Hello everyone,
Collectanea definition by Merriam-Webster is collected writings or literary items forming a collection. First defined in 1791, it comes from the Latin word collectaneus. This book is a collection of short stories ranging from five hundred words to over four thousand words. The stories are assorted genres including humorous, tragedy, romance, caring, redemption, and sorrow. Some of the stories are in first-person narrative as if the speaker is telling the story over a cup of coffee or maybe around a fire pit with close friends. The rest are the more traditional formats of short stories. Although not directly expressed in the telling, the stories come from a Gospel-centered perspective.
This past week filled my time with editing and rewriting a collection of short stories. I am changing the format of the stories from telling to showing it to the reader. An example is: “I went to the store” as opposed to, “I drove my 1972 Mustang to Target.” From there, I might change it further to “The Drive my 1972 Mustang to Target felt exciting and thrilling.” Again making it much more stimulating to the reader.
This is a tiring and tedious adjustment to my old collection of short stories. I started almost twenty years ago at writing short stories to improve my writing skills. Through the years, the wording changed to make them more readable without destroying the narrative of the story.
I am looking for volunteers to read and comment on my stories. If you would like to help an old math guy get better with writing, please email me at dannymac@dannymacauthor.com and I will arrange a PDF for you to read.
If you have read any of my books, please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon.
God bless,
Danny Mac