Your Prompts and Tips
Some free resources to help you write better and achieve the success you deserve
This is a selection we've harvested from our archives, RELOAD THE PAGE for more!
Prompts:
1. Write a few pages about a love triangle between coworkers who all happen to be airline employees stuck on a sixteen-hour flight.
2. Imagine you get a summer job working in an ice cream truck, but one day it breaks down on an especially hot day. Write a few pages about how you would handle it. Do you give away as much as you can? Or do you pop the hood and try to fix it yourself? Think fast, it’s melting!
3. Write a few pages from the point of view of a potted herb. What are your hopes and dreams? To be utilized in a delicious salad or sauce, perhaps? Or to be dried and placed in a tulle sachet for a soon-to-be bride's trousseau?
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Tips:
1. Take a close look at the world of the story. Could the story be told somewhere else to the same effect? Does it drive the plot in any way? For example, Sue Monk Kidd's “The Secret Lives of Bees” would not be the same if it were set anywhere but in South Carolina in 1964. Any time you read, pay special attention to the storyworld in which it's set. Is that world integral to the plot? How so?
2. They say, “No risk, no reward,” and that applies to writing too. Whether starting every sentence with a certain letter, writing a story from the perspective of an ant, or choosing a topic that is not often discussed, some of the best stories stand out because they break the mold in some way, big or small. Take risks in your writing!
3. Read with a pencil (literal or digital) in hand. From highlighting and underlining words and passages to scribbling notes in your journal, close reading does just that: it brings you closer to the story. Remember that reading is an active process.
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TO DO LIST:
Add tasks to your sortable list, then revel in checking them off.
SCRATCHPAD:
Cache your gems as they fall in this always accessible place.
PRIVATE JOURNAL:
Reflect on your process — good, bad and ugly — in your dated diary.
TRACKING:
Measure your progress with key writing metrics, automatically,
TO DO LIST:
Add tasks to your sortable list, then revel in checking them off.
SCRATCHPAD:
Cache your gems as they fall in this always accessible place.
PRIVATE JOURNAL:
Reflect on your process — good, bad and ugly — in your dated diary.
TRACKING:
Measure your progress with key writing metrics, automatically,
ADD DO
Show Dones
Metric:
ADD
Words
Minutes
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