Book Review: The Old Man and the Sea

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Welcome to the latest edition of book reviews. Where I talk about a book that broke a bunch of writing rules and still ended up becoming a classic. Without further ado, let me introduce you to ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ by Ernest Hemingway.

The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the enduring works of American fiction. (as in people actually know it exists after the author died? Or that people sort of know the plot so many years later?) It is the story of an old Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal: a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. (you are being dramatic, it was only agonizing at the end and it wasn’t that far out in the gulf stream.) Using the simple, powerful language of a fable, (best part) Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of defeat and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificent twentieth-century classic.

Note: I apologize for the terrible summary, but they were all terrible and this was the best I could find without having to write one myself.

One of the best parts about this book is that it is short. I was able to read it in an afternoon. Yay! Though I have a feeling that I would have read it even if it was a thousand pages long. You kind of get sucked in…

Yes, the book really is about an old man. And that is what he is called for the entire book, the old man. The only other character who makes multiple appearances is called the boy. They do have names, Hemingway just didn’t bother to use them. As a writer who tends to forget to name her characters until half way through the novel, I appreciated that part.

Please don’t think that because the novella is about an old man that you won’t be interested, that it will be boring, and that it won’t be relatable. To that I say, Ha! I am neither old, or a man, and I was sucked into Santiago’s story from chapter one. I found myself hoping that he would be able to get his hand un-cramped in time. Cheering him on during his battle against the sharks.

Santiago is more than your average grandfather puttering around his house. He is strong, strong enough to keep fishing even though he hasn’t eaten anything all day. He is also stubborn, and willing to keep going even though the odds are against him. In a younger man those two character traits would be coupled with pride. But you get the idea that he lost his pride long ago. It was burned out by the hot tropical sun and washed away with the waves. The boy does so much for him, and he doesn’t complain. He is grateful for the boys help, and misses him when he is gone.

If Santiago is the heart beat of the story, the sea is the body. I don’t know the author very well, but I have a good guess that he was familiar with the ocean. He knew its colors and its moods, he knew which fish liked what depth of water and what it felt like to lose sight of land.

The whole story was there for Hemingway to describe the ocean. Any narrative pieces were quickly got out of the way so that he could get back to his favorite topic. Which is where he broke the rules.

All writers are told this over and over and over again to ‘show, don’t tell’. Show the characters emotions, show the world, show the characters, don’t tell unless you absolutely have to. It is great advice, but I present to you an entire book that took that advice and put it on its head.

If Santiago was hungry, Hemingway said he was hungry. If he was scared, that was told to you to. No, the author never sat down and sketched out exactly what he looked like and what his character was, he let you figure that out yourself. He kept all his telling to the narrative bits, the bits that he got out of the way as soon as possible so that he could get back to showing you the ocean.

Which isn’t to say that the whole book was a disguised essay on ocean life. There was plenty going on, he just didn’t waste a bunch of words on it. Even though I would think it is a big deal when Santiago finally gets that fish, Hemingway just lets you know it happened, then moves on with what is happening next. It isn’t a breakneck pace, but it isn’t slow either. The pace is a steady walk through the story, ending when you suddenly turn a corner and realize that you have arrived at your destination.

If you are interested in reading something that takes the conventional way of novel writing and bends them, give it a try! At least its short, and if you hate it you won’t have spent an entire day on it. But I don’t think you will hate it.

It is clean as far as content goes, and I would be happy to recommend it to an age.

I think ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ deserves its five stars: * * * * *

Shaina Merrick

The Tales of Lunnoor

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What if the faeries were evil? What if dryads pulled you to a watery grave while pixies led you off a cliff. Brownies lived to be a thorn in your side (and to mess up your house), and naiads took over trees to use them to poison other living beings.

The world is dangerous, and it has become more so now that the Kings closest advisor has turned on him, sparking a civil war that has swept the whole country up in its battle. Some men want what they think is freedom, some want wealth, some want nothing more than to serve their King.

Welcome to the world of Lunnoor, the setting for my collection of short stories. Once a month you will read about faeries, rebellions, battles, and men and women who are willing to do anything for what they believe in. Some of the stories will be connected by characters or events, some only by the same world. However when you take them all together they will create a patchwork quilt that tells the story of the war against the King.

