Joyous day, everyone! The weekend is here! I’m working double-time right now but don’t worry, that means you’ll be learning about a lot of new books soon. In the mean time, I wanted to give you a writing prompt to remind everyone that writers are young at heart.
You remember when you were a kid and could devour a book every day? (OK, some of us still do, but back then you weren’t hindered by bills and other responsibilities.) The pure amazement and glee you felt as you read? It’s time to tap into that wonder again.
One of the reasons writers are so good at writing is that we are young at heart. We approach each book and story with that same sense of amazement and glee that we felt as children. Sure, our reading tastes have matured and branched out and our view of the world at large may now be more pessimistic, but we’ve never lost the reading magic.
For today’s writing prompt, I want you to write the sort of story or poem you would’ve read as a kid. Think Curious George, Horton Hears a Who, Winnie the Pooh, whatever you read when you were four to seven years old. Try not to think too hard about it; just find that concept that would’ve excited younger you and roll with it. Write no more than ten pages for a story or two pages for a poem. Feel free to draw your own illustrations, no matter how crude they might be.
If you really want to put your writing to the test, grab a kid you know–preferably a family member or friend’s child whom you’re close to–and have them read your work (or read it to them). How does he/she react? No one can help spark a fire under the young at heart than a child they love.
What were your experiences with this exercise? Want to share what you wrote? Have a writing exercise you think we should try? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Happy Friday, readers and writers. It’s been quite a busy time for me. I’m scrambling to buy the books I need for my Master’s program, I’m getting more orders on Fiverr, and, of course, I’m trying to make time for my own writing. That’s the way I like it. When I have nothing to do for too long, the little demons of my mind set in. The circumstances have, however, made me think about decisions and untraveled paths a lot recently. That’s why today’s writing prompt is based on Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”.
I’m sure that most of you know “The Road Not Taken”. For those who don’t, here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry on the poem. Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets. While I prefer “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, “The Road Not Taken” is also wonderful.
As usual, the prompt is simple. Imagine the main character of your current work in progress walking home. On the way home, they always come to a fork in the road. One path leads directly to their home and is well-worn by your character’s continued use of the road. The other remains foreign to your character. They have never been down this other road before, don’t even know what lies beyond it, but today they decide to take the road less traveled.
Spend five minutes in a free-write about their experience taking the road not taken. How do they feel about the change? What awaits them on the path? What do they think they will encounter on the new path home?
After this free-write, walk away for a few minutes. Make a pot of tea, walk the dog, whatever. Just walk away from it and don’t think about your notes for a little while. Then return to your notes and write a scene, short story, poem, whatever you like based on the free-write.
Deciding to travel on “The Road Not Taken” can be a hard task in real life. The journey can reveal people’s strengths, weaknesses, insecurities, and desires. Forcing your character to do something outside of their normal routine can do the same thing. You may even learn something about the character that you didn’t know before. After all, Robert Frost once said that if there’s no surprise in the writer, there will be no surprise in the reader.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
What do you think of this exercise? Have you written anything you would like to share? Ideas for future writing prompts? Feel free to drop a line in the comments or e-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com.
Happy Friday, folks. Today I’m announcing the August monthly giveaway, available only to readers who also subscribe to The Writer’s Scrap Bin’s newsletter, The Scrapbook.
For this month’s giveaway, I want to provide a prize which can also help struggling writers to progress on their paths to becoming published. I will, for the month of August only, be extending to The Scrapbook subscribers the opportunity to have their work critiqued by me for free. If you sign up for the newsletter and follow the instructions provided in the August e-mail, I will read and critique your short story, a section of your novel, or an essay/memoir up to 10,000 words in length. (Unfortunately, I cannot critique poetry because I do not feel I have the grasp on that genre well enough to provide useful remarks.)
I typically charge $10 or more for this service on Fiverr, depending on the length of the manuscript. I have extensive experience editing and proofreading, particularly in providing feedback. I have taken several creative writing courses throughout my academic career and those classes always included a workshop element, so I know how to provide critique while remaining kind and building the writer up instead of tearing him/her down.
Right now I can only promise one round of revisions as the prize for this giveaway, but I may be persuaded to participate in multiple revisions. Of course, you will also be able to ask me as many questions as you have regarding my feedback for free.
If you are interested in this prize, please sign up for The Scrapbook using the link provided in the website menu.
Have any ideas for future monthly giveaways? Any questions about this giveaway or the newsletter? Feel free to drop a line in the comments or e-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com.
Good day, readers and writers; it’s Friday once again. Today I wanted to present you with an opportunity unlike the writing contests and publishing opportunities I’ve brought you in the past. Namely, I’m going to talk about a website called the Online Book Club.
