|
A Writing Exercise for Everyone to Try
You are invited to visit http://thewritinghouse.blogspot.com/ for my latest on "Kicking the Box."
Week One Hundred Sixty-Three - Escape
This week is short and simple. Write an escape scene. Your character is either in danger or imprisoned. He or she must escape or die. Write fast. Time is of the essence.
Week One Hundred Sixty-Two - Tea Time or Coffee Break
We have rituals in our society where friends and/or co-workers gather to hang out and just chat. I do tea, but I'm aware that lots of people love coffee, so I've given you a choice. Write a scene about your tea time or coffee break. Pour yourself a cuppa or a cup of Joe and write in a wild, free, and let-it-all-hang-out fashion. It's not often we get to be productive while taking a break. :-)
Week One Hundred Sixty-One - Freedom for You
If you've been doing the exercises from previous weeks, it time to recharge and go out and experience life. Some people are gifted and can be shut away their whole lives and write great stuff. The rest of us find inspiration by interacting with nature and other people. Jobs are wonderful for real-life story references. But an occasional change of pace awakens us at a new level. Change refreshers us and give us new eyes on old matters and opens us up to learning and growing. So go out and have an experience. Then in the peace of your home or hotel room, write about it. Don't edit. Use all your words. This is your freedom.
Week One Hundred Sixty - Freedom, Part 4
Look at your scenes from the previous weeks and write a great ending. Making it moving and memorable. What happens to your main character and the strange creature. What sacrifice is made? What is accomplished? Have no preconceived notions. Have fun with it.
Week One Hundred Fifty-Nine - Freedom, Part 3
Write a scene where your main character and the strange creature confront each other. How do they communicate? What would your main character do if he or she could keep the creature? What would she or he do with the creature? What does the creature want? Explore.
Think outside the box. Kick the box and create your own world. To invite others into a world, describe it well and define its rules. Read Dragonriders of Pern for an example of a create world.
Week One Hundred Fifty-Eight - Freedom, Part 2
Have a strange creature capture your main character. Show the details of the experience. Show the loss of freedom and the struggle between them. Be expressive with feelings and actions. Next week: Part 3.
Week One Hundred Fifty-Seven - Freedom, Part 1
Have your main character capture a strange creature. Show the details of the experience. Show the loss of freedom and the struggle between them.
Here are some of the exercises from past weeks. Enjoy! (The exercises for Weeks 1-79 are available by sending an email requesting those exercises. If you have any questions or would like to share your writing experience with this exercise, feel free to email Susan at Susan@susanhannifordcrowley.com. The mailing list is not sold, shared, or given to anyone and the information on it is kept strictly confidential.
Week One Hundred Fifty-Six - Around the Corner
The scene goes like this. A teenager, who has stolen something from a store, gets out the door and hurries down the street and then turns the corner. Write the scene filling in the details. Have this character go around three corners--make what happens each time--strange and unusual. Make each corner worse than the last. Be as creative and wild as you can be. Have fun.
Week One Hundred Fifty-Five - One Moment of Delight
Think about a single moment of delight in your life and write about it in vivid detail. Make it live on paper. That's your challenge.
Week One Hundred Fifty-Four - The Quote 1
Read the following quote and then write. Write the first images or words that pop into your mind. Write fast and remember to dance. Bring joy to your life!
"Dance until you shatter." -- Rumi (1207-1273)
Week One Hundred Fifty-Three - A Coin
This is a simple exercise. Reach into your pocket, purse, or piggy bank and take out a coin at random. In your story, someone finds or is given that coin. Write what happens next. Remember to include your coin in the ending. Be clever! Have fun!
Week One Hundred Fifty-Two - Welcome the Sunrise
For this week you will do a few new things for yourself. At least for one night, sleep where you will be awakened by sunlight. That might mean sleeping on the floor in another room, rearranging furniture, and/or leaving the window shade up. Have a notepad and pen next to you when you go to sleep. As soon as you wake the next day, sit up and reach for your notepad. Begin writing whatever comes to you even if it is nonsense at first. It's important that you do this on a day you do not have to go in for work. In that moment of sunrise, you don't want alarms going off, the TV on, or a radio blaring. Let waking up occur naturally--with an increase of light. Enjoy the serenity of sunrise. Write as fast as the wind. When you're done writing--whenever that is, go on with your morning routine.