Until next time!

Shaina Merrick

Scheduling and ‘Oh hey, my blog post isn’t late!’

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Hello everyone!

No, I had not forgotten about my blog. Yes, I will be returning to my regular posting schedule.

In part I took a break to rethink my blog. To decide where I was going with it and what I wanted it to look like.

No, there will not be a massive rebranding here around the corner. Been there, did that, all done.

I am still passionate about story telling, and about creating beautiful stories. However, it had gotten hard to sit down every week and try to think up something else story related. After I had worked all day.

The creative juices were not flowing.

So I came up with a schedule of what I will post each week. I hope you like it, but if you decide you hate it you will have to give me a good reason why I should change it. This schedule took all week to make. I would prefer not to revisit it.

All in all, it is pretty simple. In a four week month I will post a short story, a book review, a history post, and a writing how-to. If there happen to be five Wedensdays… Well, I’ll figure it out when I get there.

A quick note about the short stories. They will all be mine own, and they will all be connected. Not necessarily by the same characters, though they may pop up in multiple stories, but by the same world and the same plot thread.

No, I am not about to tell you what they are about.

*goes to figure out what they are about*

Still not telling.

Anyway. Someday I hope to be so well prepared that I am writing and scheduling posts ahead of time. Today is not that day. I am just content with knowing what I will be writing about next month.

See you all next week!

Shaina Merrick

Why I am Keeping my Day Job

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Like many writers living today, I have what is called a day job. A job to pay the bills and support me while I write. My ‘true calling’, writing, will eventually take over and I will stay home and write all day. Spending my days in bliss as I churn out novel after novel. The end goal of almost every writer is to get to the point that their writing is financially able to support them so they can quit their day job and come home to write full time.

Well, the goal of every writer except me. I would prefer to keep my day job thank you very much. And it is not because I am a pessimist who thinks she will never make money from her writing. (only sometimes) Nor is it because I want to keep my writing at hobby level.

I will keep my day job because I like it. Most of the time. Now, being a PreK teacher is no walk in the park. There have been more than a few times that I have wondered why I signed up for this. However, there have been plenty of times that I wondered that about writing too. Why on earth did I think it was a good idea to put the stories in my head down on paper?

I enjoy what I do, so I don’t see myself stopping it any time soon. But even if I did quit and found myself with hours a day to write instead of snatches of time here and there, I think I would still find a job.

Sometimes, I think creative people believe that creativity exists in a vacuum. We are story writers, poets, artists, and musicians who spend hours upon hours holed up in a room pouring our hearts out into whatever medium we have chosen. Creating art is a solitary process, it has to be. But I don’t think our creativity comes from that tiny room. It comes from all around us, from our experiences, our lives, the things we have seen and the things we have heard.

I put this idea forth to you; that the stories we find ourselves thinking about are in a large part influenced by our lives. Who do you know? What do you do? How do you live? Where do you live? All of that will affect the stories you write. Whether you mean it to or not.

Writers are often told to write what they know, and the second best thing to knowing it is researching the stuffing out of it. So many writers spend even more time holed up in their room googling random, or not so random, things because they want to know it so they can write it.

Well, I for one do not want to settle for second best. I would rather do than read. So I have done, and done some more. I have traveled, explored, gotten lost, made friends and lost them, worked for myself, gotten a job, and done lots of random things. I have failed a few times, and done a face plant in life. But hey, at least I know what it feels like for my characters! (my poor characters…)

I fill my life with interesting things and interesting people in part so that my writing will be interesting. I know there are some things that will have to be delegated to research. Like going to the moon and being a prima ballerina. Yet if I can, I do rather than read. I want to know how this world works.

So no, I am not quitting my day job. I know that because of it I will write slower than most. I know that my path will be longer because I don’t dedicate as much time to my craft. But I would rather be slow, and have my stories filling with interesting things, than be fast and have my stories all sound the same.

As a side note, all the aforementioned things are not why I am sometimes late putting up a blog post. Naps are wonderful things that help you get nothing done.

Shaina Merrick

Book Review: The Girls at the Kingfisher Club

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The Girls at the Kingfisher Club

I just stayed up waaay too late finishing this book. Even though I was tired, even though I had work in the morning. I couldn’t put it down. I either found out what happened to Jo and her sisters, or I had a sleepless night wondering about it! Either way, I wasn’t going to sleep much, so I may as well satisfy my curiosity.

