The only residents remaining in the small town of Miners Hill are spirits.
Yet, it is not ghosts haunting this quaint dusty village.
The true spook of Miners Hill is one Owen Grabbler. A very much alive rambling drunk rancher who wanders over the hill on his horse to talk to them.
“The spirits let me see spirits. Know what I mean?” Grabbler shouted to the ghosts he knew were avoiding him.
Owen stood outside city hall relieving himself into an old dried up fountain. He fumbled with his manhood and a bottle of whiskey with the same hand while his free arm maintained a questionable balance.
A group of frustrated spirits summoned all their energy to give the drunk Grabbler a little push. Maybe face down in the dirt covered in his own urine would teach him a lesson.
The horror they must have felt when a sharp rock hidden just below the soft dust at the bottom of the fountain made Owen Grabbler their newest permanent resident.
Read more stories and share your own!
Danny Machal May 27th, 2015
Posted In: Mondays Finish the Story
Tags: mondays finish the story, short story, whiz
Give Blood and Thanks: Chapter 4 and 5 – Download PDF
Chapter 4: Plymouth rock blues.
Beep Beep Beep!
Remy blinked his eyes, ‘What the hell did I drink last night? My head hurts like hell.’
He looked up at the starry night sky in the moments between full consciousness and sleep. Then he felt the weight on his chest and the memory came rushing back to him.
Beep Beep Beep!
The microwave sat square on his chest, but it felt heavier somehow. He slid out from under it and laid it to rest on the ground next to him.
‘Hell of a price to pay for a good meal. You are a heavy son of a bitch.’
Danny Machal May 7th, 2009
Posted In: Give Blood and Thanks, zEverything
Tags: Give Blood and Thanks, short story, whiz
When it comes down to story structure there are two schools of thought: planning out the major plot points and filling in the blanks or, starting with a blank paper/screen and winging it. As a new writer I’m still trying to discover the only consistent advice (if you can call it that) I ever hear, “find what works for you.” I don’t think that finding what works for you is something that can be done blindly, life is just too complicated and time is too scarce. I have tried both methods, and right now I’m leaning toward the “just go for it” way of things. Mainly because I still haven’t truly discovered a subject matter that I can write about on a regular basis and not get bored with. On some bigger projects I have stuck with (novel) outlining has saved me from sitting in the windless sea of writer’s block.
There was an assignment in my writing class (now over) that involved outlining. I took advantage of it and outlined my novel. Just by sitting down and figuring out what happens next worked wonders. I didn’t have to write chapters only to scrap them later, just a couple sentences about each sequence of events. You can experiment with your stories very quickly this way, and in large projects that is what I will need to do. When I become a successful writer and have to work with a deadline, outlines are going to save me much wasted time in throwing out chunks of precious word count. I take a different approach to short fiction, you need to explore ideas to their fullest before they are tossed.
Just the other day I opened up my word processor and I waited, just staring at the screen. I imagine my brain like a scrolling marquee of ideas. After watching the ticker for a bit I just picked one and wrote it. I was able to expand off of this and got about a 1000 words during a lunch break. I like the story and I plan on keeping it fairly short (2000 words max I think). This method of “winging it” has worked but also failed. The Las Vegas story I scrapped last weekend was a wing it session. I explored some ideas to maturation and they just didn’t work.
So do you outline or do you wing it? That is your question to answer. I can only speak for myself. What works for me is outlining the big ones and winging the short ones. If you are not even pondering this sort of thing try what I am trying. If it doesn’t work then try something else. The simple fact that you trying anything at all sets you apart from all the other people out there who stop at the “want to” portion of their writing career.
Danny Machal April 10th, 2009
Posted In: The Craft of Writing, zEverything
Tags: whiz, writers block, writing, Writing Tools
Early today I went over the list of things I needed to do tonight (yes I make lists). I have several different activities on this list that are 100% geared toward writing and getting the brain exercised. I noticed that I had overlooked a deadline for a weekly writing contest that I wanted to take a stab at, it is TONIGHT!
*panic! gasps for air! WHIZ! BANG! POP!*
Normally in a given day I have about 10,000 ideas that I can pull from thin air. If I’m given a prompt to write from I can easily generate all sorts of ideas for the criteria. However tonight I’m drawing blanks and just can’t seem to get past a couple sentences before I run out of gas. I think maybe my brain is just fried. Anyone who knows me or can read the top part of this website knows I have been hitting the words pretty hard lately (everyday for hours), and I just need a break.
I can’t think anymore and I’m struggling to even finish this post. I’m taking the night off unless by some miracle that one great idea comes to me but I doubt it will.
Danny Machal February 17th, 2009
Posted In: The Craft of Writing, zEverything