[Write On Wednesday] Christmas Redux

It’s the perfect time to write a Christmas/New Year/Winter story!

Don’t believe me? Take a lesson from the wily Dutch.

Everybody knows that the time to plant spring bulbs is in the autumn and yet every spring I receive multiple catalogues from dutch tulip and daffodil distributors. Six months after (or before) I should (have) plant(ed) their products. What lunacy is this?

The bulb marketers know that in spring I’m experiencing floral beauty and regretting not having planted more bulbs last year. It’s all fresh. I can see where I could put this Red Matador and that Orange Empress to fill a scraggy gap in my flower beds. I am full of good intentions about next year.

And, in January, is that not how you feel? As you pack away the holiday decorations, are you not full of regret over the things not done? The gifts unsought? The cards unsent? Is the memory of your brother-in-law’s annual jokes about your dessert not fresh in your memory?

Indeed. So now is the perfect time to write a story set in the season we have just endured enjoyed.

The Prompt

Write A December/Jan Holiday Story[1. No, I’m not conducting a War on Christmas. I, myself, celebrate Christmas. I just feel it’s polite to acknowledge the other 68% of humanity. It has less punch than “write a Christmas story”, I grant you. But if that’s the price for doing unto others, then I’m willing to pay it here in my blog…]

Tips

  • Think back over this past season and watch for strong emotions that pop up. What are they related to? Regrets? Vows of ‘never again’? Longing for next year’s repeat? Write those things down.
  • Think of moments that stood out for you. Why? What was the emotional resonance?
  • Think of a character you can put in a seasonal story who wants something. It can be something that is in tune with the message of the season or at odds with it, but they must feel strongly about it.
  • Now go about messing with their day. Put obstacles in their path. Put obnoxious visitors underfoot. Burn the turkey. Send in the ghosts of Christmas to settle their hash. Whatever works for your story…

Go!

There. Now you have a story ready to post on your blog/submit to a seasonal publication in early autumn/send out with your Christmas cards next Black Friday (you are going to send Christmas cards next year, aren’t you? Unlike this year? I know, I know, it’ll be our little secret…)

Now, excuse me while I check my mailbox for the Breck’s Bulb Catalogue…

 

 

(Do you send out a holiday story in seasonal cards to your friends? Make a note now on your calendar to do this next year!)

[Write on Wednesday] Day 1 Of Your New Routine: Madlibs

I know, it’s January 14 and you haven’t quite got that whole ‘Write Every Day’ thing down yet. I’m not sure many of us have.

So here’s a ‘story formula’ prompt to get you going again. Today is Day One of your new routine. Yes, you! You know I’m talking to you!

(Take heart! Any day can be Day One!).

Go through this exercise quickly and then write a fast & messy story from it. Have fun. No pressure! No standards! Post it, if you dare, in the comments!

Go!

 

Follow along with this exercise to get your creative juices flowing:

why do [these people] never [verb][nouns]?

(e.g. Why do corporate raiders never fall in love with the woman who owns the indy bookstore they are about to destroy? OR, my husband’s suggestion: “Why do chemists never eat broccoli?”)

What would happen if they suddenly did?

(e.g. What would happen if Tom Hanks fell in love with the adorkable indy bookseller? OR What would happen if a chemist suddenly tempted fate by eating the forbidden brassica?)

What if they stopped? What if they didn't?

(e.g. What if Tom Hanks resists Meg Ryan’s charms? OR What if Tom’s bosses tell him to break it off, but he doesn’t? Two different stories, no?)

What if their friends staged an intervention

(Imagine Tom’s bosses, or our chemist’s colleagues, sitting around in a room, ready to lay out the stakes for Tom, the chemist, and the story, not to mention the adorkable lady bookseller and/or the diminishing stores of broccolonium, the one potential source of Everything This Planet Needs, that non-chemists are wantonly chowing down on, right left and center!)

What if we walked into the room just before they decide how to respond?

(Take a moment to picture this in your mind. Who’s there? Who does it matter to?)

