The Place For My Writers Notes

Original posting 7 Nov 2011

Over here, Jonathan Maberry talks about staying out of writing pigeonholes. Lots of good stuff, and I'll let you listen to the podcast for the details. But I thought I'd pull one of the last bits out of the transcript...
http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/11/06/writing-excuses-6-23-pigeon-holes/

[Jonathan] That's exactly how I work. I do a writing prompt every day. Even though I'm on deadline, I do a different thing every day. I make lists of things that I'm going to do. Like I might say, "All right, tomorrow I've got to write the first page of an insect Western." So that's what I'm going to write tomorrow. Or it might be a love story for 13-year-old kids. Well, that's what I've got to write tomorrow, the first page of it. Every day, I try something different, something outside of my comfort zone. I do it every single day. So that every day I'm stretching the limits of what I think I can write. It's a 15 minute exercise that somebody can do every day. Within a couple of weeks, you're pretty sure that you're able to write anything. Share those writings with other people. Put it on a blog, put it on Facebook, send it to your friends. It's only the first page of something. It doesn't have to be a flash fiction. Just write the first thing.

There you go! Start your day with a writing prompt, and keep a list of ideas as you run around so that you always have more coming. An insect Western. A love story for 13-year-olds. A steampunk version of Alice in Wonderland. Push those boundaries!

Originally posted 3 Feb 2011

Sure, why not? Go over here http://www.writersdigest.com/TipsPrompts/ and see what they offer.

Right now, there is:

You and a friend break into your neighborhood swim club late one night to go for an after-hours dip. While splashing around in the pool, you go into shock when a dead body floats to the top. Worse yet -- it's someone you know. Write this scene.

There you go. A late night swim and a body! What do you do now?

Original Posting 19 April 2009

Writer's Digest, October 2008, page 11, offers this writing prompt:

"Write about the last piece of something -- pie, real estate, posterity -- and the two people who want it." Excerpted from The Pocket Muse: Endless Inspiration by Monica Wood

Built-in conflict. Who gets the prize, and what is all the maneuvering to get there? You could even start with a list of five or 10 different things that these people might be looking at. Food, housing, what do you like? What would you fight with someone else to get? Make your list, then consider the characters striving to grab that very last piece. And what's the resolution?

Did you really stab your sister with a fork over the last piece of chocolate chiffon cake?

Go ahead, write.

Original posting 17 April 2009

There's a web advertisement that caught my eye the other day. It's for the Philippines, but it starts out with this question:

"If you discovered a land with seven thousand one hundred secrets, would you still keep it a secret?"

Timbuktu, Shangri-La, all those lost lands... if you discover a place with secrets, what do you do with the secret?

Someplace that others don't know about? What do you do with it?

Go ahead and let that rattle around in your brain. Then consider what your character does with it.
And write.

original posting 15 April 2009

You might remember that I was jabbering about 5, 10, and 20 minute writing practice recently? Well, I got to playing, and now there are three pages that provide you with a writing prompt and timers! Go over here and you'll see what I mean. You have to provide your own writing medium (editor, paper, whatever) but I think this is kind of fun!

http://www.aist-nara.ac.jp/~mbarker/writers/ExercisePages/

Original posting 13 April 2009

Writer's Digest, December 2008, page 59 offered this contest prompt:

"You find an envelope full of money in a parking lot and decide to spend it on adventure." From The Writer's Book of Matches by the staff of fresh boiled peanuts: a literary journal

Looking for adventure in whatever comes our way? Anyway, one envelope of money, found. And then what happened?

You decide. And write.

Original posting 12 April 2009

And yet another contest prompt from Writer's Digest, August 2008, page 69:

"A husband and wife quickly find themselves in reality television hell." From The Writer's Book of Matches by the staff of fresh boiled peanuts, a literary journal.

And what happened then? Of course, part of this depends on knowing what reality television is, and I'm not sure that I've ever seen any. But it could be any sort of situation, from the various rings of hell. And if you want to you can change the relationship -- first date, on their proposal night, two friends, father and son -- or even a larger group. What's the one about the hunters who wander into the countryside? Has Battling Banjos somewhere in it? Just take your characters, and put them in a situation that seems to be hell for them. Or is that purgatory?

Go ahead, write. You know you want to.

Reality TV? And who are the judges?

(The answer is Deliverance, with Dueling Banjos)

Original posting 9 April 2009

Writer's Digest, April 2008, page 73, offers the contest prompt:

"A character walks into a kitchen at the end of the day. He finds on the kitchen table something that isn't supposed to be there." From The Pocket Muse by Monica Wood

Something that shouldn't be on the kitchen table? How did it get there? Who put it there? Why? What does it mean?

Lots of questions -- and you get to answer all of them!

Or you could do variations on this? The office, the bedroom, the glove box in the car (does anybody keep gloves in their glove box?)... lots of places for things to turn up. And then we get to find out why the purple envelope in the office mail made the boss run screaming into the street -- or whatever the character does in reaction.

Actually, even the kitchen offers some variations. In the sink, the refrigerator, the oven -- I'm not sure why Monica specified the kitchen table, but you should feel free to drape your object in the best place for your character to discover it.

Let the little neurons drift along and make connections. Something that shouldn't be there, but is. And what happened then?

Last night upon the stair, I saw a man who wasn't there.
He isn't there again tonight, oh, gosh...