Zarien Hsu Gee offers “fast drafting” as a creative process: Fast drafting is a way to break through creative paralysis, to see what might be possible with an idea or writing project. When you commit to writing fast without judgment, you bypass the inner critic that can slow your progress to a crawl or even prevent you from moving forward at all. The beauty of fast drafting lies in its imperfection. By calling it a “fast draft,” you free yourself from the expectation of perfectionism. You accept fast drafting as a necessary creative process in order to move forward with your work, and your expectations for its literary genius is low. Your goal is just to get it all down. The fast draft also serves as confidence booster. It reminds you that you can write this story, this novel, this memoir. When you write fast enough to outrun judgment, your…
Stories Help Us Understand
Excerpt from “Readers Are Fascinated by Truth in Fiction—and It Matters,” by Penny Haw “It doesn’t matter who we are, we all want stories. They help us make sense of our experiences and a complicated world. Because we’re inquisitive, social animals, stories help us understand and connect with one another. When we recognize and relate to characters and events in stories—particularly those we believe to be true—it strengthens our social bonds and confirms we belong. There’s a kinship that inspires, informs and comforts us and, though we might not always be conscious of it or understand why, we’re all searching for truths in the world. Stories also evoke emotions and help us understand what it might be like to be different. We want to see the truth in those stories to help us understand people who are different and have different experiences of life.” — Posted on Jane Friedman’s Blog,…
Our brains like order . . . Prompt #852
“Our brains like order,” explains Kristi Phillips, a Minnesota-based psychologist “having less stimuli around us helps promote relaxation.” She points out the popularity of home-decluttering Reels and TikToks, as well as TV series such as Get Organized With the Home Edit and Hot Mess House. “But while we enjoy the afterglow of a cleaned-out junk drawer, we still procrastinate when it comes to tackling more complex areas of clutter in our lives. When we’re trying to declutter our own spaces, we have an emotional attachment to those items,” she says. “Whether there are memories linked to those objects or simply the guilt of getting rid of something you spent money on, the task of mentally weighing each item can be overwhelming, with a video, you see the fast-forward of how quick it is … so it gives us that hope and positivity of, Oh, I can do that too.” — “Why Watching Decluttering Videos…
Can’t explain . . . Prompt #851
Write about something you can’t explain. Something that makes no sense that’s happening to you now, or happened in the past. #justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter
A quirk . . . Prompt #850
Write about a quirk you have. It could be something you do, or participate in, or watch. There may not be a logical explanation for this, except that it brings you joy or satisfaction. #justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter
Stories offer Solace and Hope
Photo by Marlene Cullen “In times of unrest, struggle, and uncertainty, people reach for the comfort of story. When the world around us may feel bleak or overwhelming, stories offer us not just an escape from our troubles and worries, but a version of life that remind us of what’s most important, what we value and what is worth striving and fighting for, and the kind of world we could create if we do.” — Tiffany Yates Martin, “How to Write Amid Chaos,” Writers Digest July/August 2025 #justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter
Photo prompt. An owl . . . Prompt #849
Today’s writing prompt is a photo of an owl. Photo by Marlene Cullen Here’s what happened: I looked out my kitchen window and saw the most majestic owl sitting on the roof of our shed. She (he?) literally took my breath away. I took a picture through the window. Then I went outside to take a better look and a better photo. She swiveled her head and looked right at me. I snapped a photo. Then she flew away to the top of a pole. Poetry in flight. My friend Kathy, who works at a bird sanctuary, said it’s a juvenile great horned owl. Prompt: Photo of an owl Just Write! #iamwriting #iamawriter #justwrite
Create Characters That Feel Like Real People
Sophie Campbell hands us the key to unlock the dilemma of when to “show” and when to “tell.” “In creative writing, we’re often told to show, not tell. It’s practically gospel. In essence, it means show us how a character is feeling, don’t tell us. For example, ‘Jane felt a bubble rise in her throat and her chest heaved as she sobbed,’ is more powerful than simply, ‘Jane was sad and she cried.’ But the truth is, the most compelling fiction does both showing and telling, and the best copywriting does too. The key isn’t choosing one over the other, it’s knowing when and how to use each of them to create characters that feel like real people and a voice that readers will remember.” Excerpted from The Forever Workshop, Use This Copywriting “Golden Rule” In Your Fiction, Poetry & Essays, Lesson 3 of “Steal From a Copywriter: Copy Techniques That Translate Into Creative Writing.”…
Wanted: Real Characters
“ . . . there’s nothing more glorious than when a fictional character feels completely real. And nothing more meh than when a fictional character feels like a cardboard cut-out.” — Excerpt from Forever Workshop From Marlene: I agree! I love to immerse myself in writing that takes me into another world. I’m not interested in reading what a character looks like and haven’t been able to articulate why until I read this by Jo Gatford: “I usually don’t give much of a crap what a character looks like, unless there’s a particular physical attribute, gesture, or way they move that helps show who they are. So dive deep and look for a line that gives us a guts-first impression of your fictional person.” From Workshop Your WIP — Introduce Your Protagonist with ONE Line, By Jo Gatford
Mondegreen . . . Prompt #848
Excerpt from June 16 River Teeth, “Mondegreen,” by Diane Gottlieb: A mondegreen is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; unable to hear a lyric clearly, substitutes words that sound similar. American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, recalling a childhood memory of her mother reading the Scottish ballad “The Bonnie Earl o’Moray,” and mishearing the words “laid him on the green” as “Lady Mondegreen.” Diane’s piece begins like this: “I found a lost memory today. Discovered it inside a writing prompt: recall something you’ve misheard. The title of the 1971 Sly and the Family Stone song is ‘It’s a Family Affair,’ but I swore it was ‘A Family of Bears.’ How wonderful it felt to belt out a song about bears and more bears, a…