Week One Hundred Fifty-One - Final Dead Body
For your final writing prompt on this subject, take the piece you've written last week and add a funeral service scene. During this event anything can happen. Let your imagination run wild. Often social ceremonies such as a funeral provides closure to the events and to the story.
Week One Hundred Fifty - Dead Body 2
You have your scene from last week. For the next scene, choose to write from one of the following concepts:
1) The body is holding evidence that would incriminate you.
2) Someone you don't know drives up, puts the body in the car, and drives away.
3) Written in blood beside the body are these words: You are next!
Chose only one. Write fast and furiously. Write as if your life depended on it. It does. Isn't it grand to be a writer?
Week One Hundred Forty-Nine - Dead Body
Starting a story in the middle of a crisis is an excellent way to throw your reader into the tale. Tonight begin your story with your main character finding a dead body. Describe the moment, environment, circumstances, the body and the people in the proximity in extreme detail. Write only the moment of discovery. Observe everything. Show everything. This moment is so crucial to the story that everything hinges on your complete description. Next week we move into the next step. Have fun and write fast.
Week One Hundred Forty-Eight - One Point in Time
This is a simple exercise to improve your focus. Choose one point in time and write about it. It could be lunch with a friend or getting on the city bus. Keep it simple, brief, but very detailed. Before you write, close your eyes and picture it with all the sounds, sights, smells, texture, etc. Make this small moment a living experience. When you're done writing, go out and do something fun.
Week One Hundred Forty-Seven - A Thank You Letter
This exercise will take guts. Write a letter to someone you loved who has passed on. Wait a day and change the names in the letter to those of characters you are writing. This will give a stark realism to your characters that you have not realized before. Be truthful. Be passionate. Most of all, let yourself cry. You're going to write a great letter.
Week One Hundred Forty-Six - A Change of Scenery
It's been my experience that there are two types of lifestyles among writers, those that are always traveling and the rooted. I happen to be among the latter. It usually takes a bit to get me to move beyond my desk. Walking along the ocean will usually do it. I find whenever I'm there, it refreshes my spirit and gives me great dreams. I do a great deal of writing in my dreams before I awake and begin writing. This week I recommend you take a notebook and change your scenery--something away from the everyday. Just enough to refresh you and revitalize that writing muse within. Remember you're on assignment. Now go somewhere else and enjoy it.
Week One Hundred Forty-Five - Weeping
This week your main character finds a woman who is weeping. Discover out why she is weeping and what your character will do about it. This is a writing adventure. Have no preconceived notions. Open yourself to what comes and write.
Week One Hundred Forty-Four - The Thief
This is a writing prompt to get the juices flowing. A thief steals a briefcase of a man he believes to be a diamond courier. When he feels he's in a safe place, he manages to get the case open and finds . . . Run with it. Open your mind and your pen to new possibilities.
Week One Hundred Forty-Three - A Song
Find a song that you enjoy and write a story about the theme of that song. If you choose a song with lyrics, choose one that evokes an emotion. But be careful not to copy the song's story. If you can find music you enjoy that doesn't have lyrics, it's better. I personally love the CD "Rubicon" by Tangerine Dream. In that way the story is entirely mine. You may find that you'll listen to several songs before you get an inspiration. Words are like notes. They float. It is up to us to inhale them and then exhale the story. So put on your headphones and enjoy your musical voyage. Breathe deeply.
Week One Hundred Forty-Two - The Wish
This week have your character make a wish and write what happens from that moment on. Have fun!
Week One Hundred Forty-One - One Wish
This week make a wish for yourself. Write it out as a sentence on a piece of paper. Post it near your writing work area. Every day look at it, think about it, and say it. On the day it comes true, date it and put a star on it. Then make another wish. Now you might ask what does this have to do with writing. Writing in itself is a wish we make for ourselves deep down. When we edit our work and send it out to sell, we are sending our wish out into the world. We are creating our world one wish at a time. So be a very brave writer and make a wish. Wait until you see what I ask you to do next week!
Week One Hundred Forty - Weather and Natural Disasters, Part 2
Take your work from last week and write about a character who is trapped by the disaster. Write the storm or disaster through their eyes. How frightening is it? Why are they trapped now? How will they escape or survive? Write fast. Your character has only one hour before everything gets worse.
Week One Hundred Thirty-Nine - Weather and Natural Disasters, Part 1
Weather and natural disasters have an effect on many aspects of many stories. Sometimes a story is one of survival during extreme conditions. This week I want you to go back in your memory and think about a storm, earthquake, flood, blizzard, tsunami, etc. Choose one that you have personally experienced and write 200 words just describing it. Then I'll see you again next week for the second part of this exercise.