We can see [nouns]

(Who is there? Where are they? Standing? Sitting? What does their posture tell us? Where is our hero? What’s in the room with them? What does that lend to the atmosphere? What do the objects in the room tell us about the overall setting of the story? What do the objects tell us about the tone of the scene? Corporate furniture=an ambush. Cosy bookstore=Our hero on home turf)

We can hear [what?]. We can smell [what?]

(What details can you draw on to color in the scene for the reader?)

It feels...

(Is the atmosphere convivial? Is it adversarial? Are people witty? Are there undercurrents? What are those undercurrents?)

Start Your Story Now

 (Write anything! Except the broccoli story. That one’s mine!)

Bonus Points: Post your story in the comments. Read and comment on other people’s stories.

How did they turn out? Did you get something original and *you*? Did you write something different from everyone else?

[Write On Wednesday] Laughter

Following up on the recent theme of emotional writing prompts, here’s one that’s good for a laugh.

smile!
smile! by Lin Pernille Photography LLC, on Flickr

The Prompt

Write A Story That Features Laughter

Tips

  • Laughter can be cleansing, hysterical (in a bad way), nervous, comradely, cruel. Pick one, or cram as many as possible into one story.
  • Think about the physicality of laughter at the moment it happens.
  • Think about the emotions the memory of the laughter (happy or cruel) elicits later.
  • Use the moment of laughter as a plot device. It is the start or the end of something. It is some place/time/state your character wants to get back to or escape from.
  • If you’re showing laughter-following-a-joke, take a tip from Joss Whedon’s Firefly. He has a couple of scenes where he skips the joke and cuts straight to the characters laughing uproariously at whatever was said just off camera. That saves the audience from having to analyze the joke (“was it really that funny?”) and allows them to watch how the laughing characters react and interact. It allows for the sense of catharsis from the laughter without having to share the writer’s sense of humor. (Watch for the dinner scene in the episode Out Of Gas, around the 5:00 min mark).

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] Anger

Continuing a trend from last week and the week before, here’s another prompt that leads you into plot via your main character’s emotion.

Rage Wallpaper
Rage Wallpaper by Thoth God of Knowledge, on Flickr

The Prompt

Write A Story That Features Anger

Tips

  • You can start your story with an angry outburst then spend the rest of it unpacking what prompted the rage, or exploring the consequences of one person’s rage for all the characters around them.
  • You can build up to a big, angry finish — showing your character giving in to something they’ve been fighting all the way through the story.
  • Think about how you have experienced anger in your own life — both in yourself and observing it in others.
  • Try to get inside the head of someone who has a very different ‘anger vector’ than yourself. (If you’re a ‘push me for weeks until I explode’ person, think about writing a character who is a ‘rage and forget it’ sort).
  • Remember there is such a thing as righteous anger.
  • To avoid the story becoming too intense, use the concept of the opposite emotion to show that your character(s) is/are capable of other emotions too. (What is the opposite of anger? Depends on the type of anger, doesn’t it? It might be charm, or humor, or kindness, or gentleness.
  • How can you tell a story that includes one character containing two opposing attributes. Think about what a character like that wants and go from there).
  • What kind of language will you use? Animal metaphors? Short, choppy sentences? Dialogue? How will you avoid clichés?

Go

 

[Write On Wednesday] Joy

Write A Story In Which A Character Experiences Joy

Continuing on from last week’s prompt about a character experiencing an emotion, this week we’re focusing on Joy.

joy!
joy! by atomicity, on Flickr

The Prompt

Write A Story In Which A Character Experiences Joy

Tips

  • How to define ‘joy’? I’m going with ‘a momentary experience of intense happiness’, though CS Lewis famously mixed that feeling of happiness with one of ‘longing’ in his definition of joy.
  • The main character does not have to be the character experiencing the moment of joy. They can be an observer.
  • How do the characters observing the joy-filled character’s behavior react? Do they reflect the joy? Do they feel bereft because they lack it? Do they envy the other person? Do they show that directly by being sad, or do they bury it and act like a jerk?
  • Will the joyful moment happen at the beginning of your story and kick off all the events that follow? Will the character be sustained by the fleeting sensation or spend a miserable existence in a futile attempt to recapture it?
  • Will you build up to the moment of joy at the end of your story (huge climax? Happy ending?)
  • What does it actually feel like to experience (or witness) joy?
  • What kind of a character could really use a little joy, and how can you put them in a situation where they experience it? Do they deserve it? Does that matter?