If you follow me on social media, you’ve already seen my plethora of posts related to the website’s Book of the Day and the (one) review I’ve published through them thus far. I signed up for the website when I received an invitation through a Twitter direct message, and I’m pretty glad that I grabbed that chance. Not only have I been exposed to a wider range of books but I’ve also learned of a couple opportunities which would help an avid reader/writer earn some extra bucks.
The Online Book Club offers two unique possibilities for its users: to review books and to have your book reviewed. Of course, you can join the website for the sole purpose of their free or discounted Books of the Day and to talk with other readers. However, you can also choose to earn some extra cash as a reviewer or gain some exposure as a writer. Note that it is an either/or situation; you cannot both be a reviewer for the website and ask your book be reviewed because it’s a potential conflict of interest.
The reviews, at first, only give you the books for free in return. You have to climb the ranks through posts on the Book of the Month forums, published reviews, and the number of viewers and replies to your reviews. Nevertheless, it doesn’t take long to reach a paying level if you put a little time into it. I recently reached the minimum-payment books and am currently working on a $5 review.
You can also earn money through the Twitter Retweet Rewards Board, which involves retweeting, liking, and replying to the pinned Tweet on their account every day. In addition, they run a daily giveaway based on the Book of the Day, with the base prize being a $10 Amazon gift card ($20 if you have at least 25 posts).
There are many more details to each of these categories and I don’t have any experience with getting a book reviewed on the site, so I’m going to leave a link here for you to check out yourself. While your there, check out my review of Mois Benarroch’s poetry collection The Immigrant’s Lament.
Know of any interesting exposure, publishing, or money-making opportunities for fellow writers? Drop a line in the comments or e-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com.
TGIF, readers and writers! Today I’m going to borrow a writing exercise from the virtual summer school I attended for my Master’s program last year. In this exercise, you will be writing a short prose piece or poem about an object that you “have to hand” (the tutors’ words, not mine). Think pencil, ladle, orange, etc.
Spend ten minutes meditating on the object and jot down notes regarding your observations. Don’t just look at the object; engage all of your senses with it. This exercise is meant to help you learn description and imagery beyond what you see. What does the object feel like? Sound like? Smell like? Of course you should observe what it looks like as well but don’t limit yourself to that. What sort of feelings do you associate with the object, both through your senses and through your emotions?
After those initial ten minutes, set everything aside and walk away for a while. Do anything you like so long as you get your mind off the exercise for a short time.
When you come back, read over your notes. Choose whichever images and phrases from your notes you think are the strongest–the most vivid, the least cliché, and so on–and string those images and phrases together to create a short piece of prose or a poem about that object.
Here’s the piece I came up with when we did this exercise for the virtual summer school:
“Pen”
Look at this highly-decorated usurper. See how it boasts its silver engravings—tributes to its maker—like a Squid boasts his tats after a drawn-out deployment. And French—a tramp stamp to boot! That peacock! Pimped out in blue from splashes of orphan to slit-views of the Mariana Trench. Who is this kid to take the place of such worthy predecessors: the thespian quill, the proletarian pencil?
Beware the silver finger trap, more apt for clipping to your skin than your pocket. Resist, if you can, the temptation to fidget with the top (an addiction I fight quite hard). Feel the power of the button shove the needle out from this imposter, an I.V. that drips its blue blood at your command: c-click c-click, l-life d-death. But not too often. One click too many, you’re stuck for life.
Look! What’s this? The finger trap is loose! The needle refuses your command to retreat; the button won’t budge to your fidget. The dandy’s collapse has begun with the multi-gig generation looming. Yet like a car limping through its last few miles, jerry-rigged repairs will pull the blue soldier through for another day.
The pen from the above piece
More than anything, remember to have fun with this. This exercise is only to loosen you up and strengthen your observation skills; it’s not like you’re looking to win the Nobel Prize in Literature over a poem about a pen.
What was your experience with this exercise? Have any thoughts? Did you write anything you’d like to share? Drop a line in the comments, on our Facebook page, or join our Facebook group to talk with other writers.
Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well with the summer heat or whatever you have to tolerate where you live. Today’s writing prompt, in honor of The Beauty of the Fall by Rich Marcello, will involve a pilgrimage. Not a geographical pilgrimage, mind you, but one of the mind and imagination.
Travel seems to have a strong effect on human beings. I don’t know the science behind it, any neurological effects or evolutionary benefits, but I’ve noticed that people become different when they travel, no matter how slight that change is. My mother and I become happier, more relaxed. My father gets even more stressed and cranky during the actual travel and, depending on the destination, he can either get slightly happier or even worse once we arrive. No matter how our attitudes change when we travel, they do, and that seems to be why people travel so often when they take a vacation (and when they can actually afford it).
Some people even find spiritual benefits to traveling. That’s where the pilgrimage comes in. While a pilgrimage is often considered religious, it doesn’t have to be. According to dictionary.com, a pilgrimage can be “any long journey, especially one undertaken as a quest or for a votive purpose, as to pay homage”.
