.

In the video below I demonstrate making one of the notebooks.

Check back each week for information on the teen craft of the week! 

In case you haven't heard - the library is now OPEN! YAY!  We are currently open 10-6, Monday - Friday. We ask you to wear a mask, practice social distancing, and limit your time in the library to 30 minutes or less.

Did you make a mini cereal box notebook?  Let us know how it went in the comments.

VFL Teens FANART CONTEST

Show off your art skills and enter in a chance to win a YA book bundle from the library! 

Do you love to read? Do you love to draw? Do you love to DRAW the things you READ? If you answered yes to any or all of the above, read on! This little challenge is for you!

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to conjure up the prettiest piece of book fanart you can possibly create. It can be inspired by any book you want; you can draw your favorite characters, a scene or object from the book, your own rendition of the cover (or an alternate cover!) – literally anything.

Submit your entry to me at acallari@pls-net.org and your art will be featured on the blog! With your submission, tell me your name (it can just be your first name and last initial, or whatever you feel comfortable with) and about the art: who/what you drew, what book it’s from, and why you picked that particular thing to draw. I can’t wait to see the things you create!

Every submitted artwork will be posted on the VFL Teens blog, and your drawing will enter you in a contest to win a bundle of books and a VFL “Imagine Your Story” t-shirt that you can pick up at the library. It’ll also come with a neat certificate (designed by yours truly) that you can hang up on your wall or in your locker to brag to all your friends that you won a super awesome contest.

Before you go run off to draw, let’s lay down a few rules:

1. The artwork you submit must be your own, and not copied or traced from another artwork.

2. Your art should be inspired by an already-published book and feature something/someone recognizable from that book.

3. Artwork must be submitted to me (acallari@pls-net.org) to be featured on the blog and counted as an entry toward the book bundle prize.

4. One entry per person, please!

Entries are due by 11:59pm on August 23, but you can send them anytime between now and then. I can’t wait to see what you’ll create!

Anna's Writing Nook: Worldbuilding Part 2

Welcome back to the Writer's Nook! This week we're delving deeper into worldbuilding. Last time, we went over the basics: where to start, where our inspiration comes from, and a fun way to make a map and visualize the world you're creating. Now we'll get into ways to sprinkle your worldbuilding details into your writing.

If you've taken any kind of writing class or even just read some popular advice, you've probably been told to "show, don't tell." That's easier said than done, but it is an important distinction. Telling, especially in regards to worldbuilding, is like giving your reader a big info-dump of everything you know about your setting. It's like dropping a history book on your reader's head. Readers don't usually appreciate that. You want to avoid lengthy info-dumps; instead, there's ways to gradually and seamlessly describe the setting, and that's what we call showing!

The best way to present your setting to your reader in a way that feels real and vivid is to find several little details of everyday life (and remember that ordinary life for your characters might not be ordinary for us). These details are going to anchor your setting. They help a place feel more real, and when describing them, you really want to rely on the senses: what a place looks, smells, and feels like.

Smells especially are grounding when it comes to places. Think about a place you know well - even if it's just your own bedroom. You probably associate a certain smell with it, right? I've begun associating the smell of hand sanitizer with the library (sad, right?). My own room smells like the candles I have on my bookshelf. If I were to smell either of those things anywhere else, chances are my brain would conjure up a thought of the library and/or my room. So think about what your setting would smell like. If it's a town by the sea, the air will probably have a salty scent (and taste) to it. If your story is set in a forest, it might smell like grass and pine. If you're in a city, well, it'll probably smell like a lot of things, especially depending on what kinds of places you walk by.

The look and feel of a location is also going to affect the vibes of that place. If your setting is a big city, a simple description of the jumble of buildings and zooming cars and people in a hurry sets up an energetic scene. We sort of expect a city setting to be chaotic and busy, right? So a neat way to offset that expectation and make your setting more interesting is to break that expectation. Your story is set in a huge city, BUT it's dead silent and the streets are empty. The buildings loom over the streets, watching, but there's no honking from cars or shouting from the hot dog guy on the corner. This break of the norm immediately makes your reader want to keep turning pages and find out why this place is not as they expect it to be. This is a situation where feeling is your best friend. If you offset your reader's expectations of how a place should be, you instantly change the vibe and set it in line with the type of story you're trying to tell.