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] Homesick

Write A Story In Which A Character Is Homesick

Character is king, in stories, but how can you make your character more realistic? Share an emotion that all of us have experienced. Examine it in the context of what your plot is doing to the character. This is an especially useful skill to work on if your stories tend to be set in fantastic, futuristic or historical settings. We can’t easily identify with Frodo fighting off goblins, but we can feel his pain as he longs for the Shire (and shed a tear when he and Sam face the reality that they probably won’t make it home again).

The Prompt

Write A Story In Which A Character Is Homesick

Tips

  • Make the homesickness fuel the plot somehow – have the character make a truly stupid decision in reaction to their homesick impulse. Or have them do whatever it takes to overcome it.
  • Put the homesickness in a surprising context — maybe a soldier finds himself ‘homesick’ for the place he had the worst experience of his life; maybe a 90 year old immigrant smells something that catapults her back to her childhood in a faraway land…
  • Maybe it’s not your main character who is homesick. Who else could be homesick and how would that affect your protagonist?
  • Are the people around the homesick character sympathetic? Impatient? Uncomprehending? Oblivious? Why?
  • Lead the reader through the emotions of homesickness as your character experiences it. Is it an ache in their forearms as they resist the temptation to call their old home phone number and see who answers? Is it a yawning hollow in their belly, as if they’ll never be able to eat enough to fill it? Is it a prickle behind their eyelids and a digging of nails into palms? Think about how you’ve felt when you’ve had that yearning to go home again.
  • If you’re not managing to conjure up the emotions to mine, try this: go to Google maps. Type in the address of somewhere you went once, for a shining hour or day or year — somewhere that holds special memories for you. Go into Street View. (Look up your first family home, your first school, that place you went on vacation once and had the torrid affair with  a local boy…). Look at the light, the sky, the architecture, the sidewalks, the window frames, the shop fronts. What do you feel? What do you notice? What had you forgotten? Use details like this to make your character’s longing for home seem real to a reader.

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] An Argument

A Pretty Argument
A Pretty Argument by Just Ard on Flickr

Today I was writing a scene for a longer story in which my fish-out-of-water character comes up against people she has befriended but disagrees with. It’s very difficult for her to do this, and it was so much fun to write, that I’m recommending you try something similar.

The Prompt

Write A Story Centered Around An Argument

Tips

  • Make sure you make it clear what each character wants and what the stakes are for each character in this argument (in my case, my main character desperately wants to fix a mistake she has made that had consequences for her new friends, without getting them in more trouble. They want to help her and she’s determined to go it alone. The new friends variously want to help her because: they like her; they have a lot to lose too; it’s the right thing to do; they’re bored and want adventure; and simply to take advantage of an opportunity to tease a big brother mercilessly. Each character in the argument has a reason to be in it.)
  • Think about how you FEEL when you’re in an argument. Try to use some of that physicality — but without resorting to cliché. Be outrageous. Make up new metaphors that suit your setting. Have fun with this. You can always edit them out later.
  • If you want this to be more than a ‘talking heads’ situation, have your characters DO something as they argue: maybe they’re hiking along a dangerous ridge so they must remain in control or they risk plunging over the edge; maybe they’re doing the dishes; maybe they are hiding from the bad guys and the whole argument must be whispered…
  • Have some fun with this. Let your characters say things you would NEVER say, because you’re such a nice person (you are, aren’t you?)

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] Stolen Secrets

Thanks to StoryADay-er Jeffrey T for recommending this resource!

Postsecret.comPostSecret is a site where people confess their secrets online, via postcard. Some are sweet, some are sad and some are downright disturbing. They are all fantastic moments that suggest short stories.

