Stories By Van

Hello again, Readers. Today, I have for you another short story. This one is more recent than the others I've posted so far. I remember back in my creative writing class a nice prompt that I enjoyed doing. The premise was simple: Teacher shows a picture Student looks at picture Student writes a short story about the picture I really liked this exercise because you don't have to think about the world-creating as much. You already have a world in front of you. All you have to do is explain what's going on. If there's a person or two in the frame, give them a backstory. Connect them somehow. It's just a fun and easy way to practice your writing. I highly recommend it to anyone that wants to write seriously. All that you've got to do is find a random picture on the internet to use. I like searching random paranormal or creepy pictures because I like writing scary and suspense stories. If the story leaves me sweating cold bullets, I'm a fan. I may hav...

Can I ask a question? What is the deal with sports? I mean, why is it such a HUGE chunk in all of our lives? I’m not saying that I hate sports. I played sports in high school, the one’s available to me in a small 300-student middle/high school in Missouri, and they’re great. Sports are good exercise. But, I’m talking about the obsessiveness that we have for it all. Player stats so specific that people know A player’s stats professionally, back when they were in college (and the player’s on that team’s stats), and their stats from high school. It’s too much. Too much obsession, too much money, and too damn distracting. Doesn’t anybody else notice in all those restaurants with big flat screen TVs, flashing every sport there is, there’s that one tiny box in the corner showing a news anchor talking about a much bigger, important, and way more dangerous world.  I sometimes feel alone on this subject. There's a lot more to complain about then your favorite basketball team lost...

Hello again everybody, it has been one helluva lazy day. Woke up later than usual, around 9, and didn't get out of bed until past 10. I did manage to copy down the cold open of a script I wrote in my notebook the other day while I lounged poolside. I first thought of it as a kind of badass Gladiator  TV show, but now I'm getting the feeling that maybe it would do better as a full-length picture. It's funny how stories speak to writers like that. You start one way, thinking you know where it's all leading (and you should know where the story's going to go. I mean, you are  the writer aren't you?), but then the story decides that it's done taking orders and wants to drive itself. In my experience, what little I have, when a story takes the wheel the best thing to do as a writer is hold on tight and write down everything you pass along the way. Most people find it hard to understand that logic. That sometimes writers don't know how they're story is go...

Alright guys, what's going on today? I was going to go ahead and just post another one of my stories, but I feel like it's a lazy thing to do everyday. I mean, I made this blog so that I can show off the stories I wrote, but also as a kind of online-diary for myself. Kind of hone my writing skills and maybe get some things off my chest. It's funny how I don't know what to write about and it's only been a few days. It's also funny because I knew that writing everyday would be hard, and I'm already finding that out. Oh well, there's just nothing on my mind at this moment. At least nothing to put on here. I have a few stories that I need to go through and rewrite, and two or three cold opens for either TV scripts or screenplays. I haven't figured that out yet. I'll keep you updated as things are developed. Anyways, I'll get back to everyone tomorrow, and I promise that I'll have something INTERESTING  and SUPERBLY ENTERTAINING . See you th...

Hello again, Readers, if you're out there. If you're not, well then, that's about the same amount of people that got a chance to read this short story when I sent it to an online magazine, but maybe someone, someday will find this blog and think it's a magnificent work of art. But, the most important step to greatness is the first one, and the only way this story will be found on this blog is if I post it here. Enjoy my attempt at a spooky story. At the Window Step, step, step . . . Drag, drag . . . Step, step, step . . . Drag, drag . . . Step, step, step . . . Drag, drag . . .      Andrew Dellard moved hazily across his bedroom to the window. He peered out into the dimly lit and foggy street before realizing that he had abandoned his glasses on the bedside table. He glided over to the queen-size bed, his cotton slippers sliding silently across the wooden floor, and retrieved his bifocals. Adjusting them onto his liver-spotted hook of a nose, Andrew snatch...

This is a story I wrote about a year ago for a short story contest. It had to be under a thousand words, and I barely squeezed by with that. I haven't edited it since then. I like the story and I thought others might too. “Come on Pansy! Peter Pansy Peter Pansy!” Thomas was chanting at the top of his lungs now. Enunciating each word so bluntly that he was showering the few teenagers standing at the front of the crowded circle with hot spit. They didn’t seem to notice, however, because they were chanting along with him. In fact, from the ground it sounded like everyone in town had come outside to watch the bloodshed.             I rubbed at the stiff bump just above my left eye. The sickly purple color looked like the lipstick left behind after a kiss from your grandma. Only this mark was given by Thomas O’Neill’s stone fist. The parking lot of Liscum High had transformed into a blurry gladiatorial arena, and I was its newest ...

Hello, and welcome to my little experiment. My name is Van Windsor, at the time that I'm writing this I have one published novel, The Days After, and one short story published online. I'll give out the links to those in a little bit. I decided to start this blog for many reasons: I need a way to share the stories I write before, if ever, they get published on an online magazine. (which is rare) I want the experience of writing a blog because it looks good for different writing jobs. I want to force myself to write in this blog as much as I can. I don't know if I'll be able to write in it everyday, but I also want to use this for whatever thoughts are going through my head, so maybe that will fulfill that goal. Lastly, I want multiple people to see what I'm writing. Who knows, maybe the magazine I send a story to doesn't like it, but someone else who reads it here will and offers to take it off my hands. I'm new at this whole blogging lifestyle, an...