“Quiet writing isn’t a genre, it’s more like a style and an approach. For creative nonfiction, it’s narrative that focuses on everyday moments, employs keen observation, and includes details and imagery to demonstrate and investigate the human experience. It reads quiet but still carries the tension and conflict that is fundamental to good storytelling.” — Andrea A. Firth Excerpted from Quiet Writing: Start with an Everyday Moment, Brevity Blog Post, April 23, 2025 Andrea A. Firth is an editor at Brevity Blog.
Author: mcullen
Marlene Cullen is enthusiastic about encouraging people to write, even those who think they can’t write. Her series of books, The Write Spot anthologies, features writing that entertains as well as inspires writing. Every story, vignette, and poem in The Write Spot books include writing prompts motivating readers to become writers.
Marlene hosts The Write Spot Blog, a treasure chest of inspirational gems for writers.
Fulfilling her passion for writing and sharing with others, Marlene has created unique writing environments such as Jumpstart Writing Workshops, where participants often experience transformational changes. Her workshops provide essential elements for successful writing.
Marlene is the founder of Writers Forum of Petaluma, a monthly literary event featuring presenters talking about the craft and business of writing.
Marlene's awarding winning short stories and essays have been published in literary journals, anthologies, and newspapers, including Tiny Lights, Building Bridges, More Bridges, Redwood Writers anthologies, and The Write Spot anthologies.
She is a member of the California Writer's Club.
Kangaroo Words . . . Prompt #863
Kangaroo Words A word that contains a synonym: masculine = male honorable = noble blossom = bloom action = act balderash = blah damsel = dame dazzle = daze addlepated = addled aggravated = grated breathe = be cartoon = art chocolate = cocoa falsified = lied Writing Prompt: Use kangaroo words in your writing. Find other kangaroo words. Inspired from San Diego Writers, Inc Facebook post Just Write!
On my next birthday . . . Prompt #862
On my next birthday, I will be (___) years old. It’s a big deal, because . . . It’s not a big deal, because . . . If neither money nor health/mobility were issues, here’s how I would celebrate my birthday . . . At my age, my parents . . . . or my grandparents . . . Just Write!
Hero’s or Heroine’s Journey . . . Prompt #861
Brief definition: A hero or heroine goes on an adventure, is victorious, and is transformed. This can be fiction or memoir. Examples: Dorothy in Wizard of Oz Kerrin in Amoran, recently published by Debra Koehler If you were to write a story of your life, or a real person’s life, or your fictional character life as a hero’s or heroine’s journey, what would the lowlights be? The highlights? What obstacle did you or your character overcome? Write a scene where there is a conflict: Someone wants something. There is an obstacle. Does the character get what they want? Prompt: Write a scene involving a conflict or overcoming an obstacle.
Walk In Your Character’s Shoes . . . Prompt #860
Writing Prompt: Use a situation from real life. Or: Make up something that could have happened with either a real person or a fictional character. Prepare to write: Get into the head of the character, real or fictional, that you want to write about. This could be a younger version of yourself. See that character. Notice their skin. Is it youthful? Smooth? Wrinkly? Sagging? Notice their hair: Color, style, neat, messy Look into their eyes, notice the main color, the subtle colors. Do their eyes look tired? Energetic? Hopeful? Hopeless? How do they sound? Clear voice? Raspy? Slow talker? Fast talker? What type of personality are they? Usually happy? Cheerful? Grumpy? Modest? Full of themselves? How does that person walk? How do they move? Become that person, that character. It could be a younger you. Walk around as if you are the person you are going to write about. Pantomime…
Amoran: Book One of the Amoran Chronicles
“Amoran: Book One of the Amoran Chronicles,” by Debra Koehler, reviewed by Jessica Fahey Debra Koehler’s Amoran: Book One of the Amoran Chronicles is a richly layered blend of domestic realism and metaphysical fantasy, a story that begins in a perfectly ordinary New England household and expands into an extraordinary multiverse. It’s a novel about rediscovery of self, of purpose, and of unseen worlds that lie just beyond the veil of perception. What begins as the story of a harried mother juggling family, work, and forgotten dreams evolves into an odyssey across dimensions, infused with wonder, humor, and emotional truth. Amoran explores the tension between the mundane and the mystical. Kerrin’s life in Glenwood Falls, marked by school runs, marital banter, and afternoon tea, embodies the small comforts and quiet frustrations of midlife. Yet Koehler uses that ordinariness as fertile ground for transformation. The novel poses the question: what if…
A December Memory . . . Prompt #859
Writing Prompt: Write a December memory. #justwrite #iamawriter #iamwriting
Keeping the memory . . . Prompt #858
In “Giving Up The Ghost” by Samantha Rose, Sam explores the possibility of having a relationship with someone after they die. Writing Prompt: If you have lost a loved one, in what ways have you continued the relationship? Or Write about someone who has passed as if you were introducing them. For example, “This is my grandmother, she sews all her clothes and makes noodles from scratch.” Bring this person to life as if they were in the room, or right around the corner.
Hard to do . . . Prompt #857
Prompt 1 Make a list of things that are hard for you to do. Prompt 2 Write about one of those things that are hard, and yet you do it anyway.
What makes writing memorable?
Concrete details. Evocative language. Characters who seem as human as we are. Ronnie Blair, “Writing That Endures—It’s All in the Craft,” Brevity Blog, October 17, 2025 Ronnie Blair is the author of the memoir Eisenhower Babies: Growing Up on Moonshots, Comic Books, and Black-and-White TV.