The Prompt

Write a story based on a secret shared at PostSecret.com

Tips

  • If you’re worried about ‘stealing’ someone’s story, don’t be. You’re inspired by the emotion behind their postcard, or the moment that it evokes. What you write won’t be their story. It’ll be yours.
  • Don’t quote the actual words on the postcard (that’s plagiarism). Just think about what inspired the person to confess this secret and go from there.
  • Don’t choose one of the tragic ones unless you like writing tragic stories. I liked this one, this one, and this one.
  • Don’t be surprised if your story veers away from your first assumptions.
  • Focus on the moment suggested by the secret. Write only about that. Use as little backstory as possible, for a taut, emotional story.

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] Examine An Object

Today’s prompt is inspired by three things. The first was the release this week of a US prisoner of war. It made me think of the many hostage and prison stories I’ve read, where people have lived in tiny cells for years on end and how it changes them. The second is the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in which a woman, trapped in her domestic life, fixates on the wallpaper of her room and always finds something new to see. The third is the essay “Fish” by Robin Sloan, which shares an observation exercise, in which students are asked to observe a dead fish long past the point when it would seem to be interesting.

If you can, read both those stories and then try this prompt.

Seeing My World Through A Keyholeby Kate Ter Haar
Seeing My World Through A Keyholeby Kate Ter Haar

The Prompt

Write about a person who is forced, by circumstance or outside agency, to observe a limited view for an unlimited time.

Tips

  • Describe what they see, remembering that their use of language will reflect how they feel about the situation they find themselves in.
  • How what they see and how they feel about it change over time?
  • What do they think about when all they to do is look at the same thing over and over again?
  • How does this change over time?
  • What does this tell us about the character?
  • What universal truths might there be in what your character is thinking?
  • If you get stuck, just start a new paragraph as if some time has passed. Have your character describe the view again, and think about how they might have changed in the intervening time.
  • Don’t worry if you don’t think this is making a great story. Keep going. You’ll find a way to end it if you let the character speak.

Go!

 

[Writing Prompt] An Ending And A Beginning

It’s the end of the StoryADay May 2014 challenge.

But it is just the beginning of the rest of your writing life.

I hope the challenge this year has opened your eyes to how very, very creative you can be; to how well you can write; and how important it is to the world that you keep writing.

Stay tuned for more information on the upcoming Revisions course and do keep in touch!

The Prompt

An Ending And A Beginning

Tips

Without wishing to sound like a motivational poster, the end of one thing leads to the beginning of something else. Write your story today in that moment of transition.

Will your character struggle with the idea of the ending, or be wildly excited about the new beginning? Will your character’s expectations be upset? By what?

Every stage of life has transitions. Some are expected (leaving school, getting married, starting a new job) and others come completely out of the blue (a death, the end of a friendship, a job offer, a pregnancy, someone else leaving home). Think about how this affects your character’s reaction.

Go to town on this story. Use everything you have learned this month about: how you write best, when you write best, what length works for you, what tone/style works for you, what kinds of characters speak to you most, the kinds of dialogue or description that you enjoy,  the use of suspense, beginnings, middles, ends, theme, character, conflict, action, the ways you’ve learned to get yourself into the writing zone… Everything you have worked on in your writing this month is a tool you can use in this story, today. Have fun. Let yourself go. Finish the story.

Get up tomorrow and keep writing.

GO!

AWOOOOOOOOOOHAAAAAA! We have reached the end of the month. Take a moment to let out a whoop of joy and accomplishment (if you finished even one story then you’re a winner in my book. But if you finished 31? I bow in awe!). Then leave a comment, write a blog, pop into the community. Share your joy. Share what you’ve learned. Share your frustrations. Make plans for the future. Tell us, tell us, tell us, and never stop writing!

Thank you for making this month and this challenge so utterly amazing. The world is a better place for having your stories in it!

[Writing Prompt] 215

There are 215 days left in 2014. What will you do with them?

