Prompts

Scene One: Your point of view. Prompt #108

Today’s writing prompt is inspired from “Falling Down the Rabbit Hole” by Emily Hanlon,  December 2007 issue of Writer’s Digest magazine. Using an incident from your life, or your fictional character’s life, write a scene from your point of view (or, your fictional character’s point of view). Use dialogue. Inner thought is what defines point of view. The other character in this scene speaks and acts, but the reader doesn’t know the secondary character’s thoughts. All the inner thoughts belong to the point-of-view character. Basically, you are writing about an argument or a fight, or a heated debate between two people . . . yourself or your fictional character, and a secondary character, using dialogue.    

Prompts

Create a pantoum. Prompt #107

So far, on The Write Spot Blog, the prompts have been nice and easy. How about challenging yourself with a pantoum? Pantoum is the Western word for the Malayan pantun, a poetic form that first appeared in the fifteenth century, in Malayan literature. It existed orally before then. The Western version of the pantoum is a poem of indefinite length made up of stanzas whose four lines are repeated in a pattern: lines 2 and 4 of each stanza are repeated as lines 1 and 3 of the next stanza. ___________________________________________________________  line 1 ___________________________________________________________  line 2 ___________________________________________________________  line 3 ___________________________________________________________  line 4 ___________________________________________________________  line 5 – same as line 2 ___________________________________________________________   line 6 ___________________________________________________________   line 7 – same as line 4 ___________________________________________________________   line 8 ___________________________________________________________   line 9 – same as line 6 ___________________________________________________________   line 10 – same as line 3 ___________________________________________________________   line 11 – same as line…

Quotes

“Magic happens in rewriting.”

“Muse still comes in a rewrite. Magic happens in rewriting. As you chip away, themes appear. Start the story on the day the character’s life changes. Use your first draft to explore characters.” — Jennifer Lynn Alvarez, author of The Pet Washer and Guardian Herd – Starfire Jennifer says this about Starfire: “It wrote me. I did not come up for air until the first draft was finished. I’d always been warned not to write ‘talking animal’ books — that publishers don’t like them — but as I edited STARFIRE, I realized it was the book I’d always wanted to read as a kid.” “In hindsight, I’m grateful STARFIRE is the book that broke through because this book, my fifth, is the book I was born to write. It is the sum of me and my interests—flying horses and underdogs, heroes and bullies, and a special colt watching his herd,…

Just Write

The most important tool . . . to help me make the big choices in life — Steve Jobs

The subject of death may be uncomfortable or difficult for some. And yet, we are all going to die . . . some time. . . somehow. Here’s a quote from Steve Jobs. “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” — Steve Jobs Note from Marlene: Writing. . . letting others read your writing . . . can make you feel vulnerable, afraid and weak…