In The Beauty of the Fall, Dan Underlight embarks on such a pilgrimage to Fortune 500 countries across the U.S. He’s looking for inspiration and to find himself, and he at least achieves the first half of that goal. I think everyone, especially the creative types, could do with a pilgrimage like that.
My pilgrimage would include Sin City. Good luck figuring that one out.
What if you can’t afford a pilgrimage? What if traveling that far for that long is just out of the realm of possibility due to money, work, family, and other commitments? Well, that’s what today’s writing prompt is about, going on a pilgrimage without having to leave the house or office.
This prompt involves a lot more writing than usual but I’m sure no one will object to that.
I want you to imagine that you have all the resources and time you need to take on your perfect pilgrimage. Meditate on the matter for about ten minutes and jot down notes. Where do you go? When do you go? What landmarks do you visit?
After these ten minutes of note writing, I want you to step away from the notes for a while, perhaps an hour. Let it all sink in. Then return to your notes and reread them.
Once you’re finished reviewing your ideal pilgrimage, write a story about taking it. I would suggest doing so in the form of journal entries or a log book but do whatever feels natural for you. I want you to imagine that you are currently taking that pilgrimage, not just planning it. Is everything as you expected it to be? Do you experience any bumps in the road? Meet anyone interesting?
Don’t think too hard on the matter or research the locations. Just free write, record whatever pops into your head.
This exercise isn’t so much about accuracy or plot but emotions and character development. You can check the accuracy later and a plot will probably emerge from your subconscious. What’s important is to focus on how you feel during the pilgrimage and what you think would change about you along the way.
I know that this prompt sounds rather complicated and more jumbled than what I usually present to you. I think that it will help you to not only think more about character but to also stretch your imagination by trying to picture places you may not have even been to before.
When you’re done, feel free to talk about your experience in the comments or even post an excerpt from whatever arises from the exercise.
Don’t forget to check out The Beauty of the Fall and read my review of it here.
Happy Friday! The weekend is almost here; I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Speaking of “light,” I have an interesting contest to tell you about that also serves as a writing prompt. It’s a contest presented by The Writer magazine called “Let There Be Light.”
I first learned about the contest from an ad in the August 2017 edition of the magazine. Information about the contest is also available on their website.
For now, here’s the basic rundown:
The short story you enter must be based on this prompt
“Write a 2,000-word fictional short story using any nuance, definition, or understanding of the word ‘light’.”
Some examples from the magazine include “I saw the light,” “Lighten the load,” and “Give the green light.”
Stories must be 2,000 words or less.
Entry fee: $25
Deadline is midnight Eastern Standard Time on August 21st, 2017.
Entries are only accepted through their entry form (see the link provided above).
First place prize: $1,000 and publication in The Writer
Second place prize: $500 and publication on their website
Third place prize: $250 and publication on their website
International (non-US) writers are allowed to enter.
The prompt sounds easy enough, right? Open-ended and leaves room for creativity?
Just be careful not to trick yourself into thinking it’s too easy. Writers are notorious procrastinators. While some of us thrive under pressure, not leaving ourselves enough time because we think something will be easy can kill our writing.
You should also remember that the most open-ended prompts are often the hardest. Without strict parameters, the imagination may try and wander down several different paths, leading to a story which is scatter-brained, incoherent, poorly-executed, and incomplete.
Don’t be deterred, though. Any one of you could submit a story and win. I’m looking forward to seeing a familiar name printed in The Writer.
For this Friday Fun-Day writing prompt, you’ll be writing a bad poem.
For my American readers, today through Tuesday will probably be spent on barbecues, trips to the lake, drinking, movies, a night spent watching the fireworks, anything we can claim is to celebrate our independence but, deep down, we know is mostly just an excuse to goof off. I’m not saying that everything everyone does around Fourth of July has nothing to do with our independence; some of what we do truly is to honor our country, but I’ve always found barbecues and drinking odd ways to show patriotism. Anyway, odds are we’ll be nowhere near a keyboard or a pad of paper, and our writing might gather a little dust over the next few days.
This writing prompt is all about shaking off that dust and getting ourselves loose enough for “real” writing. Whether we take some time off for celebrations, have personal emergencies, or just don’t get around to writing for a while, we all hesitate to return to the drawing board once we get the time. We’re excited at first but as soon as we sit down, we freeze.
Why? We’re afraid that the first thing we write is going to be horrific. And you know what? We’re probably right.
That’s exactly why we have to dive in and start writing immediately. The more we write, the more cobwebs we knock out of our minds, and the better we write. And what better way than to go at it knowing you’re writing something bad, rather than trying to write something good?
I want you to write the worst poem you possibly can. Make it silly, make it cheesy, make it cliché, make it a parody, whatever you need in order to lose your inhibitions and just write.
