Feature - Literature

Jan 18, 201514 min read

Deviation Actions

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Published: Jan 18, 2015

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Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go. -- E. L. Doctorow

Featured Deviants

Featured Art of Encouragement

Dragon Below! - Prologue     1102 Year of the Fragmentation Epoch

    He met the old crew on the darkened plain, four raggedy and muted figures materializing from the gloom, drawn from cardinal directions. They came unheeded to the appointed spot, to the salient angle of a worn down megalith leaning alone on Corvin’s Plateau. And though pitch ruled the plains beneath the overcast sky, from the cyclopean stone a soft pale glow lit their features, stirring up conceits about the ravages of time.
    Damn, but we got old, he thought, wincing inwardly when he saw how much hair Jacepi was missing from his head, not to mention the extra layers of fat bulging above the thaumaturge’s waist. Tamm hadn’t fared much better, and Mump suspected the shaman had grown that beard to hide a second, or third chin. Shiver seemed to have aged the best of them, a little softer here and there, but sh

By mnmccarthy

Featured Deviations

To The Boys Who Died In Their SleepTo The Boys Who Died In Their Sleep
c(h)ords s n
a g
cadence in codas
playing andromeda
waves over
tides
washing
lives into over
time
sitting on
deadlines

dead lies
on the other
side of
time
and time folds like old laundry
over clotheslines
fade into two endpoints
like closed lines
this is ad nauseum
not ad infinitum
adding sickness
to Hybrid, Prologue: The Last Battle
Prologue:
The Last Battle
In a room filled with glowing crystals, a tyrian reptilian man, Seiton, sat in his high throne engraved with gargoyles. He held a glass map of the Milky Way Galaxy and smiled deliciously as his beady red eyes skimmed the surface of its black and shaded portions.
Only this star system, Navi was highlighted blue. He touched that star for interface and an image of planet Okma flickered above the map. This planet had native ships flying around it like bees warning each other of danger.
“Spacers,” the man spoke. “All your worlds are destroyed by my touch. Your corpses are disintegrated by my footsteps. You don’t stand a chance in the universe. Now, my Titan Empire has become my galaxy against your world. You will all perish.”
A spiky armored-Titan entered the room. “Lord Seiton, my men are ready.”
His throne creaked as Seiton turned to the soldier and smiled. “Excellent, activate the The Ship That Refused To Be SunkThe summer of 1940, not long after the fall of France. The merchantman Camberwell Beauty travelled alone in the North Atlantic.
An alert lookout spotted water bubbling. “U-Boat off the starboard bow!” he called as the prow of a submarine broke the surface.
The master ordered the eighty-odd crew to man the lifeboats. He wasn’t sure whether the U-Boat skipper would give them time to abandon ship.
He needn’t have worried.
The first thing Oberleutnant zur See Graupner did upon emerging from the conning tower hatch was hail the ship. “British! You have ten minutes to evacuate your ship before we open fire.” He made a point of looking at his wristwatch, before repeating: “Ten minutes.”
As he was talking, men commanded by the second watch officer appeared from the hatch in front of the 88mm deck gun, and preloaded a shell from a small watertight locker ready for firing.
Perhaps he should have simply torpedoed her, but he wanted to play th

Gnome Noir  "I did it for the money and I did it for the girl.
        Well, I didn't get the money – and I didn't get the girl."
::  Walter Neff - Double Indemnity
So I point the flintlock at the guy – and that's no easy thing, big musket like that on a little gnome like me – and I peer down the sight. Not many people know what it's like to stare at a man through a glass. But in those sacred moments, the whole world takes a breath and it's just you and him. I line up the shot, and I think about the girl, and--
What? That is the start. What do you want, Sheriff, my life story?
Alright, well, I'm Gniles Brody the Third – that's GNILES, silent 'g'. G-N-I-L-E-S. Your boys over there in the robes got that? I'm a Risk management clerk. You've heard of Royal Gnomic Treasury, right? Well, that's me and the guys. You got a risk, we cover your back for a modest sum. We're like alchemists - 'cept we turn gold into more gold.
What? This IS the interesting bit! You have any   :thumb341005206:

Discussion

“Show not tell” is a phrase bandied about a lot in literature handbooks, but many struggle to define it. Tell us what this phrase means, in your own words. If you are unsure, don’t be afraid to say that too.

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