As the StoryADay May challenge for 2014 winds down, it’s time to look back a bit, forward a bit, and plan how you’ll use the lessons learned in this month of extreme writing. Hop on over to the community hand have a chat about your plans.

But not until you’ve written today’s story.

The Prompt

Two Hundred And Fifteen

Tips Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] 215”

[Writing Prompt] Start A Riot

On May 29, 1913, Igor Stravinsky’s ballet score The Rites of Spring premiered in Paris and sparked a riot!

(Wouldn’t you love to have a short-story-reading public that was so passionate about the art, they were willing to throw punches?!)

The Prompt

Write About A Gathering Of Experts That Degenerates Into A Rammy

Tips Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Start A Riot”

[Writing Prompt] A Holiday Story

And yes, I do mean the winter/Christmas/Thanksgiving/Hannukka/Samhain/Diwali/Hogmanay/New Year/Kwanzaa/Chinese New Year/Solstice/Saturnalia/Festivus November/December/January type of holiday.

If you ever think of submitting your stories to literary magazines, contests, anthologies, or other publications, you need to know two things:

  1. They are often themed and holiday stories are always popular,
  2. Your story needs to be written, edited, submitted, selected, corrected, and green lit, month in advance of the actual holiday.

Write your December stories now. Time’s running out.

The Prompt

Write A Story Tied To A Holiday That Takes Place In November/December/January/February

Tips

  • Evoke the sights, smells, sounds and emotions you associate with that holiday.
  • Put on some appropriate holiday music to get you in the mood.
  • Go beyond the obvious idea for the story associated with your chosen holiday. No saccharine tales of redemption or bitter humbug retellings of A Christmas Carol, for us!
  • Make the characters stronger than the trappings of the holiday.
  • Write the story for someone who has never participated in your holiday traditions. Show them what it’s like to be you at Christmas/Hanukkah/Hogmanay/Groundhog Day.

Need more tips? Here’s a podcast episode that talks you through it:

GO!

Which holiday did you choose? What did you do to get in the mood? Do you think you’ll revise and submit this story to a publication? Tell us in the comments or join the conversation in the comments

[Writing Prompt] It Ain’t Easy, Being…

Today’s writing prompt is a traditional ‘scenario’ prompt. I give you the scene and a character, you run wild with it.

The Prompt

Tonight is the kid’s talent show. Your character is determined to be there. Unfortunately your main character is no run-of-the-mill suburban parent. This time, thought, they’re not going to let that job get in the way. No matter what comes up they’re going to let someone else handle it. They can’t stand the thought of getting that look from the kid one more time…

Tips Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] It Ain’t Easy, Being…”

[Writing Prompt] Date With Destiny

OK, so for most of this month I’ve been encouraging you to write, write, and nothing but write. No thoughts of publication or audience to scare you into writers’ block. But you’ve been at this for 24 days now. I think you’ve probably proved a thing or two to yourself (like a, you’re stubborn; b, not everything you write is garbage and c, you can do this!). So today, just for a moment, let’s remember that part of writing is a desire to connect with other people. We can do that by having our work published in magazines that already have a reading-audience built in.

The Prompt

Find a contest or submission deadline on a theme you like, and write a story as if you were going to submit to that market

Tips

  • You don’t have to submit the story in the end (and if you do, you probably shouldn’t submit the version you write today. Put it away for a couple of weeks, show it to writing-friends, revise it, format it according to the market’s guidelines and then send it).
  • You can find market and contest listings at Duotrope.com, WritersMarket.com (subscription), Poets & Writers and many, many other places online. I have subscription to Duotrope and find it to be the best managed market listings site I’ve come across in almost 20 years of using the things.
  • Go beyond the obvious ideas suggested by the theme or guidelines. Try out several different characters and scenarios. Push your ideas into the realms of the ridiculous and beyond, before you ever start writing one of them. Remember, editors are going for receive hundreds of entries for every publishing slot they have. Your best bet is to be original. Part of that is your voice, but part of it is your ability to push past the first, obvious idea you have.

Go!

How did writing to spec or with a deadline, feel? Did you find a market that seemed particularly promising? Did you choose a contest with an upcoming deadline? Share them (if you dare) in the comments or the community.