Week One Hundred Thirty-Eight - Rivers
Rivers can be a soothing experience. They can also be scary when they flow into your house. Mark Twain used the Mississippi River in his books as a learning experience for his characters. Even if you get on a boat or raft to escape trouble in one place, trouble will find you at the next port. Write a story about a character that uses a river to escape. Everything else is up to you. Now go float and write.
Week One Hundred Thirty-Seven - Lost Again
Take that list from last week and throw the die again. If you chose the same number as last week, throw the die again. This time write the story from the prospective of the person who is lost or from the person who found your lost item. This is a stretch to get beyond yourself and grow as a writer. Get going.
Week One Hundred Thirty-Six - Lost
Today write six things you are afraid of losing and write down why Number each thing from one to six. Take some dice and throw one die. What number came up? Look at your list and write a story about losing that item. Start with the item being lost. Now go have a writing adventure!
Week One Hundred Thirty-Five - Rainy Day
It is raining. One of my favorite books is THE CAT IN THE HAT by Dr. Seuss. It starts out with two children stuck inside on a rainy day and there's a knock at the door. Today create an adventure for your main character. They can stay inside and the adventure comes to them, or they can venture into the storm. It's your time to get that ink flowing. Close your eyes and imagine the rain and . . .
Week One Hundred Thirty-Four - OFFLINE
A funny thing happened to me on the way to the computer. The modem died. I was offline, and the world around me grew quiet. I had to do things differently. Then I went to my non-writer job, and the entire system was down. Offices could email other internal offices, but as far as the world was concerned, we were shut down. How daring are you? Will you do this exercise? I was offline for three days. Will you shut off your computer for three days and write about the experience. I dare you! Ah!
Week One Hundred Thirty-Three - A Different View
This weekend go someplace that you've never been before. It doesn't have to be a grand trip but just someplace new. While you're there take out a notepad and write down a vivid, very sensory description of the place. You will want to save this to use later in a story, so write every detail. Immerse yourself in this new place. Part of writing is the exploring of life. Go explore!
Week One Hundred Thirty-Two - Two Birthdays
Do not look at what you wrote last week yet. But choosing the same birthday experience, write out the story using more action words than you feel comfortable doing. Really get into the actions and what you were thinking and feeling. Then write down what you wished for. When you are completely finished, take out last week's version and compare the two, then write a finished story of that birthday. It will be a richer, stronger, more powerful work. Congratulations!
Week One Hundred Thirty-One - The Birthday
Dig down deep into your memories, and write about either the most amazing or terrible birthday you ever had. Remember the details are golden. The sounds are sweet and pull us back into that time. Don't forget to make a wish and blow out the candles. Include what you wished for. Write fast and then put it aside until Friday.
Week One Hundred Thirty - Part 2, The Answer
Review what you wrote. Then sit down and write 5 possible answers to the terrible question of last week on five slips of paper. Next, put the folded slips in a bowl and with your eyes closed, choose one. If you have someone else available, have them choose for you. Write the scene where your character gives that answer. Write the details of how the other character reacted to the question. This exercise will stretch your talent. Expect the unexpected.
Week One Hundred Twenty-Nine - Part 1, The Question
This week the exercise is to have one character ask another character a terrible question. It is important that the other character only react but not answer. Write the details of the setting, the dress, mood, and tones of the characters. Make the question vital--something that will test them both in matters of honor, courage, or honesty. Write and then put it aside until this time next week.
Week One Hundred Twenty-Eight - A Game of Chance
An ordinary deck of cards, paper, and a pen are all you will need for this week's writing exercises.
First shuffle the deck. Put the deck face down and choose the first card.
First Card = Setting: Ace - by the ocean, Spades - in the desert, Hearts - in the mountains, Diamonds - in a city
Second Card = Main Character: Black suite - Male, Red suite - Female. If the card is 2 to 9, the person is poor.
If the card is an Ace, the person is a thief. If the card is a 10, the person has an amazing talent. If the card is a Royal, the character is also royal.
Third Card = Plot Cards
Spades -- Being pursued by a killer
Hearts -- Being deceived by a lover
Diamonds -- Will do anything for money
Clubs - Is kidnapped
Now cut the deck and by turning up that card, you will find the one person who can help you. But will they help you? Use the criteria set for the second card to determine what type of person that is.