To satisfy your curiosity, here is the blurb!

Jo, the firstborn, “The General” to her eleven sisters, is the only thing the Hamilton girls have in place of a mother. She is the one who taught them how to dance, the one who gives the signal each night, as they slip out of the confines of their father’s townhouse to await the cabs that will take them to the speakeasy. (in case you don’t know what this is, in the 1920’s alcohol was illegal. The only way you could drink was to go to a night club, or speakeasy) Together they elude their distant and controlling father, until the day he decides to marry them all off.

The girls, meanwhile, continue to dance, from Salon Renaud (once) to the Swan (once) and, finally, the Kingfisher, the club they come to call home. They dance until one night when they are caught in a raid, separated, and Jo is thrust face-to-face with someone from her past: a bootlegger named Tom whom she hasn’t seen in almost ten years. (yeees, loved this part and the backstory that came with it!) Suddenly Jo must weigh in the balance not only the demands of her father and eleven sisters, but those she must make of herself. (yeah yeah, it wasn’t that hard of a decision to make, stop playing it up for tension)

With The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, award-winning writer Genevieve Valentine takes her superb storytelling gifts to new heights, joining the leagues of such Jazz Age depicters as Amor Towles and Paula McClain, and penning a dazzling tale about love, sisterhood, and freedom. (mostly sisterhood, slightly less freedom, and not really about love at all)

This book would not be every ones cup of tea. It moves slowly, even as it is building to the climax. There are a few bits of quick action, but they disappear as soon as they come. There is a lot of backstory, especially in the first half of the book.

I enjoyed it, I thought the backstory and flash backs were woven in well. It was a flow of thought that made sense. Rather than wondering how the character had gotten from point A to point B.

Most of the story is from Jo’s point of view. A great choice, because she is the one making the decisions and pushing the plot along. Yes, there are other people making decisions around her, and doing things that affect her, but she is the one that moves the plot.

Jo is the perfect illustration of an active protagonist. One who acts rather than reacts. When her father decides to attempt to marry them all off, she tries to get on top of the situation. She is trying to keep her sisters safe, and knows that to do that she will need to control as much of this as possible.

She is a strong character, without being able to beat up anyone who crosses her path. She doesn’t go against the ideas of the time, much anyway, she is strong enough without having to push against the grain. Which, honestly, is a relief. A breath of fresh air in a world full of heroines that can do everything. Save the guy, flirt with the guy, and get the guy. She has her points of weakness, and learns what they are.

A main theme of the book is that Jo can not do everything. Her sisters are their own people, who must make their own decisions. She learns, slowly, that the more she tries to control them, the easier it will be to lose them.

However, this book was not focused solely on Jo alone. There are twelve girls. Twelve characters each with their own motivations and dreams. Somehow, Genevieve Valentine made each one of the girls come alive. They all got a little snippet of the story that wove itself into the plot as a whole, she didn’t leave you wondering why the plot had stopped in order to characterize.

I loved the characters, Jo mostly, but like I said. The plot is slow. I enjoyed the slow pace that explored the ins and outs of Jo’s decisions. However, not that much happens in the first bit of the book. I never did feel like the plot was dragging though. It slowly picked up steam in a very satisfying way, ending in a BIG event that shakes everything up. Then is all calms back down again for a while.

I did feel like the end dragged a bit though. It was a good wrap up, but it took such a long time from what felt like the climax was to the end. It was a good end, an end that caused a sigh of happiness. But a long ending, so both good and bad I guess?

I would recommend this book to late teens and up. There are a couple of content issues, such as a romantic scene (mostly off screen, but it still happened), and a couple cuss words.

Over all, I would give this book 4 stars. * * * *

What have you guys been reading lately? Anything good? Anything gag worthy? I would love to make my tbr list bigger! 😉

Shaina Merrick

The Fantastic Realmies (and books)

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Every year a bunch of crazy writers get together to celebrate their mutual craziness. We call it Realm Makers. At this conference they also learn how to be even crazier. Those particular people are called Realmies. The ones who are so crazy that there is no hope for them. If you like being crazy, it’s a fun time! If not, well, maybe you should stay far, far away…

I decided to go to this conference, and risk coming out crazier than before. Whether I escaped successfully or not is for you to judge.

