All too often we get into a comfortable zone. It’s safe, it’s familiar, and why not you say, after all, we’ve worked years just to get to this point. However, in every writer’s life, comes the time when you have to step outside that zone. Venture into territory unknown and yes, it’s sometimes scary. A…
Tag: stories
Writing Challenge Day Two
Today, set a timer for ten minutes. Pull out a pen and paper and write anything that comes into your head. Doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense, or on the other hand, if it’s part of a scene for a story, a poem, an observation…whatever. When the time is up, put the paper aside….
January Writing Prompts
It’s the first Wednesday of the month so that means it’s time for our new writing prompt format. Each first Wednesday, I’ll post a set of random prompts and ideas that you can use throughout the month to either, write a short story, improve one aspect of your writing or even use it to spark…
Wednesday Writing Prompts-Two POVS
We have three more writing prompts left for the year (including this one). In 2021, we’ll switch to monthly prompts where you can pick and choose from a whole bunch of ideas. So to say goodbye to the old style, I thought we’d mix things up for the rest of 2020. This week, here’s an…
Wednesday Writing Prompts-Image and a Line
October! Every month I try and come up with something different and decided we’d combine an image along with a line from the story. This first week, it’s this photo and let’s use an opening line which is dialogue between two characters. “I’ve never made anything besides toast, but I know I can do this….
How to Give Your Readers An Emotional Read
In the summer retreat I’m teaching, this week, we’ve been focusing on conflict and emotion. I told everyone that while we think we read books for entertainment, that’s only half the reason. The other being emotion. A great story makes you feel an emotion, whether it be joy, anger, fear etc. One easy way to…
What If You Hate A Character?
Can not liking one of your characters be stalling your story? I’d never really thought about that question until one of my students e-mailed me and said she felt it was the reason that her writing output was down. There’s no easy or right, yes or no, response. While I do think you…
Monday Motivation-Put in the Effort
Sometimes you have to give up other things in your life, maybe a hobby that you love, to get that book written. I look at it as hard work that pays off big time when you reach your goal.
Wednesday Writing Prompts-Another Strange Object
Thanks for all the feedback about the strange object prompt from last week…seems you loved the idea. Here’s the second one and I hope it also ignites your creativity. Have fun and happy writing.
Wednesday Writing Prompts-A Conversation
A new month and the start of a new set of prompts. I thought we’d use November to put some photo prompts to good use. Another idea was to use the prompts to practice various writing skills and this week it’s dialogue. Here’s the photo. Start with some dialogue. What are these two people saying…