Cut the deck one last time. The card will determine your weapon of choice.
Spades -- Time
Hearts -- Love
Diamonds -- Lies
Clubs -- Strength
Now is the time to play the game. Be adventurous. Be bold. Be a writer.
Week One Hundred Twenty-Seven - Five Coins
Your main character helps an old man, and the man gives him or her five coins. In your story tell how your character helped the old man and what happens after your character receives the coins. Let your imagination be your guide. I will tell you nothing more.
Week One Hundred Twenty-Six - A Winter's Ghost Tale
In the northern USA, winter is finally upon us. The days are shorter and night leaps like a leopard in the dark. People rush home to warm families, good spirits, and they bar the door against a harsh frozen world. Centuries ago, people feared the dark and hurried home least some evil should befall them on the night road. Tonight wait until midnight and then by candlelight, write the story of the traveler who is hurrying to town before the sun goes down. Good luck. I hope your character makes it in time.
Week One Hundred Twenty-Five - Freedom
For this week I'm posting early and giving you the opportunity to write a character study, scene, and possible short story. I say short story because that format is generally limited in the amount of time surrounding one event in a character's life. The theme is freedom. Today your character is free. Write the story of last night and this morning. Put in very detail of physical and emotional description. Show the moment of freedom and what he or she did. Show what it means to your character. Become the writer you want to be.
Week One Hundred Twenty-Four - Stranded
I was walking along my favorite beach this morning and came across this poor sailboat washed ashore by the wind. I've put this photo here as a writing prompt. The writing challenge this week is to write the story of this boat. What happened? How did it find its way here? What happened to the person or persons aboard? This is your adventure to tell. Yo ho, my hearties, and have a great time writing. I can hear the wind blow.
Week One Hundred Twenty-Three - Celebration
For this week, the exercise is to write about an actual celebration you attended. Use details and feelings in describing it. Try to remember what people said and did. Include why this celebration was important to you. This exercise will help you with realistic portrayals of events and characters. Remember, celebrate!
Week One Hundred Twenty-Two - Which Way?
Write a story about a man lost in the forest. The next day write the story over but with a different ending. On the third day, add another character to the story and change the ending again. Now sit down and read all three stories. Ask yourself, which story is the most exciting? This exercise will help you broaden your abilities to think outside the box. Have fun!
Week One Hundred Twenty-One - That Last Part
Halloween is upon us. We are almost out of time. Someone you love went to a deserted town and didn't come back. You've called and their cell phone only plays an eerie song. It doesn't ring at all.
From your list of five friends, choose the one with the shortest first name and the one with the longest last name to go with you. Then cut up the 13 things that frighten you into strips and put them into a hat. Choose 6. Throw the rest away. Then do the same with the list of 13 items you will need for the rescue and throw them into the hat. Choose 5 items. It is almost midnight. Begin by planning the rescue with your two friends. Be aware that if you do not find your loved one by sunrise, it will be too late. Now write. Write fast! Hurry!
(A note: I will be traveling a bit, so I've left you two exercises this week instead of one. The third part will appear on October 26. Have fun!)
Week One Hundred Twenty - The Three Part Challenge Continues
Halloween is creeping closer.
Part 2: Make a list of 13 things that frighten you the most and next to each one say why. Rate them from the least frightening to the most. Now be honest. Then write down the first names of five friends you would take with you and why. Write quickly.
Week One Hundred Nineteen - A Three Part Challenge
Halloween is fast approaching. Now is the time to begin to write your scariest story. Here's what you must do?
Part 1: Make a list of 13 items you would bring with you if you had to rescue someone you cared about from a haunted town. Next to each item, write your reason for bringing it, and what you would do if your lost it. Now get busy and choose carefully.
Week One Hundred Eighteen - Characterization Game
Get a copy of the National Geographic. Every day for one week choose the photo of one unknown person in that magazine and write a scene for them, imagining who they are as a person, what they do, how they express themselves, what do they love, what are they afraid of. By the end of the week, you'll have seven unique characters you probably wouldn't have made up on your own. Have fun with this. Writing is a game.
Week One Hundred Seventeen - Fighting Mode
Your main character is being chased by someone who intends on killing him or her. Now write what your character does. Write fast! Your character's life depends on you.
Week One Hundred Sixteen - Scenario #2
This exercise asks you to take last week's scene and write it from the point of view of a child. One more thing to note: pay attention to reflections! Ah, what youth spies, adults often ignore.