[Writing Prompt] Title Recall

Today we’re stealing from the Beach Boys. Use their title to write an original story

The Prompt

Write A Story Titled “Good Vibrations”

Tips

  • You can write a Beach Boys-related story about surfing and California if you want.
  • Think about the ways you could use the words in the title — ways  that have nothing to do with the original song.
  • Write 10 different ideas for plays on the words ‘good’ and ‘vibrations’
  • Write a story about a person who was influenced by (or grew up listening to) the song
  • Set the story somewhere completely unexpected (like 10,000 years in the future, on an alien moon colony), or under the sea.

Go!

What did you do with this prompt? How are you holding yup 23 days into the challenge? What do you need to get you to Day 31? Comment or talk about it in the community.

[Writing Prompt] Will’s Words

Today we’re stealing from another master: William Shakespeare.

The Prompt

Write A Story That Incorporates This Quote (or its spirit)

“If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?

Tips

  • If you don’t like this quote, here’s another to play with: “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
  • Consider making the quote the last line (or first line) of your story.
  • How can you incorporate the actual line into your story? What kind of story will you write if you opt to use the spirit of the quote rather than Will’s words?
  • Shakespeare endures, not because we’re interested in Elizabethan life, but because the characters he wrote were so true to human nature. Make your characters similarly realistic.

GO!

Which quote did you use? Did you use it verbatim or only in the spirit? How did this prompt help with your writing today? Comment below or join the conversation in the community.

[Writing Prompt] Word List Silliness

This is an extremely silly way to start a story, but it always seems to work — maybe because it removes any pressure you may be putting on yourself to write something “good”. Today you write a story using these words from my Third Grader’s spelling list.

The Prompt

Use These Words In A Story: Lettuce, Happen, basket, Winter, Sister, Monster, Supper, Subject, Puppet

Tips

  • Don’t worry too much about this one. Just write something!
  • Don’t forget to give us a character who want something (perhaps a lettuce? A sister? A monster?).
  • Post your story somewhere we can see it (in the comments or in the community) and read everyone else’s stories. Revel in the weirdness!

Go!

Did you remember to post your story in the comments or in the community? Did you have fun with this? Was your story, nevertheless, serious? What does that tell you about writing in general?

[Writing Prompt] Non-Linear Tales

We’ve looked at the parts of the story. We’ve looked at point of view. We’ve learned the rules. Now I’m inviting you to throw it all out of the window.

The Prompt

Write A Non-Linear Story

Tips Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Non-Linear Tales”

[Writing Prompt] Write an Epistolary Story

Breaking with the narrative form again today, after flogging it’s poor dead horse corpse at the beginning of the week. Today we tackle a form for which I have an inexplicable and enduring love: letters!

The Prompt

Write An Epistolary Story (i.e. One Told As A Series of Letters/Documents)

Tips

  • Take the term “Letters/Documents” with a huge pinch of salt. Write a story made up of Tweets, Facebook updates, text messages between friends, comments on a Vine video, an author Q&A, whatever tickles your fancy.
  • Write a ‘story’ as a list (think McSweeneys).
  • Write a mock guidebook to some place you know well (or some experience you’ve been through)
  • Write an open letter to someone your character hates/loves/has a bone to pick with. Consider including a response from their object of scorn/affection/correction.

GO!

What form did you choose? How did it work out for you? Leave a comment or join the conversation in the community.

[Writing Prompt] Multiple Perspectives

I’ve been going on (and on) about the importance of not ‘head-hopping’ between characters in a different scene, to take things easy on the reader. Today I say: mix it up! Make the reader work for their entertainment!

The Prompt

Write A Story From Multiple Perspectives

Tips Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Multiple Perspectives”

[Writing Prompt] Third Person, Limited Perspective

Today, it’s back to the tried and true, a format you’re probably much more familiar with than yesterday’s Second Person. Yes, today we write in Third Person, Limited Omniscience, perspective.

All of which means, you get inside a character’s head and stay there.