Here’s an example of silly bad poem my mother and I put together for our dog, Lexi, that we recite after she gets groomed:
Ode to Squishy
Fuzzy Wuzzy is our Lex
Fuzzy Wuzzy is perplexed
Fuzzy Wuzzy has to pee
Fuzzy Wuzzy’s bugging me
Fuzzy Wuzzy is so needy
Fuzzy Wuzzy is so greedy
Fuzzy Wuzzy won’t do a trick
Fuzzy Wuzzy, thick as a brick
Fuzzy Wuzzy is so sweet
Fuzzy Wuzzy sure looks beat
Fuzzy Wuzzy loves to howl
Fuzzy Wuzzy, hear her growl!
See what I mean? Bad but hilarious, especially since we weren’t trying to write something good.
So go, write a bad poem. Keeps those writing gears greased. And post your bad poem in the comments. I would love to see what everyone comes up with!
Any suggestions for future writing prompts? Leave them in the comments or e-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com.
Happy Friday, everyone! It’s almost the weekend and almost July. Where did the time go? (To the boiling summer heat, I suppose.) To celebrate another month arriving, I’m going to tell you about July’s newsletter giveaway.
As I said earlier this week, I have started a newsletter for The Writer’s Scrap Bin called The Scrapbook. In it you will find early access to announcements and posts, exclusive content that isn’t on the blog, and more. Today I want to focus on a particular feature of the newsletter, the free monthly giveaways.
These giveaways will be anything from free copies of my work to free critiques of your works-in-progress. Only readers who sign up for the newsletter will know how to gain access to these freebies, so be sure to register using this link.
July’s giveaway is a PDF copy of my essay, “Get Off of My Cloud: Imagery, Hatred of Nature, and Ahab’s God Complex in Chapter 108 of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick“. This short essay focuses on the chapter of Moby-Dick titled “Ahab and the Carpenter” and offers an extension of Stephen C. Ausband’s paper on Ahab’s hatred of nature by arguing that this “misophusism” is a result of Ahab’s god complex.
The essay was first printed in the UC Davis Prized Writing Anthology,2012-2013. While this collection was supposed to be uploaded onto the Prized Writing website after about a year or so of the paper publication, no digital copy seems to have been made available since the 2010-2011 edition. This fact plus the lack of availability of this book outside of the physical UC Davis Bookstore have influenced me to provide free copies to readers who subscribe to the newsletter.
If you wish to partake in this month’s giveaway, please sign up for The Scrapbook before August 1st. You will get your first newsletter e-mail within a week from signing up, which will give you instruction on how to obtain the July giveaway. Even if you do not get to the additional instructions until after August 1st, I will still honor the free giveaway for the month in which you signed up.
On the last day of each month I will announce the new giveaway for the next month in a post on The Writer’s Scrap Bin. Each giveaway will feature a different product, service, or bonus. The more the blog and newsletter grow, the better the giveaways will become, so please encourage your writing friends to read this blog, register for e-mail notifications regarding blog posts, and sign up for The Scrapbook.
Questions? Suggestions for future giveaways? Contact me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and I will return your e-mail as soon as possible.
Happy Friday, readers and writers! Today we have a two-for-one: a writing prompt which doubles as a publishing opportunity. In particular, I’m going to prompt your to write “postcard fiction” and then provide you with a website where you may be able to publish it.
For my portfolio I experimented with a couple flash fiction stories. (The success of those experiments is questionable and the feedback on the portfolio seemed rather mixed.) To be honest, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around “successful” flash fiction and learning what actually makes such fiction good or bad.
Nevertheless, trying to write complete, successful fiction in such a short format is a good way to understand how to utilize all the elements of a good story without wasting a single word. That’s why I continue to grapple with flash fiction and modifying the flash I wrote for my portfolio.
In my attempt to understand this genre, I came across a website called Postcard Shorts. This website, as the name suggests, publishes flash fiction which can fit on a postcard, thus “postcard fiction.” These pieces are complete stories written in 1500 characters (not words but characters) or less.
As always, today’s writing prompt is deceptively simple:
Write a full story with a plot, narrative arc, character development, etc. which could be published on Postcard Shorts. In other words, try and write an entire story using no more than 1500 characters.
Remember, shorter does not mean easier. In fact, I’ve learned that it is much, much harder to write complete and effective stories in shorter formats. It’s probably why my flash fiction has turned out to be no good so far, but you know what they say: practice makes perfect.
Your postcard fiction can be about anything that you feel you can successfully write in under 1500 characters. Once you’re done and feel confident that you have written a good story, I suggest submitting it to Postcard Shorts. The site doesn’t pay but it’s a great way to get your fiction out there if you’re accepted and good practice at receiving rejection if you aren’t.
Well, have fun writing, my friends, and have a great weekend.
