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Why I Write
When I write, I draw on my experiences as a woman with a painful past, a rapturous wife and mother, a world traveler, and a spiritualist. For me, writing is an art form. Like an artist, the work becomes more than I imagined it would be. When I set out to write a story with a particular idea or character in mind, words I cannot claim as my own flow from a magical and mysterious place through me and onto paper. The work takes on a life of its own; it is living art. The process fascinates me, satiates me, and makes my life more meaningful. Please read my stories! If you would like to offer me feedback on my work, please click here and sign up for a free membership: https://heftynicki.Writing.com I hope to see you there!
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Blog, Blog, Blog
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Welcome!



*Star*In 2011, my main focus will be on writing a novel. Since I'm a novice novelist, I've decided to come at the project from different angles, exploring the genre and experimenting with its elements. This blog and its offsite sister blog will be my journals where I attack novel-writing one day at a time.

As I was creating my BlogSpot page, the inspiration for the blog solidified in my mind. I named that blog "One Significant Moment at a Time." In essence, I want to use the format as a reminder to walk through my life with my author's eyes open, taking in the details, feeling the emotions of the day. As moments unfold and I feel their affects on me as a person, a woman, a mother, a sister, a member of the world community, I'll let the writer in me talk about it.

Creative Nonfiction is the genre most fitting to describe what I envision accomplishing here, moreso than blogging or journaling. The style is best suited, I feel, for my ambitions as a novelist.

In addition, Friday entries will not be written by me. Instead, I'll turn the keyboard over to one of the characters in my novel. He or she will relate the events of the day as s/he saw them, through the filter of his or her perception.

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*Star* I'd Love Your Help *Star*

If you've read my blog before, and find yourself here again, won't you click this link and check out my BlogSpot?

http://www.nicoleducleroir.blogspot.com

*Star* Leave me a comment there, and I'll send you a WDC token of my appreciation!

*Star* Become a Follower there, and I'll send you a Supportive Merit Badge! -- You don't have to go to blogspot.com each day; in fact, I post much of the same entries here in this WDC blog. But building up a verifiable readership may prove important one day when I'm knocking on literary agent/publishers' doors!

*Right* To Follow, just click "Follow" on the right margin of my blog page. You'll have to sign in using, or create, a Google account (it's free and only takes two minutes!), and then follow the short instructions. It's easy, and I'd appreciate it so much!!


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2011 Reading Goal = 25 Books in 52 Weeks. To see the list of books I've read so far, CLICK HERE  Open in new Window.





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Thanks for reading!!






September 15, 2009 at 8:56am
September 15, 2009 at 8:56am
#667823
Last week, I made it past the first round in WYRM's Gauntlet competition, and I was feeling optimistically confident because the second round challenged us to write a short story. Phew! My comfy-cosy zone! Then I read the prompt, and my chest fell, my shoulders rounded, and my tail went between my legs....

Write a short story inspired by this line: I can still see him burning.

And, the genre must be....(drum roll)...Speculative fiction? What the hell is that?

Panic didn't set in until I learned what the genre is all about. Speculative Fiction is an umbrella genre under which you may find combined categories of Sci-fi, Fantasy, and Horror. Stargopher Author Icon described it, and I paraphrase here, as 'stories with stuff in it that doesn't exist, like trolls or supernatural elements.' He qualified his explanation by saying we weren't limited in any way to his examples, but the genre speculative fiction was mandatory.

So I started doing some research and learned some interesting things about speculative fiction. The genre is premised by "fiction" defined not by what isn't true, but by what doesn't exist. Spec. Fict. stories either take place in the future, where we don't know what it will be like, or in make believe worlds, or in the past before recorded time, but in a way that contradicts what we believe to be true about ancient times. If Spec. Fict. stories take place in our world, the plot or elements of the plot and characters must contradict what we know to be true or believe to be possible.

At this point in my research, my head was spinning. I still didn't quite get it. Then I read an interesting article at LostBooks.org (link is below) that offered me my first ah-ha moment. Speculative Fiction writers often premise their stories on the question "What if..."

*Bullet* What if medical science could genetically eliminate the need for sleep thus causing two separate classes, those who sleep and those who do not? The non-sleepers can accomplish and gain at minimum twice what you or I can simply because they have more time to devote to work and other interests (see Nancy Kress's novella or novel, Beggars in Spain)?

*Bullet* What if aliens declared Earth to be 'prime real estate' and felt about the extinction of humankind as we felt about the Passenger Pigeon (see James Tiptree, JR's. short story, The Screwfly Solution)?

*Bullet* What if Robert E. Lee had won the battle of Gettysberg (see Harry Turtledove's novels, The Guns of the South or How Few Remain)?

[The three bullet points were copied from LostBooks.org. Read the article in its entirety here: http://www.lostbooks.org/speculative-fiction.html]

So, the way I understand it, Speculative Fiction is the Twilight Zone genre, where reality is skewed and everything you believe to be true may not be. It is a fascinating lens through which to regard fiction, and a genre that takes incredible imagination to pull off. I don't think I'm there yet *Laugh*. But thanks to the WYRM Gauntlet competition, I attempted the genre and wrote a story I never would have penned on my own. Here it is -- comments are MOST welcome!

 ~Burned~ Open in new Window. (18+)
Speculative fiction based on the prompt: I CAN STILL SEE HIM BURNING.
#1599664 by NickiD89 Author IconMail Icon



If you have written a story that would fall under the umbrella category of speculative fiction, send me a link! I'd love to see how others approached the task *Smile*

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