Visual details are also your best friends. Obviously we gotta describe what a place looks like, right? But how do you do that without describing every single thing in front of you? The answer: your reader isn't stupid. Remember last week how we talked about writing what's familiar to you, and enhancing a setting by building it up with things you know like the back of your hand? We're going back to that, because that is how you describe a setting without info-dumping. This is easiest if you're writing a story that takes place in our real world (but it also works with fantasy worlds; we'll get to that). If you're writing contemporary fiction, chances are your reader is already familiar with pretty much every general element of your setting. Again, they're not stupid. You don't have to describe every facet of the local grocery store (unless it's an unusual grocery store), because your reader has probably been in a grocery store at some point in their life. You don't have to go to unusual lengths to describe things that are familiar; instead, focus your attention on things that are extraordinary or break the norm.

Let's say we're in a typical, run-of-the-mill small town in rural America. There's fields, there's cows, there's long country roads and probably a tractor rumbling down the side of the road. There's big, old houses with wrap-around porches, and the town itself is so small that you'll miss it if you blink while driving by at 70 miles an hour. You know, normal stuff. But then there's something decidedly... not normal. There's a church in this little town, which might be expected, however, no one can actually agree on what the church looks like. Most people in the town, especially those that have lived here for generations, adamantly believe the church is white with a bell tower on top. But the kids and the newer residents of town claim that it's a brick building that probably once had a tower but it looks like it was destroyed a long time ago. And there's some, just a few, who whisper that that church burned down fifty years ago.

Do I have your attention yet? This kind of juxtaposition, between what we know and an alteration of what we know, makes a setting and a story way more interesting. In this example I only gave the briefest descriptions of the normal aspects of the town, because I trust that you guys can imagine the scene without me having to tell you what the fields or each house looks like. You don't need a detailed description of those things, because I'm not asking you to focus on the wider scope of the town. I want you to focus on the church. And while I didn't describe the cracks in every brick of the building, I gave you some key visuals: white with a bell tower, brick with the remains of a bell tower, and perhaps the burned-out shell of a building that's hardly still standing. Those are still pretty simple descriptions, but they work to set the vibe of the story: there's something off, something wrong, a mystery that may need to be solved. That simple setting description sparks a bunch of questions that build the framework for your story - and that's exactly what a successful setting should do.

Now, excuse me while I go actually write this story about an odd little church.

Okay, maybe later. Let's talk about exposition again, because like many things in writing, it is not inherently evil (no matter what you've been told).

Exposition is going to be necessary at some point. You are not banned from ever explaining anything to your reader. Quite the opposite, actually: you should explain things to your reader. But like I said earlier, you should try to avoid dropping everything at once. Ease into it; only explain what you absolutely need to in the moment, and then keep your story moving until you have to explain more. There’s really only so much you have to explain; the readers can fill in the blanks. Like I said, they’re not stupid!

Also, if you wanna cheat, there’s a really easy way to lay down the workings of your world to your reader: have the main character be an outsider to that setting. When they arrive in a totally new place, there’s gotta be someone there to answer questions and show them around, right? Boom, there’s your easy peasy exposition. Perfect loophole. I fully encourage you to use it 😉

We got through a lot today, so I’ll wrap up here and leave you with some final, parting wisdom: the biggest worldbuilding thing to remember is that characters are a product of their world. Just like each of us is a product of our upbringing and little bubble of the world that we live in, your characters will be molded by their settings. Keep that in mind as you’re writing; there should always be a sense of a bigger world outside your character’s personal circles. 

Okay actually, one more thing: have some worldbuilding sites that have saved my life a million times!!

World Anvil is a virtual notebook for keeping all your worldbuilding stuff in one place. It's excellent, and allows for a lot of detailed development. It's been most useful to me as a fantasy writer, but really it could work with any kind of genre.

And here are some fantasy worldbuilding questions that are really detailed, but hey if you wanna go ham, I won't stop you. Even if you don't answer every single one, it's a good road map for the kinds of things you might want to know about your world.

Last but not least, if you want to make cool maps that don't involve you having to throw pasta around or actually draw something, check out Inkarnate! I've used this site for years to build maps for my books, and I love it.

Now I am actually going to go write that story about the church. I’ll let you know next week how it goes xD

Until next time!

😎✌🏻 Anna

Anna's Writing Nook: Worldbuilding Part 1

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Writer’s Nook! I know it’s been awhile, but I’m back with a new topic for y’all: worldbuilding!

Since there’s a lot to cover here, I’m splitting the topic into two posts, so be sure to check back next week for Part 2! This week we’ll cover the basics of creating a compelling setting for your story, whether that setting is in our world or in a completely new one. A vivid setting is important in any kind of story, fantasy or otherwise, because it’s one of the best ways to build authenticity in your writing. If the reader can easily place themselves in your setting, there’s a much better chance of them emotionally connecting to your story on a deeper level. We all want to feel engrossed and enveloped in the things we read, right? Effective worldbuilding is a major key to that. So let’s get into it!

