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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. Listen up! Sit outside for a few moments today and write a few pages describing what you hear. Is it the buzzing and clicking of cicadas? The hum of an air conditioner? Honking traffic? Take it a step further: show your physical reaction to the sounds you hear.

2. Most people go to the beach during the summer, but going to the beach when it’s cold is a completely different experience. Write a few pages in which a character decides to take a wintertime trip to the beach.

3. Write a few pages set at a local café where a character overhears a conversation that they can’t pretend they didn’t just hear.

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Tips:

1. You may remember learning in elementary or middle school that writing has three primary purposes: to entertain, to inform, and to persuade. When you read, ask yourself what the author’s purpose is.

2. 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.

3. Know the rules before you break them! Or as Dorothy Parker once said, "If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to tell them to quit now, while they’re happy.

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TO DO SCRATCHPAD PRIVATE JOURNAL TRACKING Update Assessment
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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,
ADD DO
Show Dones
Metric:
Words
Minutes
ADD
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