So many things happened at Realm Makers. So. Many Things. My poor brain is so full, and it is worse because I haven’t journaled yet…

I attended classes that have taken me one more step in my writing journey. I learned about my craft, and what it takes to get published. I learned how to plot a short story in the same weekend that I learned to plot a series.

I was encouraged beyond belief by the keynote speaker. He reminded me how important this career can be. That our words can touch other people. I was reminded that this is something that God has called me to do, and that this calling is a grand and wondrous thing.

I came back home ready to write again. Ready to grab my time by the horns and force it to produce a novel.

Unfortunately, I also came back to a day job, which puts a damper on a few things. So it’s a good thing I took that class on balancing life and writing!

I bought lovely, gorgeous books. Which I can’t wait to read! I also can’t wait to figure out how I will fit them all onto my shelf…

Gorgeous covers! I almost don’t want to read them, just stare at them…
You can’t see it in the picture. But Kings Folly is actually humongous.
Even more lovely books! Where will I find the time to read them all?

Like I said, I did lots and lots of things. But the classes I went to, the books I bought, the things I did, all of those paled in comparison to who I met.

Courage is going up to an author, sticking out your hand, and saying, “Hi, I’m Shaina.” But if you drum up that courage, you find out that those authors you are star struck by are friendly people happy to talk with you

Wayne Thomas Batson. Teacher of my favorite class. 🙂
Jill Williamson. I was definitely star struck when I asked her to sign my book.

This last weekend I finally (finally!) got to meet my pen pal. We have been writing, and emailing, back and forth for years. And I met her for the first time a week ago. To say that it was great would be an understatement. It was awesome. I was able to put a person to the words I have read. A voice behind the emails. Unfortunately, we both forgot to get a selfie together. Whoops!

I also met the voices behind the articles and blogs that I have been reading for so long. People I never thought I would meet in a million years I was suddenly shaking hands with.

Gabrielle.
Rolena. One of the sweetest people ever!

I would have been content with just meeting those people. To hang out with them the whole weekend. But instead, I was blessed with a friend. We clicked, bonded over conversation and pizza (a perfect combination). Before I knew it, we were hanging out all the time, chatting about writing, school, jobs, and anything else we could thing of. She became my friend, one I hope to keep for a long time to come.

Cassie. My favorite person at the conference.

So there you go, a mini recap post of the fantastic, wonderful, crazy time that is Realm Makers. If you happen to make your way to it next year, I hope to see you there!

Shaina Merrick

The Death of Hamlet (and why I cared)

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Whether or not you like Shakespeare, you have to admit that he wrote some great lines. Gems like;

“To be, or not to be: that is the question.”

“Frailty, thy name is woman!”

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

“To die, to sleep – To sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there’s the rub, for in this sleep of death what dreams may come… ”

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.”

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Lines that all happen to come from Hamlet. That terribly morose play that I have fallen head over heels with. I don’t pretend to understand every word that was said, but the words I did understand I listened to with bated breath. At least, until Little Miss Ophelia opened her mouth. (get some brains woman!)

At first look, the play seems awful. All about a man who loses his father, and is trying to exact revenge upon his uncle (reverse Star Wars anyone?). There is death, madness, false friends, and lots and lots of self pity. Usually, I stay away from such melodrama. But hey, it was Shakespeare, and why not?

From the first word I was hooked. My eyes never strayed from the screen where the tale unfolded. You couldn’t have pulled me away with a team of horses until the final word was uttered and the curtain fell.

I had to ask myself, why would such a dark tale enthrall me so much? Why would I find my thoughts drifting back to the story again and again the next day?

The plot was not what drew me to the play. It was not so twisty that I couldn’t figure out what was happening next. (I also knew the end before I watched it *cough*) The characters around Hamlet varied from mostly interesting to groan worthy. It wasn’t their witty banter that kept me glued to my chair. It was the main character, Hamlet.

His struggle to bring about revenge on his father would not have been that interesting if he had not been such a compelling person. Hamlet was a hurting mess who procrastinated, blamed himself, wallowed in self pity, fell in love, and tried to do right by his father. He loved deeply and hated with all of his being.