Approaching worldbuilding is different for every writer. Personally, developing the setting is the last step in my writing process. I do characters first, then plot, then world. And honestly, that hasn’t always worked out, so I’ve been trying to be better about developing the world a lot earlier in my writing process. One of my first steps is figuring out names for everything: countries, cities, towns, individual buildings, even streets. You don’t need a name for everything, of course, just things that are most important, but attaching a name to every significant place is a great way to build authenticity in your setting. Especially if it has a fun or meaningful name. My favorite thing is to name restaurants/taverns alliterative things like “The Salty Salmon” or “The Grumpy Gull.”

Sometimes I make up names out of the blue, but most of the time this website is my best friend: Fantasy Name Generators. I know I’ve thrown this site at y’all before, but I cannot sing its praises enough. And in spite of its name, it does have name generators outside of fantasy things. It has generators specifically for places (inspired by a lot of different languages and cultures), and narrows it down to cities/towns – in real life or fantasy settings. Really, it’s great. It’s my BFF. It’s the love of my life, probably. 

Setting development should be somewhat similar to character development. One of the best pieces of worldbuilding advice I’ve ever heard was to treat your setting as if it’s a character itself. It should have a sort of personality, it should have history, and it should change and evolve over time. You shouldn’t have to write an entire history book (unless you want to, I mean, I won’t stop you), but it helps to have a general idea of the major events that have defined a place’s past. Just like you’d look at a character and ask, “What has happened in this person’s life to get them to where they are today?” ask the same of your settings. 

Another helpful means of developing your setting is to base it on something you know. Familiarity is a key to authenticity. The better you know a place, the more accurately and vividly you’ll be able to write it. That’s not to say you can’t write about places you’ve never been to (we can’t all hop on a plane to take a research trip to New Zealand or whatever), but you always want to have an element of familiarity in your settings. Even if you are writing about a place inspired by somewhere you’ve never been, it helps to build it with details of something you do know. 

For example, say you’ve made up a fantasy world that’s based on France, but you’ve never been to France and the breadth of your knowledge doesn’t extend far past Wikipedia. Since your setting isn’t exactly France and probably won’t have the same history and culture as France, you can totally fake it with just a baseline knowledge of the country. Look up pictures and descriptions of what the streets look like, what kinds of shops there are, what kinds of food and plants are native to different areas of the country, and take your inspiration from those details. Don’t copy them exactly, and you should avoid trying to replicate a culture that isn’t yours/that you haven’t studied extensively, but you can certainly take bits and pieces and apply them to your own made-up world. 

Weather and climate are also effective worldbuilding details; your fantasy worlds/countries will differ tremendously based on their climates, because weather decides what kinds of natural elements are native to the place and what kinds of things need to be imported or might be unfamiliar. It also adds a strong sense of place and atmosphere if you sprinkle weather into your writing. What’s going on in the sky can totally change the vibe of a scene, and there’s a hundred ways to use weather to set the mood of your story.

All of that being said, research is critical. Yes, even if it’s Wikipedia. I’ll be the first to say that Wikipedia is not evil, but definitely try to use other sources for deeper research that goes beyond basic stuff like geography, climate, etc. Like, you probably wouldn’t want to use Wikipedia if you’re researching a specific culture; instead, try to find a resource provided by people from that culture for the most reliable information. And again, you can take inspiration, but don’t copy. Be careful of appropriation, especially when you’re dealing with cultures that aren’t your own. Avoid telling a story that isn’t yours to tell, but that’s not to say you can’t or shouldn’t have diverse worlds and characters. It’s a fine line, for sure, but use your instincts. If you feel like your settings and characters fall into stereotypes or you’re making lots of assumptions, you might want to go back and revise. That’s where beta readers come in handy! An extra set of eyes is always helpful.

I’ve talked a lot about fantasy settings, so let’s touch on real-world settings for a hot sec. Developing settings in contemporary/realistic fiction takes a different kind of worldbuilding. In a way, you’ve got it a bit easier than us fantasy writers! Worldbuilding for contemporary fiction is more about details than about the bigger picture. Since we’re already familiar with the world we live in, the most important part is going to be the specific setting in your story, whether that be a town, a house, a store, whatever. You really want to get into vivid descriptions that make your setting more tangible – and that’s where familiarity comes in handy. The easiest way to accurately and authentically describe a place or a thing is if you’re familiar with it yourself. So again, even if you're writing about a small rural town but have never actually lived in one, you can zoom in on some part that you do know. For example, take a local park that you frequented when you were a kid and place it in your story’s setting. Describe the colors of the slides or the way the swings squeaked. Find a detail – in any setting – that is easily recognizable and relatable to a wide audience. 