The Prompt

Write A Story in The Third Person, Limited Perspective

Tips

  • As with First Person, there is no head-hopping in Third Person, Limited. The difference is that everything is told in ‘he’ or ‘she’, rather than “I” and the character is not talking directly to a reader.
  • In Third Person, Limited, you still have to stay with the protagonist and what he/she knows. No popping out of character to look behind the curtain. Oh, there’s an example: the Wizard of Oz movie. The audience learns everything about that world at the same time that Dorothy does. The Wizard knows he’s just ‘the man behind the curtain’ all along, but Dorothy — and therefore, the audience — learn it in a big ‘reveal’ near the end. If this story was being told in Third Person, Omniscient, the film makers could have cut away and shown us the sham-wizard before Dorothy even gets near to her goal. That would have made for a different experience for the audience, don’t you agree?
  • The fact that the reader stays with the protagonist is one reason this is such a popular format for thrillers and mysteries. You, as the writer, can keep secrets from audience, only revealing them when it’s important to the character. Because you are pulling the strings, however, you can use your knowledge to foreshadow things that are coming up (if you’re a plotter. Otherwise, you’ll have to go back in and do this in the revision stage!)
  • Use today’s story as an exercise in trusting the reader. Pledge not to use the words “he thought” or “she felt” or “he assumed” or anything like that. Allow your protagonist to make declarative statements in their thoughts, without explaining that ‘she thought’. Here’s an example: “Sykes flops his entire torso out the window and yells, “Hell yes I’m drunk baby and I’m married too! But I’ll still love you ugly in the morning!” This gets the girls laughing and for a moment there’s hope, but Billy can see the light already dimming in their eyes. He sits back and pulls out his cell; they were probably never serious anyway.” (Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk: A Novel by Ben Fountain) It’s pretty clear that “they were probably never serious anyway” is Billy’s thought, isn’t it? But the author never feels the need to tell us this. Try it out in your story today.
  • As an experiment try re-writing your First Person story in Third Person Limited today.

Go!

Did you rewrite an earlier story in a new POV? Tell us about it in the comments.

[Guest Prompt] Charlotte Rains Dixon

The Prompt

Write about the best gift your character was given.  Incorporate one of the seven deadly sins (wrath, gluttony, sloth, greed, pride, lust, envy) into the story.

 

Charlotte Rains Dixon is the author of Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior. She is a novelist, writing teacher, free-lance journalist, ghostwriter, and author. Continue reading “[Guest Prompt] Charlotte Rains Dixon”

[Writing Prompt] Second Person, Awkward

In the Second Person, the story is told like this, “You are walking around in the depths of winter and you find yourself shivering”.

It’s not a format that we see much and as a result it can be tricky to pull off. But it’s worth a try if only to show up the advantages of the other points-of-view available to you. Or maybe you’ll be one of those people, like Jay McInerney, who turns it into a work that is acknowledged as a contemporary classic.

The Prompt

Write A Story in the Second Person Perspective Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Second Person, Awkward”

[Writing Prompt] Putting ‘I’ First

This week we’re going to be playing with point of view. It’s easy to get stuck writing from the same perspective in every story. To break you of that habit, we’re going to be trying the all this week! Feel free to write the same story over and over again, this week, playing with perspective.

The Prompt

Write A Story Told In The First Person

Tips

  • First person is relatively easy because it’s how we tell all our stories in every day life (“Oh, you’ll never believe what happened on the way in this morning! I was standing in the line for coffee, and …”)
  • Because your story is all from the perspective of one person, we can never know what any other character is thinking. We can know what the “I” character thinks another person is thinking, but remember that this is always colored by the protagonist’s feelings about the issue and the other person.
  • Grab a book off your shelf to see how this is done: check-lit and Young Adult are often written in First Person. If you have a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird, Jane Eyre, Gulliver’s Travels or The Great Gatsby, pull them off the shelf and see how First Person was handled by the masters.

GO!

[Writing Prompt] Your Voice Is Unique

One of the things newer writers worry about most is originality: how can I have an original idea when all the stories have been told.

