The Making Of 'She Screams'

'A Little Is Sometimes A Lot--Writing and Selling Short Stories' is an interesting and useful articles for writers wannabes. I'm sure many who dreams to become a writer wants to produce a best seller. Think something along the line of Harry Porter and Lord of the Ring. But writing short stories is a very good exercise and it can be very challenging too. You need the right word to meaningfully do the job of several sentences. Take this shortest essay as an example. I'm sure it has reached your inbox or will be reaching it as it has been circulated via email for quite sometime. I've received it several times myself.

A university creative writing class was asked to write a concise essay containing the following elements:



1. Religion

2. Royalty

3. Sex

4. Mystery



The prize-winning essay read:



'My God," said the Queen, "I'm pregnant. I wonder who did it!"

It really is amazing. I wouldn't have thought about it. The winner really deserved the prize. Upon scouring the internet, I find several links to similar piece of shortest essay but I've picked one with a good commentary.



I believe anyone who loves reading, would have dreamed of coming up with a good piece them self. If I remember correctly, I've mentioned writer as one of the 3 ambitions that we have to inform the class teacher every year in primary school :) That will then get recorded in the teacher's book. I don't remember if it's recorded in the report card though. What I do remember is all 3 changed every year, which signifies a perpetual interest in life from someone so young hehe...



Anyway, this article, 'Five Steps to Goal-Setting' gives good advice on how to realize your ambitions. I may never be the famous writer, purely because I have not put in any effort in that direction, but I'd like to come up with some pieces (for personal satisfaction) once in a while. So based on the article, to set short and attainable goals, I tried to write a scenario of intense emotion. I'm not sure whether I've really captured the essence of the feeling I wanted to portray, but 'She Screams' is the best I can come up with at the moment.



There are some situations in life that we'd feel like we just want to succumb to the emotion and scream it all out. I know I have and I know some people can really arouse that emotion in us. Anyway, that's a different story. I realize 'She Screams' would have given a certain impression to the reader. Based on the comments, I'm right. But it's good to know the readers are sensitive enough to notice and care enough to give comforting comments. Hugs for you all too. I'll sure remember the advice when I need it.