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. From a scuba-diving pizza delivery man to a full-time Netflix viewer (yes, they really exist), write a few pages about a character with one such unconventional job.
2. Write a few pages in which a family checks into a hotel to begin a vacation and immediately notices something off—whether it be the room, the staff, or the guests.
3. Write a few pages about a couple of characters who are trapped on a boat but quickly begin developing feelings for each other: just not the kind you'd expect!
For more prompts, please Sign in or SET UP A GUEST ACCOUNT if necessary.
Tips:
1. The words the writer chooses to put in the title carry heavier weight than any other word in the story. They are meant to entice us to read the story while also representing a theme, symbol, etc. It is always good practice to ponder the title for a moment before you read, and once again after you’ve finished the story to see if you come to understand it in a different way.
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. Whenever there are fantastical elements, such as magic, present in the story, it is useful to consider their purpose. Why did the author choose those specific elements of magic? Ask yourself what they bring to the story and imagine how the story would differ without them. If it wouldn’t change significantly, then they are not essential to the story.
For more tips, please Sign in or SET UP A GUEST ACCOUNT if necessary.
CLICK A TAB TO USE WILL.POWER
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
Click anywhere to close