Today we’re going to do a little exercise to prove that originality is not about the characters, the even the events of the story. Originality comes from you, writing in your voice, as only you can.

The Prompt

Write A Cinderella Story. Share (At Least An Excerpt) In The Comments 

Tips Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Your Voice Is Unique”

[Writing Prompt] Give Your Characters A Voice

Today we’re going to focus on dialogue.

Gripping, realistic dialogue can bring a story and its characters to life. Writing great dialogue, however, takes practice.

The Prompt

Write A Story Told Almost Completely In Dialogue

Tips

  • Remember that how we speak (what we say and what we don’t say) is heavily influenced by how we’re feeling — what kind of day we’re having; how we feel about what we’re saying; how we feel about who we’re saying it to.
  • Use emotions to dictate word choice, length of sentence (if you’re breathless because the object of your affection is actually talking to you, your sentences are going to be fragmentary. If you’re talking about a your life’s work, you’re going to use big words and jargon and hardly pause for breath).
  • Remember that no-one really talks like they do in plays: no-one listens carefully and answers appropriately, and no-one tells the whole truth.
  • You can use play format to write this (” STAN: I can’t believe you said that! / MOLLY [walking away]: Believe it, bub.”).
  • You can write this is a more traditionally narrative way (“I can’t believe you said that!” / “Believe it, bub” / “Come back, please! Honey?”)
  • You can include dialogue tags and ‘stage directions’ if you feel you need them. This can be helpful if more than two people are talking. (“‘I can’t believe you said that!’ / ‘Believe it, bub,’ Molly said. / ‘You are so screwed, bro.’ Dan shook his head as he watched his friend’s wife walk away, her head held high. ‘I think she means it this time.’ “)
  • Don’t go crazy with the dialogue tags (…she cheered; she exulted… “She said” is usually fine). And watch your adjectives, unless you’re writing a Tom Swift parody!
  • People rarely use each other’s names in everyday speech. Resist the temptation to have your characters do it. Instead, focus on making each character’s way of expressing themselves distinctive. (How often have you heard a story your friend told you, laughed, and said ‘yup, that sounds like something he’d say’? People DO sound different from each other. Use that.)
  • It might be easiest to limit this story to two characters so you can really focus on each of their voices — with maybe a walk-on part from a waiter or a cop or the person they’ve been waiting for, just to mix things up.

GO!

What form did you decide on? How did this go for you? Do you usually write a lot of dialogue or was this new for you? Leave a comment below or chat about it in the community.

[Writing Prompt] Lights, Camera, Action!

How did you get on yesterday? Did you post in the comments or the community about your writing? Which proverb or ‘theme’ did you use?

Every story — even the most literary, introspective story — needs action.

Stuff must happen.

Action is the agent of change and your characters must change (even for a moment) or face an opportunity for change,  for your story to interest people. “Stuff happening” is what gives you the opportunity to show that opportunity for change.

The Prompt

Write A Story Wrapped Around An Action Scene

Tips Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Lights, Camera, Action!”

[Writing Prompt] Gabriela Pereira – Musical Cues

The Prompt

Choose a piece of music from the list below. Listen through it once or twice and get your mind in the mood of the music. Then start writing.

  • Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens
  • Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland
  • Egmont Overture by Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 (II. Adagio Sostenuto) by Sergei Rachmaninoff
  • The Planets by Gustav Holst (choose one movement)

Gabriela Pereira is the Creative Director and Instigator of DIY MFA, the do-it-yourself alternative to a Masters degree in writing. She creates workshops and tools to help writers get the MFA experience without going to school.

DIYMFA.com logoGabriela holds an MFA in Writing for Children from The New School. When she’s not teaching or designing learning tools for DIY MFA, she enjoys writing some fiction of her own. She especially loves writing middle grade and teen fiction, with a few “”short stories for grown-ups”” thrown in for good measure. Visit DIYMFA.com to learn more about Gabriela and DIY MFA.

[Also, don’t miss the Writer Igniter visual prompt machine at Gabriela’s site. So much fun!]