Week One Hundred Fifteen - Scenario #1
The exercise for this week is a writing prompt. I start you off with an idea and you finish the story. Lisa walks into a fast food restaurant at quarter to eleven. No one is in the place, except for one woman behind the counter. Lisa asks the woman for a breakfast item and is refused. They have stopped serving breakfast. The sign says that they stop serving breakfast at 11. The woman has a strange look on her face. With wide eyes and her arms crossed, she is not at all friendly. She recommends that Lisa go down the street to the diner. Now you write the story. In this story, the body language of your characters is important. Pay attention to details.
Week One Hundred Fourteen - The Inheritance
This week your main character has inherited a house. He or she saw the house once as a child. Write the scene where your main character drives up to the house and is given the keys by the lawyer, who quickly departs. What happens next is up to you. Revel in the exploration.
Week One Hundred Thirteen - An Adventure in Plotting
Are you up for an adventure? Think up an ending and going back one step at a time, write you story. It's a different way of looking at things. How did your main character end up and what happened that got him or her to that point? It will get you really thinking about actions and consequences. After you've written it, write it again from the beginning. Have fun!
Week One Hundred Twelve - Get Serious about Plotting
Plotting is the backbone of your story. Being able to move your character through a crucial event in his or her life in an exciting and meaningful way is vital to telling a strong story. This week you're going to examine an established plot. You're going to see a movie and write a list of everything the main character does and reacts to in a chronological sequence of events (as they take place in the movie). Make this list like a shopping list.
1. She went to work.
2. She did a cooking demonstration in Housewares.
Continue like this throughout the movie, until you have followed the main character from the beginning to the end of his or her adventure. This exercise is to help you strengthen your own plotting skills. I'm going to give you a short list of movies that I feel have strong, well-developed plots.
"The Last Holiday"
"The Holiday"
"The Lives of Others"
"The Illusionist"
I've chosen these movies because of their intriguing plots. My personal favorite is "The Illusionist". I've seen it a dozen times, and each time I am amazed by its brilliant plot. So rent a movie, get a pad of paper and pen, pop some popcorn, and sit back and enjoy!
Week One Hundred Eleven - Take a Bite
This week you're going to practice abandoning preconceived notions. Write this scene: Your main character is out having dinner with friends. He or she takes a bite of food, and suddenly finds themself somewhere else. You write the story. No holds barred, as they say. Have fun!
Week One Hundred Ten - Flip a Coin
Beginning a story is usually achieved when the main character is in the middle of a life changing event. I would like you to begin you story challenge this week by writing either a wedding or funeral scene. Both events plunge your main character into highly emotionally charged interactions with others. Remember, anything could happen. Flip a coin to see which you will write. Heads: a wedding. Tails: a funeral. Now go get a coin.
Week One Hundred Nine - One Word
This week you have a one word challenge. Take the word and write a story around it. The word is "bear". Write with abandon.
Week One Hundred Eight - Hit the Ground Running
This exercise throws you into the story. Begin by writing that your main character is running. You start simply like this--"Jane Wender ran ..." The rest you fill in. You say where she is running, what she is running toward, why she is running. Those are the details that describe, motivate, and move the story forward. So begin. Hit the paper writing. Write fast and let it take you into the story.
Week One Hundred Seven - Doorways
In literature, doorways often are significant. Take Alice. She fell into a rabbit hole and went through a looking glass. Lucy found Narnia through the wardrobe. The exercise this week is to think of at least 3 possible doorways to other worlds--ones that no one has ever used before. Then write the story that unravels when your main character walks though that doorway. Become a great explorer of worlds. Open the writer's door.
Week One Hundred Six - A Little Bit of Horror
This exercise is simple. It has only two conditions. Stay up to midnight, if there's a howling storm outside all the better, but it is important that the radio, TV, and ipod are all turned off. You must have complete silence. The second condition: Finish this sentence and the story that follows. Write very fast. She screamed and fell ...
The rest is up to you. Today is Friday the 13th, a good night for writing horror. Have ghoulish fun.
Week One Hundred Five - Move Me, Part Two
This exercise is radical. First choose one of your "actions that inspire" from your list. Put it as the temporary title at the top of the page. Now close your eyes and think lightly about the "title". Then ask whatever power or being you believe moves the universe to give you a story. Sincerely ask, voice it if you have too, and then with an open mind and heart, write the story as fast as you get it. This will be a rough draft but don't stop to edit. Type as fast as you can on the keyboard. If you're using pencil or pen, write as fast as you can. Try not to stop until it's all down. Tomorrow is the time to expand some sections and edit others.