All right, that was a lot of things, so I’ll stop here and save the rest for next week. In Part 2, we’ll dig a little deeper and talk about how to incorporate worldbuilding details without info-dumping, how your characters interact with your world, and some reminders about showing vs telling. For now, I’ll leave you with a fun and useful activity!

MACARONI MAPS!

I can’t take credit for this idea because I first saw it on tumblr, but it gives us an excuse to play with macaroni as if we’re in kindergarten. 

So you want to draw a map of your brilliant, extensive fantasy world, but you don’t know where to start. I’ve been there, I feel that. Time to make a mess. 

Grab some pasta of the uncooked variety. Elbows are best, but anything other than spaghetti will probably work. 

Grab a large sheet of paper, and something to draw with like a pencil or marker. 

Take a handful of pasta and throw it on the paper. Throw some more. Dump the whole box on the paper. Go wild. Then get your hands in there and spread it around in the vague shape of a continent (or multiple continents). 

With your writing utensil, trace around the edges of your pasta continents, especially the uneven edges and weird shapes. When you’ve traced all the way around, sweep away the pasta (but save it -- you can probably still cook it and eat it) and boom, you’ve got a map! Add cities and landforms and oceans and such and you’re on your way to having a world worthy of an atlas.

I know this sounds kinda silly, but I promise it’s a lot of fun and you’ll get some really cool maps out of it! Give it a try, and if you make something really cool, I’d love to see it! Email me a picture of your map at acallari@pls-net.org, and you just might see your map featured on the blog!

Also keep an eye on this blog in the next few days, because I’ve got another fun activity coming up that I think you booklovers will really enjoy. Stay tuned… 👀

Lastly, a little update of what I’ve been up to! 

What I'm Reading

Just finished: Dig, by A.S. King. What an absolutely brilliant book!! I've been a fan of A.S. King for years, but I honestly think this book is my new favorite of hers. It's truly excellent, and I highly recommend!

Currently reading: Nothing, actually, because I just finished Dig yesterday and I haven't decided what to read next 🤣 anyone got any recommendations?

What I'm Writing

It's July, which means it's another session of Camp NaNoWriMo! This month I'm trying to write 80,000 words of my current fantasy wip called The Oracle Stone. It is... a hot mess at the moment, but shh that's what revisions are for (and this one is going to need a lot of them!). I'm at 36,000 words for the month so far, so I'm on track to get to 80,000 if I sacrifice a few nights of sleep later in the month 🤣

I hope you're all doing okay and enjoying your summer! Leave a comment with future Writer's Nook suggestions (really, please do, because after worldbuilding idk what else to tell you guys lol), tell me what you're reading, and if you try the macaroni maps, send me a pic!! And now that the library's open again, I hope to see some of y'all in there too.

Till next time! 

Anna 😎✌🏻

Summer Take & Make Craft - Bottle Cap Pins & Magnets!

Each week this summer, pick up a new Teen Take & Make Craft Kit! Each kit will have supplies to make a craft at home. 

Week 3: Bottle Cap Pins & Magnets

Week of 7/13/20

Stop by the library between 10-6, M-F, to pick up your kit.

Check out the video below where I demonstrate making a pin and a magnet.

The kits will only be available until supplies run out, so stop by soon to make sure you get one.

Check back each week for information on the teen craft of the week!

In case you haven't heard - the library is now OPEN! YAY!  We are currently open 10-6, Monday - Friday. We ask you to wear a mask, practice social distancing, and limit your time in the library to 30 minutes or less.

Did you try the bottle cap craft?  Let us know how it went in the comments.

Summer Take & Make Crafts! This Week: Cute Yarn Bird

Each week this summer, pick up a new Teen Take & Make Craft Kit! Each kit will have supplies to make a craft at home. 

Week 2: Cute Yarn Bird

Week of 7/06/20

Call the library (585-924-2637) to request your kit, and we'll arrange a time for you to pick it up.

Each kit has supplies to make one Yarn Bird.

In the video below, I walk you through making one of these cute yarn birds. Give it a try!

The kits will be available until supplies run out, so call soon to make sure you get one.

Check back each week for information on the teen craft of the week!

Did you try this craft? How did it go? Let us know in the comments.

Also - join us this Thursday, 7/9, for a digital escape room! Registration required - sign up here: Digital Escape Room - ZOMBIE OUTBREAK

Have a great week! 

🌞Dori