Stripped away of all the wit, the ghosts, and the madness. Hamlet is a story of a young man whose father has died. A man he looked up to and adored with all of his being. Hamlet is hurting, and he cannot understand why the rest of the world is able to blithely go on like his father never existed.

Then he finds out that his father was taken away from him on purpose. Someone chose to do away with his father in order to advance their own ends. Much of the play is him asking why. Why on earth would anyone choose to do away with someone so wonderful?

You follow Hamlet through his inner struggles as tries to find a way to proceed. As he rages against those who did this to his father, yet feels helpless to do anything about it. Those struggles make him so real and raw that I could not help but be on his side. Whether I agree with revenge or not, I know what it is like to wonder why a loved one is so suddenly gone.

At his core, Hamlet is a person who wants answers to the hard questions. Why did his father die and his uncle live on? Why do we love one person and not another? How can the world forget a person so good so quickly? Why are men so afraid of death?

This vulnerability in a character is what drew me into the play and swept me through the good and bad of it. By the time the end of the tale had come and (spoiler alert) Hamlets death was near, I was rooting for him. Hoping that he would succeed in the goal he had worked so hard to grasp. He had lost everything in the pursuit of this one all encompassing thing.

By the end of the play, he truly had lost everything, including his own life. But he had completed his quest, and went to his final rest knowing that he had been a son worthy of his father. And that was all he had really wanted anyway.

Nope, I am not going to cry. I refuse.

I know this kind of play is not everyone’s cup of tea, so I won’t end with an entreaty that you go watch it right now. Instead, I will end with a bit from one of Hamlets monologues.

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despis’d love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death-
The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns- puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?

Shaina Merrick

Life is Short, Time is Valuable, and There are too Many Books!

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No, I am not freaking out. Why do you ask? I am definitely not wondering how on earth I am ever going to read all the books I want to read. I wonder if I will ever get to the bottom of my tbr list?

Whoops, I wondered. Now I am freaking out.

Raise of hands, is anyone else ever overwhelmed with the sheer amount of books that are out there? Even if you somehow read all the ones in the bookstores, there are more being published every year. With self publishing so easy now, the number of books put out on the market year after year is astronomical. There is no hope of ever catching up.

And if you happen to have a life outside of reading books. You know, normal things like having friends, a job, a family…. Your case is even more hopeless. There is no way that you will ever be able to read all the books that look so vastly interesting.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to made you feel overwhelmed.

I am not here to give you hope that with the right attitude and schedule you will be able to read them all. Instead, I am here to tell you that you can’t. And contrary to popular belief, that’s just fine. In fact, it may be a good thing.

I think all bookworms can agree that for every good book on the bookstore shelf, there are ten bad ones. Books that just aren’t worth the time or money it takes to read them.

Since I grew up, I have had less and less free time to dedicate to just reading. I have to be pickier about my books, because I just can’t read all of them. Or even as many as I used to. So I read the blurb, the reviews, and the first page before I decide that it worth my time.

If something makes me say ‘I dunno about this’, I put it back on the shelf for someone else to find.

It may seem unnecessarily choosy to you, but for me, I have to. There have been times that I have picked up a book on a whim, or because I liked the cover. But it doesn’t happen very often.

I have learned that it is okay. It is acceptable to be picky about the books you fill your time with.

My life is short, and I want it to be filled with good things.

So go ahead, be picky! Read the reviews, the blurbs, the bit in the back about the author. Don’t be afraid to say no. If everyone else likes it, and it isn’t your style. Oh well. There are other books out there.

This is not to say that you should find a genre and never stir from it. Try new genres and new styles! Find new authors, go explore the ever growing indie market. You may find your next favorite book.

What I am saying is that I no longer want to feel like I wasted my afternoon on a book. So I will take my time finding a book. I am not going to pick up a book just because it is popular, or because the cover is pretty.

Instead, I ask myself, is this book worth my limited, precious time? I am a writer, so I will most likely read more books than average person. But even as a writer I have other things that fill my days. So is this book worth the bit of time that I have to dedicate to it? If I don’t think it is, it goes back on the library shelf.

