Recall a time in your young life when you went beyond your neighborhood. Perhaps you had the experience of being somewhere out of your comfort zone. How old were you? Did a grownup or older child stay with you? Or, were you left alone? Look around. Describe this place. Did it feel friendly? Scary? Were there a lot of people there? What did you do? What emotions roll over you as you remember? What energy did you pick up at the time? What is that energy like now? Does that energy still have a hold on you? #justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter
Tag: Just write. Writing freely. The Write Spot Blog
The “5 Whys” . . . Prompt #844
Prompt One Make a list of five physical / tangible things you want to own or have. In your wildest dreams, what are five material things you want? Prompt Two Make a brief list of five changes you would like to make. Could be emotional, health, financial, or personal. Be specific. For example: Emotional: Change attitude or feelings that don’t serve you. Is there something you are having a hard time letting go? List that, or those, if there are more than one. Rather than good health: Lose weight, change eating habits, drink more water, etc. Rather than exercise: Be specific about types of movement, etc. Rather than the broad category of “financial,” consider: Freedom from present money worries, wanting future financial security, etc. In your wildest dreams, what are five personal things you want? Prompt ThreeFrom Facebook post by Interesting World, April 24, 2025: Sometimes, the real reason for…
A favorite area . . . Prompt #835
Write about a favorite area: in your home in your workplace in your town Or your favorite place on earth.
Now vs then . . . Prompt #832
What did you do in your twenties that you can’t, or won’t, do now? What can you do now that you couldn’t do in your twenties?
More or less . . . Prompt #830
I wish I were more . . . I wish I was less . . .
Pick Up The Pace
Quick pacing hooks readers, deepens the drama, creates and increases tension.How to pick up the pace:1. Start story in the middle of the dramatic action, not before the drama commences.2. Keep description brief. This doesn’t mean using no description, but choose one or two telling, brief details.3. Combine scenes. If one scene deepens character by showing a couple at dinner and a few scenes later they have a fight, let them have the fight at dinner.4. Rely on dialogue. A lot of the story can be carried by spoken conversation. Readers seldom skip dialogue.5. Keep backstory to a minimum. The more we learn about characters through what they do now, in story time, the less you’ll need flashbacks, memories and exposition about their histories. All of these slow the pace.6. Squeeze out every unnecessary word. This is the best way of all to increase pace. There are times you want…
BEE-ING
Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. BEE-ING By Su Shafer I have become a stone. A gemstone. Labradorite Or Moonstone maybe. No – an Orca Agate From the Earth, with an affinity with water. I am a stationary object. My unruly legs have taught me The power of stillness, How motionlessness invites presence In each moment. Today I watched a bee visit All the flowers in my patio planter. Her tender attention to each one The pollen pantaloons on her legs The song of her wings, Humming as she went from floret to floret Trailing in the air behind her as she flew off. Her busy work reminds me There are no small lives. I think of her and her sisters Bustling about in the hive, Content in their purposefulness. Unlike my quiet house There is no stillness in a…
Yearnings . . . Prompt #791
As a child, what toys or games did you see advertised on TV, or in the Sears Roebuck catalogue, that you wanted and didn’t get? OR: What toys did you want that your friends had and you didn’t have? OR: Write about being jealous, or feelings of “have not.” OR: Yearnings: Then or now. Frances Lefkowitz wrote a wonderful memoir, “To Have Not.” #justwrite #iamawriter #iamwriting
If you could be small . . . Prompt #789
Writing Prompt: If you could make yourself small, what would you do? #justwrite #iamawriter #iamwriting
Movies! . . . Prompt #779
Movies! What movie made you laugh more than any other? Your all-time favorite movie. Why? Write about a movie that deeply touched you. Write about a movie you saw as a teenager. What movie do you remember seeing as a child? What makes these movies memorable?