The more you do this exercise, the more stories will come to you. Be open to the stories that come. Because you've chosen to write, you've chosen to see the bigger picture of life. It's a gift and a responsibility. Revel in your time, and let the stories flow through your fingertips.
Week One Hundred Four - Move Me, Part One
This exercise will help with plotting. Write down a list of 20 actions that inspire or move you. Here's an example of an inspiring action: A woman running into a burning building to rescue a child calling for help. What happens next? Sit down and write 20 of these inspiring actions. Make each one a simple one line like the example given. Be creative and have fun with this. Remember! It has to be inspiring or move you. It has be make you want to know what happens next.
Week One Hundred Three - The Ring
The ring is a symbol that can be found in all cultures. The most famous story about a ring is THE LORD OF THE RINGS. This week's exercise is to write a story about a ring you own. It can be fictional or non-fictional. That doesn't matter, but make it real. Make it your story!
Week One Hundred Two - One Afternoon
This exercise is to help you focus. Think about one afternoon in your childhood and write about it as vividly as you can. Describe the people, what they're wearing, what they're saying. Describe the food. Describe the places. Tell the reader why you chose to write about this one afternoon. What did that moment in time mean to you. When you have finished, you're ability to focus in on one point in time will have improved.
Week One Hundred One - Run Away
This is an odd little exercise. It requires imagination, a road map of your country, and the ability to drop preconceived thoughts. Most of us enjoy planning out trips. On this road trip, you lay flat the map on a table and flip a coin so that it lands somewhere on the map. Now have your character jump in his or her car and go there. You are allowed to do some research on the destination but otherwise let the story unfold in an unexpected way. When you're almost there, flip the coin again and go in that direction. When you're almost to the 2nd place, once again flip the coin for your final destination. There are a million possible outcomes. Your story is the adventure along the way--the waitress in the diner, the flat tire on the lonely road, the little town you pass through with the unusual festival. This writing exercise allows your imagination to run away. Write the journey and see what happens.
Week One Hundred - Going Places
Go one place that you've never been to before and write about it. This doesn't have to be a major vacation, unless that's what you want to do. It could be as simple as going to a new restaurant or a local attraction you've never been to before. When you write about it bring your narrative alive with action words and fun details. Now go enjoy yourself.
Week Ninety-Nine - A Writing Exercise for Your Life
This week's exercise is for everyone. Write down at least 10 things you've always wanted to do. In Queen Latifah's movie, "The Last Holiday", she has a scrap book that has cut-out pictures of places she'd like to see and people she'd like to meet. She calls it her "Book of Possibilities". As a writer, do this for yourself. Dream big. Get some focus by making a "Book of Possibilities" or writing a list. I have one. I've always wanted to go to Scotland. I've gone twice. I crossed it off and I've put it back on as I really love Scotland. Do this exercise for yourself. Let yourself dream. That's where great writing is born.
Week Ninety-Eight - The 10% Solution
Your exercise this week is to buy a book. The 10% Solution is the most phenomenal book on editing I've ever read. Author Ken Rand gives solid applicable advice on precisely how to cut length out of your writing and make it "brief, clear, and accurate" for the reader. If you buy this book, read it from cover to cover, copy down his list and put it beside your computer. You'll be ahead of the game. When I read it, I couldn't put it down. Wouldn't you like someone to say that about your writing? It's time to edit your writing well.
Week Ninety-Seven - The Light
Begin this exercise by making a list of everything you can think of that has to do with "Iight". In one dictionary alone there are over 30 definitions for the word "light", but don't use the dictionary if you can. Make your own list. Now write a story describing in detail how the "light" saved your main character's life. Have the time span of your story be a single afternoon. Have fun. Really let yourself go. Write as fast as you can.
Week Ninety-Six - The Gift that Keeps on Giving
A lot of people will have a different answer regarding the gift that keeps on giving. That's good, as it will help you with this exercise. Choose one item that will be given or unintentionally passed to 5 different people. Each person will have something happen at the time they possess the item. They will have a profound experience of some type. The final character will tie all the other stories together somehow. That character's experience while possessing the item will be amazing or touching or insightful. This is a fun and very intriguing writing exercise, as it will require you to keep on reaching for a better story for each character. Here's how to begin--choose an item. Now write.