Saying that I don’t want to read a book does not necessarily mean that the book isn’t worth any ones time. Someone else may click with it and love it. All it means is that I chose to fill my time with a different book. One that I love, one that inspires me.

To finish with one of my favorite quotes;

“Life is too short for reading inferior books.” -James Bryce

Shaina Merrick

Be Brave My Friend

Shaina Frantz4 Comments

My dear friend. I read your story the other day. You know, the one you hesitantly posted on your blog? Trust me, I know how hard that was. The courage it took to show it to some one besides your family.

I thought it was wonderful. Thank you for sharing that bit of yourself with me. Whether that story was complete rubbish in your eyes, or the gem of your collection, it doesn’t matter.

I have never read a story quite like it before. I’m so glad I met your characters. I laughed out loud when they bumped into each other! The witty side comments in your characters head were so funny.

I know that right now you are rolling your eyes. Wondering if what I am saying is really true. You think that your story isn’t that good.

Maybe, maybe not. The important thing is that you shared it. That you worked to make something beautiful. I know you will write better stories than this one. For you will continue to grow. You may even write worse stories than this one. What I want to know is if you will be sharing anymore of them.

Please don’t be concerned with the one bad review. Even famous authors have bad reviews. Anyway, what does that person know about how hard it is to write a story? I doubt that they realize how incredibly brave it is to let other people read your story.

Just by reading the first couple of lines I could tell that you poured yourself into the story. A part of your heart spilled onto the words.

Do you know how brave it is that you shared a part of yourself with your readers? Typos and mistakes can’t change that. They don’t make your story any less valuable.

Please keep sharing your stories. Be brave. Let your story go out into the world. It may fall, but it also might touch someone. Don’t hold your words to yourself just because you are afraid that no one wants to read them.

I do. I want to read them. And I know others do to. Give your stories wings, and see what happens.

I look forward to reading your next story.

Shaina Merrick

Contests and Themes

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So, I decided to enter another writing contest. ‘Cause the last one went oh so well…. But hey, it is a short story contest this time, and I already had the story written. So maybe I have a shot? Or maybe I am just suffering from delusions of grandeur. But I have yet to decide whether delusions of grandeur or crippling self doubt is worse. So we’ll stick with the former for a while.

Except, I was already stuck. Typical me. I have a plot, characters, and setting. But no theme. No one thing that everything else in the story depends upon. Usually, I would just shrug and perfect the parts that I have down. It is a retelling of a fairy tale after all. How much theme does it actually need?

The right answer is gobs more by the way. It needs a solid theme that drives the story forward. And in this contest, having that solid theme is the difference between first place and being on the cutting room floor.

So here I go, wracking my brain to find a theme in my little story. Note to the wise, it is easier to write a story with the theme already mapped out than to find one in an already completed story.

Also, I don’t want the theme to be just any theme. I want it to be true to the story. I want it to feel as if the story is showing the theme, not that the theme was thrust upon it by an uncaring and unwitting author.

So after wracking my brain for a solid week, I think I found one.

Hope. More specifically, the importance of having hope.

You see, my story is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. With one important difference. Beast is the villain, and Belle is a captive to a faeries caprice. Not exactly a light read.

In the beginning of the story, Belle has given up hope of escaping. To the point that all she wants is to survive each day. Though the idea of a final escape is becoming more and more palatable.

I knew that before I even thought about what theme I had. I also knew that in the end she hopes that Gaston has actually managed to save her. (another twist!)

Those two key parts were what unlocked my story’s theme for me. All I had to have to do now is enhance what is already there. Take the hints I have and flesh them out into a living, breathing story.

Easier said that done. Obviously. But the hardest part is over, the finding of the slippery little thing.

If you happen to be in the same boat as me, trying to find a theme in a story that is already finished, here is my advice.

Take stock of who your character is in the beginning of the story and where they are in their personal journey, then do the same with them at the end of your story. What has changed? And why did it change?

Where your character has changed is where your theme lies. Maybe your character learned to trust someone else. Maybe they conquered some fears. Take that and expand upon it, make that change become a journey that weaves in and out of everything else in your story. And voila, your have a rock solid theme.

Now take that story and enter the Story Embers contest! And don’t bother looking for me, my story will most likely be in the category of a procrastinated master piece that was forgotten to be entered. Whoops.

Shaina Merrick