18 Bonus Chapter: With Great Deadline Comes Great Responsibility-Yuki, Leigh

Yuki Leigh- "What is Running Inside My Head?"

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I look around my bed and find dozens of sheets lying on the floor. The pads belong to me as I jerk my hand across the pages, looking for references that I can use for the competition.

Roxanne perches herself on the corner of the room, as usual, playing the same portable game repeatedly. She does not want to switch gears and do something like her hobby. Roxy is the type of person to do things she likes and wants.

Nobody can stop her, not even me.

"What are you going to write about the competition?" Despite her egocentric personality and hobbies, she is curious enough to know about my work and everything around her.

"I think I'm going to make something emotional and sad," I give her a reply, while typing the first few sentences of my chapter. "I want to make my readers feel something, you know?"

Short stories usually have 1,000 and above words. Although there is a thing called "Flash fiction" that ranges up to 500 words, the contest has its criteria that we, authors, need to follow.

There is no required platform for me to write and send my stories to the competition. As long as I can send them my story, the coordinator will include my work as an entry for the competition.

The only problem with short stories is their plot. Explaining the goals and characters is possible to write but onerous to do. I can make the story longer, but it beats the sense out of making a short narrative.

What I usually do is write something simple yet brings mixed emotions to the readers. If an author can pull this off, then the story will reach the reader's hearts in no time.

For my short story draft, I want to write something that can grab the audience's interests. I want to make them remember this sad story, and convey the feelings of the characters.

"Hehehe~," A horrible, evil laugh escapes out of my mouth as I type the words on the online writing platform of my laptop.

"Here she goes again," Roxanne rolls her eyes and resumes back to her game, defeating the boss for the nth time. "Yuki would slaughter their hearts for sure."

It is better to write in a comfortable environment. That specific location allows your brain to work efficiently and more actively than surrounding yourself with noise that rings your ear.

I have my roommate here with me (Roxanne), but I order her to mute herself whenever I am working. If I want to be honest with myself, I bribe her with portable games and shut her mouth in an instant.

"Remember, a favourable setting brings you to the wonderland-where you explain your dreams through words." I wrote that as my author's statement for my first published book.

I had thought about it on a whim, and now I am stuck with that quote linked in my name.

Before getting all this fame, I was once a rookie who knew nothing about writing. Heck, I don't even know how to write at all!

But that thought never hindered me from what I am today. There will come a time that new authors will receive their first haters. Many of them are trolls to pull you down like a crab grabbing its food from the sands.

You will never know, but you know that those are crabs. It hurts once the crabs pinch you with their claws. The pain is nothing compared to reality.

I do not know what I am saying. And that's what I wrote in my book, after all.

Despite these circumstances, I always advise many authors to avoid these scums.

The haters, I mean.

They are not worth the time and effort. You are not obliged to give the bullies a reply. But if you do, then thank these negative people for giving your novel a try.

Who are they to even shame you or your novel? They do not lay the plate down on your table when you are hungry.

Short stories and novels are not much of a difference. Both of them need a plot, characters, settings, and more.

And the most prominent thing that every author needs to remember is the conflict. A good problem drives the story. The readers are paying close attention to the solutions and redeem themselves with the answers.

Authors must write their characters in three-dimensional, or we like to call it "real people" in our vocabularies. They have goals to achieve, wishes to get and even emotions that can relate to the readers.

Villains are one thing that you need to consider.

Antagonists in short stories are not that recommended to apply, especially when you also need to explain their side. And always remember that the villain has their morals and their ways of dealing with the matter.

The antagonist and the protagonist butt their heads against something that they believe. It can be anything that the author could think of, and that's what I do with my stories.

There are times you need to gather your thoughts and plan the story before putting it into words. I know that feeling very well since I write thousands of storylines that I have not glued to paper.

Having a well-made plot drags the readers into the extensive abyss. That novel will keep a reader all night trying to ask for questions, and even more questions once answered.

If the author plans on making a science fiction or fantasy type of genre, then playing with Science is a key to victory. If I remember it correctly, most people call it "world-building". It is to help readers to visualise the sceneries of the surroundings.

Another valuable tip that I usually apply in my novels and stories is to exercise my brain with unfamiliar words. Simple texts are easier to understand than complex words with hidden meanings. You can reach innumerable readers with simple words and plot, and that is alright!

The complex vocables turn the book into a hellish nightmare for the readers. Remember the crab that pulls you to its burrow? Imagine the crab turning into a spider, with its cobs buried underground. That's the metaphor that labyrinthine words do to readers.

And, for the second time, I do not know what I am thinking. I blurt everything that comes into mind, and this helps me with my work!

The last gratuity I do is exercising my brain with puzzling scenarios where I describe something out of the blue. An example that I use for my anonymous readers in my fanbase is "how can you describe the colour red to a blind person?". It is not the best practice, but it helps me from time to time enhance my narrating skills into shape.

"I also need to write that down," I mumble to myself and note every bit of detail running through my mind.

I take a glance at Roxanne, who is still busy with her game. I am stuck in a bottleneck, trying to define the scenes inside my head.

"Hey, Roxanne," I call out for her attention, while tapping my feet on her waist.

"What do you want?"

"How would you feel if the aliens took me away right now?"

Roxy immediately switches the power off in the console and looks at me with a bewildering face. It almost feels like she is about to cry in front of me when he hears the abrupt question.

"Are you going to leave me too?" She finally voices her expressions and wails. Soon, the tears coming from her eyes fill the floor, creating a salty puddle enough for the ants to swim around.

"No, silly," I reply and give her a quick pat. "Reference."

With that single word, she reverts to her older self and eventually answers my random question.

"Then I will be a spy and hunt down those aliens who kidnapped you!" Roxy responds in an elated tone, almost frightening enough to send a shiver down my spine.

"Is that a knife she is holding?" I ask myself, hallucinating a blade sharp enough to slice anything, gripping it in her hands.

I shake my head and answer, "That did not help me at all."

Roxanne firmly nods to my remark, agreeing to what I have just said.

I occasionally ask people what they would feel about something in a situation. Their answers are valuable to me and serves as an option that I can reconsider when my characters get stricken with the plot. I will use their insights into my own and create the following points of the story.

That's how I compile my stories into chapters.

"So, how are you going with your short story?" Roxanne leans closer to my desk and peers at the screen.

Her eyes suddenly shed a tear as it slides on her cheeks as she read the first few lines of the chapter. After all, the story is about a father who had lost his son, whom he really loves.