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. Imagine a character finds an old velvet couch in the middle of the woods while on a hike one day. When they sit down on it, they find themselves suddenly transported to a different world. Where do they go? Write a few pages telling us what they do there, and maybe how they get back.
2. Write a few pages about a family pet that is literally reborn, as in reincarnated. Do they come back as a puppy, or as something very different, like a tree or a new friend that just moved into the neighborhood?
3. Write a few pages about what would happen if the fashion police existed and gave out tickets for wearing white after Labor Day.
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Tips:
1. Beyond the title, the first line of a story is the author’s one and only chance to grab the reader’s attention and prompt them to keep reading. Make sure yours piques their interest enough. It can pose a question, bring up a conflict or provoke thought of some kind. If it doesn’t, is there another line, whether the second or the twentieth, that might make for a better hook?
2. Reading aloud is underrated. Yes, we all hear the words read by the voice in our head, but that is no match for the real one. When we read aloud, we can better pick up on rhythms we may not have noticed in our heads and enjoy the beauty of sound in language. Whenever you come across a sentence that emphasizes sound, try reading it out loud to appreciate it even more.
3. Do you ever reread a story? The first time around, don’t worry about analyzing every detail—just read for fun! Your goal is to get a more general, natural sense of the narrative! The second time around, you’ll have a working understanding of the story that makes it easier (and more rewarding) to dive deeper into the nuts and bolts of the story.
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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,
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Show Dones
Metric:
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Minutes
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