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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. Write a few pages about a character who finds an ominous—or romantic—note written in red ink.

2. Write a few pages starting with the moment a bride or groom discovers a piece of their cake is missing before their ceremony even begins. Who might have done it, and why?

3. Write a few pages about a character who is visiting the zoo when animals escape from one of the exhibits. Is it something harmless like flamingos or terrifying like grizzly bears?

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Tips:

1. Whether a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people-eater or a candlestick that can talk, anytime an author successfully gives life to an inhuman character, it is a feat. When you read one such story, think about how the author brought the being to life. Do they humanize it? Or, do they embrace it as a different kind of creature entirely?

2. Toss Perfectionism. Or, as Voltaire candidly quoted in his Dictionnaire Philosophique of 1770: "Il meglio e l'inimico del bene": the great is the enemy of the good. Excessive self-editing sabotages creativity and completion. Free yourself up on your first draft. Revision is your ally!

3. Whether it’s a new word, a different perspective on a life experience, or a writing technique we haven’t used before, every story has something to teach us. It is good practice to think of yourself as a student anytime you read. Always think about what you can take away and apply back to your own writing to make it stronger.

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TO DO SCRATCHPAD PRIVATE JOURNAL TRACKING Update Assessment
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TO DO LIST:
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SCRATCHPAD:
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PRIVATE JOURNAL:
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TRACKING:
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