Week Ninety-Five - The Time Bomb
The exercise is extremely challenging this week. The writing prompt is this frightening scenario: Your character is the manager of a large store and receives a bomb threat on a scrap of paper mixed in with the invoices. What does she or he do? In 23 minutes, the bomb goes off. You should be off and writing by now. Can you tell the whole tale in 23 minutes or less? I don't mean to rush you but the clock is ticking.
Week Ninety-Four - Sacred Places
This week the exercise is to write about a place that you consider sacred. Describe it vividly and in detail, so that another person will know it when they see it. Explain in the simplest, clearest way what it is that makes this place sacred. Abandon yourself in this writing. When you are finished, read it aloud. It will evoke emotion, if you have used your full potential in painting this sacred place with words. Some people feel a warmth in the heart. Some people feel a flutttering in the stomach. That's all very good. It means you've been successful.
Week Ninety-Three - Find the Fire - Final Act
Your character has reached the point of no return. How does your character win or at the very least survive? Even in stories where it appears that the main character loses or fails, it is actually an act of self-sacrifice so someone important to the main character can go forward in life. Write the shining moment where the main character risks everything and then comes out on the other side. You can tell when you've written a great ending--your heart will be pounding, your palms sweating, and you'll heave a sigh of relief. It's over. You may laugh. You may cry. But a great ending to a story is satisfying. Congratulations. If you have played out all five acts, then you have a story.
Week Ninety-Two - Find the Fire - Act 4
This week it's time to put your character in peril, real physical danger. Begin with the last scene you wrote. Now continue that scene and either make the setting a dangerous place to be or take a secondary character from your setting and make him or her a danger to your main character. Reveal the real reason your main character came to that setting. Get angry, get scared, and take control. Use the feelings of your main character and plunge into danger. Write as rapidly as you can. Feel the excitement.
Week Ninety-One - Find the Fire - Act 3
This week's exercise entails more risk. Keeping the scene and character from last week, go back to you list. Research another topic from the list, and write the next scene in your character's life using that setting. Have fun. Surrender yourself to the experience.
Week Ninety - Find the Fire - Act 2
By doing last week's exercise, you have immersed yourself in your subject. For this week, create a character and place him or her in a scene that is related or within your subject. If you have been studying Brazil, then set him or her in Brazil. If you've been studying chess, then make your character a chess player in a tournament. I think you're getting the idea. Next, start your scene by putting your character in danger. Now write the scene. Remember to have your character feel your passion for the subject. Enjoy!
Week Eighty-Nine - Find the Fire - Act 1
This week's exercise has two parts. In the first part, I would like you to make a list of what you feel passionate about in life. Print the list out so you can post it by your computer. For part two of this exercise, look at this list and taking the first thing that you wrote down, spend the week researching your subject. Find out every single thing that you can. Print out your research. Write notes on your research. Then put everything in a notebook that you can read in bed and add questions to in the morning. Consider this as a writer's quest. By immersing yourself in the subject, you will be ready for next week. Go and start having fun now.
Week Eighty-Eight - Reality Check!
For this week's exercise, I would like you to record your day. When you're done, write it over in a story format. Change the name of your character. Let's see how much your scene looks and feels like real life. Remember to put in all the feelings of the day as well. Part of what makes a character intriguing to the reader is his or her emotional life. Enjoy the details. This exercise will help improve your writing.
Week Eighty-Seven - Live!
A while back when I was on a writer's panel, I recommended something that a colleague of mine opposed. I suggested taking a short break from your writing and to do something like go to the beach, to a movie, go dancing, do something that makes you feel alive and happy. My peer felt that any break disrupted the writing flow. Now I don't recommend stopping if the story is coming through your fingers fast and furious. But do give yourself a chance to live life and have fun when you're between stories or stuck. On many occasions my fun has inspired my writing. As always, it's your choice what view you adopt. If you choose a night out, enjoy it. Of course, you will write about it the next day. Live life, then write life! Ah, the writer's life.
Week Eighty-Six - All That Glitters
This week your character is taking a walk and seeing something shiny, stops to pick it up. You write the scene. Where is your character? What does your character find and what happens next? See, speak, and feel through your character. Be as detailed as possible. Live the experience.
Week Eighty-Five - The Listening Game
This week you are to spend some time listening to other people talk in public places. Find three interesting or funny statements and use them to write a scene using two or more of your characters. This will help your characters sound like real people. Have fun, pay attention, and listen.
Week Eighty-Four - What if?
