(This month's writing prompt inspired by my critique partner, Jade.) One writing tip you hear over and over is use as many of the character's senses as possible on every page to create a real world the reader can experience. But...what would happen if your viewpoint character did not have the use of one of... Continue Reading →
This month's Writing Prompt is more of an Exercise, and it's inspired by this blog post on Tinderbox, which is a homeschool blog: Assignment: Write two short descriptions of the same thing. One description should use only action verbs. The other should use only linking verbs. The blog post talks about active vs. linking verbs,... Continue Reading →
Dialogue is a key element to any story. Â It's used to show conflict, advance the plot, expose characterization, and explore theme. Â Here's an exercise that can help you improve your dialogue. Take one of your scenes and convert it into a screenplay. Â You can look up screenplay formats on a website such as this, but... Continue Reading →
Submission from a previous writing prompt: SweetSarcasm shared this take on "London Bridge" for the "Twist a Nursery Rhyme" prompt.  Thanks, SweetSarcasm! This month, we'll focus on conflict.  And I don't mean a big ol' fight to the death between characters. This prompt is inspired by an exercise from a class on conflict I took last month. Conflict is... Continue Reading →
Ready for another writing prompt?  This time we're going visual! We chose three images from WeHeartIt.  Your job is to write a story that incorporates all three of those images.  Let these photos inspire you in any way.  Just make sure you use all three somehow. Writing tip: Whenever possible, replace a weak verb + adverb... Continue Reading →
Let's get those creative juices flowing this month! Recently, there have been several "fairy tale retellings" in Young Adult literature (see this post from January for a list of novels). Â Have you been thinking about a fairy tale you read as a child and wondered how you could twist it around and make it fresh... Continue Reading →
We're changing up the writing prompts a little bit in 2012. Â Rather than a "lesson" every other month, we're going to have open-ended prompts to get your imagination turning. You can write fan fiction stories or your own original stories. Â It's all for fun and practice because, of course, the number one way to be... Continue Reading →
It's December 1st already?! Â NaNo is over?! How'd you do? We have one final book to feature, possibly the most well-known one. Â It's the first NaNo book to be made into a movie: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was... Continue Reading →
We've featured Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins before, but did you know it was a NaNo novel? Anna was looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she's less than thrilled about... Continue Reading →
It's the second weekend of NaNo; how goes the writing?  We've got another book to feature -- Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton.  Angelfire was written during NaNoWriMo 2008 and released by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, in February 2011. First there are nightmares. Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that... Continue Reading →
Novel Novice 