Don’t think. Just write. Then you can add, embellish . . . “I don’t think about . . . things when I’m writing. I really try to shut off the thinking part of my brain. . . Don’t think . . . until you edit. And then you can add, embellish, and the next thing you know, if you’re very honest, all of the other stuff comes with it if it didn’t come before.” Sandra Cisneros, August 2015 The Writer magazine Marlene’s Musings: Yes! Your first bit of writing could be a freewrite. . . where you write freely. Then you can go back and revise, edit. . . add, embellish . . . make any changes you want. But first get it all down. Write from your heart, from your gut. Just write!
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.
Sensory Detail
Readers want to see the action and feel emotions. Readers want to be transported into other worlds. In a way, we want magical things to happen when we read: to be carried away, transformed. Writers can achieve these seemingly wondrous events by using sensory detail in writing. When including sensory detail, think of body parts: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and some add a sixth sense: mind. Verbs that describe the senses: see/sight, hear/sound/auditory, smell, taste, feel/touch, intuit. The sixth sense can be described as telepathy, intuition, perception, imagination. . . those traits that use the mind to create and understand. Some people believe the sixth sense is the ability to problem solve; using our minds to read and interpret signals, to pick up or sense energy. You can access any of these sensory details in your writers tool kit to create vivid and memorable writing. For the next few…
Hoot . . . a literary magazine . . . on a postcard!
Hoot publishes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and book reviews. “Our issues are small and cool looking, so you can also stick ’em on your fridge, or in your husband/wife’s briefcase, or leave one on a restaurant table for some random person to enjoy. Imagine, literature that you can pass around!” Hoot accepts submissions year-round. PROSE: 150 words or less POETRY: 10 lines or less. It has to fit on a postcard. BOOK REVIEWS: These will be published online, or on the back of a postcard when possible. Still 150 words or less. Must be of a recently published book (within the last year). The book must be published by an independent or small press. You may submit as many works as you like, but only two per submission. All work must be previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are allowed–but please let Hoot know if your work is placed elsewhere. “Depending on how…
Awards . . . Prompt #174
You can write on this prompt from your point of view or from someone else’s point of view. You can also write as your fictional character would respond. Write about an award you have received. Perhaps a certificate, a leather/letter jacket in high school, lapel pins, crowns, diplomas, trophies. Is there an award you didn’t receive and thought you should have? Did your fictional character deserve an award and didn’t get it? How did he/she respond? Writing Prompt: Awards
One Year From Now . . . Prompt #173
Today’s writing prompt: One year from now . . Write whatever pops up for you. No thinking, no judging, no editor on shoulder . . . just write!
Baby shoes for sale. Never worn.
“Baby shoes for sale. Never worn.” Hemingway wrote this six-word tale that has become the ultimate short, short-story. The reader can fill in the blanks. I wonder how many variations of a theme these few words have inspired. Grant Faulkner honed his skills to write short, 100-word essays and writes in the August 2015 issue of The Writer magazine: “A flash writer has to paint characters in deft brushstrokes, with the keenest of images in such limited space. Shorts require immediacy; they’re a flicker of light in the darkness, a prick, a thunderclap . . . Paring down my writing and focusing on what goes unsaid and unexplained help me build suspense.” Faulkner says, about Hemingway’s six-word story, “The story moves by implication– the empty space around those few words invite the reader to fill them, transforming the reader into a co-author.” If this type of writing appeals to you,…
Fiddleblack Journal might be right for you.
Fiddleblack journal might just be your cup of tea. “Fiddleblack’s mission is a basic path toward the discovery (and sometimes rediscovery) of literary and speculative works that eloquently capture what it means to know the finite bounds of self and place. A long road of inspiration led to Fiddleblack’s founding, trailed through many unconnected sources, from Cormac McCarthy to Michel Houellebecq.” Our role as a curator encourages us to accept diverse work, and to publish what sings, speaks, or stares as well as it possibly should. But we see our place in the world of small presses clearly: slipped off and secluded somewhere in the metaphorical sand. Fiddleblack is interested in works of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction that make purposeful commitments to figuring out whom one is meant to be, and how it is that one should exist in the space enclosed around him. We have a thin tie in each of…
More random words Prompt #173
What can you write, using these words: whisper, eternity, soar, frantic, thousand, chain, live, lie Post your freewrite on The Write Spot Blog.
Favorite summer activity. Prompt #172
What is your favorite summer activity? You can write about what you like to do now or a favorite activity when you were younger. If you are writing fiction, what does your fictional character like to do in the summer? Writing Prompt: Favorite thing to do in the summer.
Give up perfectionism.
“The most important thing that I have learned, or that I’m trying to learn, is to give up perfectionism, because when you keep trying to make the story do all the things you want it to do, you keep failing, and you end up going around and around in circles. You end up confusing yourself and your talent, and you begin to view things as a failure, even though they’re not failures.” Akhil Sharma, interviewed by Gabriel Packard, The Writer magazine July 2015. Akhil Sharma is the 2015 Folio Prize winner and professor of creative writing.