Scarritt Bennett Center I am back from Nashville, y'all. I went there to teach a workshop with my good writing friend Terry Price. We called it From Spark to Story, and planned it to be just that: a journey from gathering inspiration, to getting it onto the page, to shaping it into a story. […]
Hello from Nashville, y'all! Here's my latest collection of writing prompts from my Tumblr blog. #274 Use the words cat, rain jacket and orchid in a sentence. Now use that sentence as a prompt. #275 Write about what your main character did yesterday, from the time he woke up until the time he went to […]
Here's this week's corral of my daily prompts: #259 If only….she thought. We all have a lot of “if onlies” in our life. What is your character’s biggest if only? #260 The wind blew and blew. It blew so hard and so long she thought she’d go crazy from it. And then, all of a sudden, it […]
Cats are good at crossword puzzles, too! I have decided that there's one VERY IMPORTANT piece of writing advice that often goes unmentioned. It is sort of a secret writer thing, but I am dedicated to bringing such things out in the open, because I'm dedicated to helping you find success as a writer. (You […]
Here's the latest collection of posts from my Tumblr blog, where I post a prompt daily. #246 As a child did you (or your main character) go to church? Sunday school or sitting in the service with the adults? What was your experience—love or hate? Character building or destroying? #247 And then she had to start over […]
Here's the latest collection of prompts from my Tumblr blog (minus one, because I forgot to do one on Sunday). #240 She sat up quickly. She forgot! She had totally forgotten about it! #241 What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? Write about it. Work details can enliven fiction. #242 Your character’s eating habits tell […]
Here's the latest collection of prompts from my Tumblr blog, all in one place for your convenience. #233 Use the words cried, red, burp and van in a sentence. Now use that sentence as a prompt. #234 It happens. You look up, and there s/he is. The phone rings, with good or bad news. The accident occurs. […]
Here's the latest collection of writing prompts, taken from my daily Tumblr blog. Happy writing! #219 She hated it when she watched a movie or read a book that she didn’t understand. And yet, those were the stories that stuck with her…. #220 "Do one thing that scares you every day." Eleanor Roosevelt. What would […]
Creative vs. Non-Creative People In which I attempt to answer the question, is there such a thing as a non-creative person? Years ago, when I was a fledgling writer still getting used to becoming enraptured in the throes of the creative process, I developed a theory: The world was divided into creative and non-creative people. […]
Over the last month or so, I've gone back to doing Morning Pages. I started mid-December and have been picking up steam ever since. I've been writing so much in my journal that I began a system of indexing it so I could keep track of everything. Ideas pour from my pen. I figure things […]