Your character is walking down the street and comes across a beat-up old bag. He picks it up and looks inside. He finds... It's up to you to write the rest of the story. Have fun in the adventure of it all. That's what it means to write.
Week Eighty-Three - Ultimate Challenge #2
This week resolve to write two completed stories before next Thursday. This means that you've written the stories, edited them, and then sent them out before Thursday. I'll accept mailing them out on Thursday morning. For market listings, see Week Eighty-Two. I know you can do this. I can't wait until next week. Can you?
Before the exercise I want to say "Hi" to new friend science fiction author Walter Hunt! I met him and his wife at Arisia this year.
Week Eighty-Two - Ultimate Challenge #1
This week resolve to write one completed story before next Thursday. This means that you've written a story from beginning to end, and you've edited it. Then look at the various market listings on the web and mail it out next Thursday. Below I'm listing some market list sites to help you out.
For science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories: www.ralan.com
For all types of stories: http://www.fictionfactor.com/fiction1.html
And a large lists of market list: http://www.speculativeliterature.org/Writing/mktlists.php
Amd another: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art1489.asp
The challenge is to put all your hard work into action. Write it, edit it, and send it out. You'll feel better the moment it's in the mail. This is easy compared to next week's exercise. Smile. Having fun yet?
Week Eighty-One - Flash Fiction: Fun, Frantic, and Fabulous
Flash Fiction is a very small story. Each magazine has their own word limits on what they consider to be Flash. One guideline to go by in general is that Micro Fiction is a story between 10-300 words, whereas Flash is between 300-1000. Traditional short stories usually start at 3,000 words, so you may ask where does that place the 2,000 word story? That depends on the submission guidelines of the magazine or anthology you're submitting to.
Before I get too much further, I want to recommend a story to you. It's called "Three Wishes" and is by Bruce Holland Rogers and appears in Realms of Fantasy, February 2007 issue on page 37. It's a wonderful example of a well-crafted short, short story.
Now back to Flash Fiction: Keep in mind that you're writing about a very small idea or one action or event. Don't go on with lengthy description. Use only the description you absolutely need. Focus on a strong image. Endings could be a twist, always something unexpected, but also somehow fitting when the reader reflects on it. You will need a way to tell when 10 minutes are up and two pieces of paper. The first part of this exercise is borrowed from Diane Turnshek, Astronomer and SF author. On the first piece of paper, write an action verb, an adjective, and the word "time." Now I will add the Fabulous part. Choose one item from the list provided below. You will be using all the words written on that first piece of paper in your story.
|
1. Top Hat |
2. Spike black heels |
3. Poison Ring |
|
4. Pirate Boots |
5. Velvet Jeans |
6. Tuxedo |
|
7. Tiara |
8. Red feather boa |
9. Kimono Robe |
Your ten minutes have started. Write as fast as you can. Don't stop until your time is up. Remember your story has to have a beginning, middle, and an end. Don't you just love the frenzy. When you're done, sit back and read what you've written. Isn't it amazing what you can write in just ten minutes! I knew you could do it. For those that want to try selling their Flash Fiction, I suggest you explore www.ralan.com Be sure and read the guidelines carefully before sending out your story. Best wishes!
Week Eighty - The Lake
For everyone there is a place that they find haunting or comforting. It has beauty, keeps secrets, and can be scary at times. This week write a story about a lake. Be detailed in your characters' interactions with each other and the lake. Discover something about the lake that is shared by your characters. Write at least two pages. You are always welcome to write more. For those who do not have direct experience with a lake, choose another place that sticks out in your memory and write about it. You'll get a certain feeling through you when the words flow. You'll know what I mean. Are you having fun yet?
Sites for Writers and Those Who Want to Write
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. www.sfwa.org
The home of the people of genre fiction www.sff.net
The Writers Guild (East) www.wgaeast.org
The Writers Guild (West) www.wga.org
The Horror Writers of America www.horror.org
The Romance Writers of America www.rwanational.org
Susan's blog on writing and the writing life http://thewritinghouse.blogspot.com
Ralan's site for marketing your writing and advice http://www.ralan.com
A great site with a lot of science fiction and fantasy links http://robertsullivan.org/sf/index.html
Great Online Magazines
Orson Scot Card's new e-magazine http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com
Strange Horizons http://www.strangehorizons.com
Fun Sites/Fascinating People
http://www.lookoutnow.com/random/wayout.htm
http://www.walterhunt.com/
http//www.usefulweeds.com/ | 
