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. What if the first day of fall marked a day when something other than leaves fell, all around the world? Whether people, coffee cups or clouds, write a few pages about a global falling of some kind.
2. 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?
3. Write a few pages about a character caught in a torrential downpour on their way to an important event.
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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. 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.
3. 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?
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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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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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