Weekend Writing Prompts – 6 Spooky Story Starters

Posted on October 22, 2011 by

In honor of Halloween, we’re doing spooky story starters this weekend.  Dust off your ghost-story-telling abilities and see where these ideas take you.

  1. Daylight, dense fog, muffled sound. You go for noon walk anyway. Describe your walk, and what happens when a dark shape suddenly looms before you.
  2. Late at night, flat tire, country road. What do you hear? How do you feel? Do you trust the man who pulls up in a pickup truck?
  3. Children are in bed, you’re reading a book in the living room.  You suddenly feel a prickle of skin – someone is watching you. What happens next?
  4. Turn several lights on in hotel room, put wallet on dresser and use bathroom.  When you come out, wallet is on the bed and two lights are turned off. What do you do? How do you feel?
  5. Dusk, walk through autumn woods with dog, listen to birds. Dog whines. Birds silent. Describe how it feels.  What’s happening?
  6. Strange noises come from abandoned house at end of lane. What do you hear? Do you go in?
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Begin at the Beginning – a Plotter Tries Being a Pantser

Posted on October 20, 2011 by

Which came first – the chicken or the egg? The beginning or the end?  When you write a story, do you start by knowing the characters and the opening, and then write to see where it takes you? (Option 1, writing by the seat of your pants, or Pantser)  Or do you start with the characters, the situation and the ending, and write to get there? (Option 2, plotting the story in varying degrees, or Plotter)  For the first time, I’m experimenting with Option 1, being a Pantser.

Well, not exactly the first time.

My mind usually percolates a situation, character and end, and I build the plot and the character together until they work.  What-ifs can show up – I definitely don’t outline everything – but I’m still writing to meet the ending I’ve envisioned.  It just works best for me.

For NaNoWriMo one year, I did try writing to see where the story would go.  I found I didn’t have enough structure to keep the story going, even in that month of turn-the-internal-editor-off-and-just-write.  My brain wanted to explode, not having enough time to think of what a character would do, how she would feel, how someone else would react.  I ended up with a  theme I may use someday, but otherwise my story was a total mucky mess.  Anyway, I scurried back to where I feel safe (and clean):  knowing the ending first.

But tonight, I’m sitting at my computer, resorting to being a Pantser again.  I have a short story due on Tuesday, and any idea that’s danced around in my mind just hasn’t clicked with me.  It’s now Thursday, and I need time to write, revise, let it sit, and revise again.  AND I have no way to work on it Saturday or Sunday.  Time to start looking for short-cuts.

I found the best short-cut in my WIP.  I know those characters, so why don’t I take one of them, throw them into a situation that might even help with backstory, and see what happens?  So here I am.  Amanda, my American in Ireland, will find herself with the temptation of reading her teenage daughter’s diary.  I know her well enough to know she’s torn – reluctant to invade Kelsey’s privacy, but worried enough to do it anyway.

What I don’t know is what will happen after she reads it.  Will she ‘fess up? Will she keep it to herself? I’m not even sure if Kelsey will find out, although I suspect so.  Right now, I’m going to write and see just what Kelsey puts in her diary.  I have to know what Amanda’s going to react to, after all.  Next week, I’ll let you know what happened after.

What about you?  If you’re a Plotter, have you ever written a story as a Pantser?  If you’re a Pantser, have you ever done a stint as a Plotter?  How did it turn out?

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Weekend Writing Prompts– Story Starters About Revenge

Posted on October 16, 2011 by

Do you ever dream of what you would do to get back at someone?  Or are you too nice?  Even if you’re an understanding person, your character doesn’t have to be.  What kind of revenge would he or she take to make someone pay for what they did?

Wait!  Make it more interesting – choose a situation below, and then spend five minutes brainstorming possible scenarios.  Do NOT write about the first one or two you list – those are the easy ones.  For a more interesting story, go with a scene you had to stretch for, one toward the end of your list.

What kind of revenge might your character take if:

  •  A party guest stole money from them?
  • Their best friend added to an untrue rumor about them?
  • Their partner/lover cheated on them?
  • Their co-worker stole their great idea?
  • A friend “borrowed” something and then damaged it?
  • After a prank or crime, an accomplice ratted them out to the authorities?
  • They find out their boyfriend/girlfriend was only trying to get close to them to find out their secret?
  • A sports competitor sabotaged their equipment?

Have fun, and come back and tell us what you wrote about!

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Versatile Blogger Award

Posted on October 14, 2011 by

Y’know, I write because I love it, because I can’t ignore the characters and stories in my head.  I’m also a teacher at heart, hence the blog –when a writing tip helps someone in their own writing, or they just learn from my mistakes, I feel warm and fuzzy and tingly all over.  Which is why I love comments (and wish there were more – hint! hint!).

I wouldn’t have said I needed any other outside validation, but when it came two days ago, I glowed until bedtime.  My little blog, trying hard to entice emerging writers to come learn and share, has received The Versatile Blogger Award.  Wow.  On the other hand, since this blog is all about writing, I’m not sure how versatile it is.  Maybe it’s me that’s versatile?

In any case, a big shout-out and thank you to Diana Murdoch, writer-blogger extraordinaire and new blog/Twitter friend, who recommended eight blogs worth visiting, mine included.  Go check out her post so you can visit the other honorees.  Heck, pick anything on her blog and you’ll enjoy it – her writing touches heartstrings.

OK, the rules are that, after accepting the award, the winner must:

  • Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award,
  • Tell seven things about yourself, and
  • Choose up to fifteen newly-discovered blogs on whom to bestow the award.

So . . . seven things about myself.  (Why can I suddenly not remember the ideas I’ve had in the last two days?)

  1. I was a Navy wife for ten years (he left the Navy, not me!).  Somehow each change of duty station took us to the opposite side of the country, so I’ve lived all over.  Our first baby was born the day before he came home from sea, the second while he was on shore duty, and the third was born two days before he left for a 6-month West-Pac cruise.  Yes, I’m independent.
  2. I’m a college student again.  I never finished my bachelor’s degree, but I have transcripts from five different universities (see above).  So, a few classes at a time, I should finish a BA in English at the end of 2013.  And no, I’m not going to “do” anything with it.  Just keep writing.
  3. I love family history:  the puzzle, the hunting-for-clues, the burst of joy when I find someone.  But I also love finding out about that ancestor, what they did, how they lived, who they were.
  4. I was riding horses before I could walk.  Literally.  In front of my mom at first, but on my own by the time I was three, and got my first pony when I was four.  English mostly, sometimes western.  There have been a few times in my life that I’ve been horse-less (like now), but there are always friends with horses to fill that space in me.
  5. I’m a vanilla ice cream person.  Even as a kid, I’d go to Baskin-Robbins and order vanilla.  I’ve spread my tastebuds since, to orange sherbet, chocolate fudge brownie & butter pecan, but vanilla still wins out most of the time.  Unless there’s Moose Tracks in the house.
  6. I’d go back to Ireland in a heartbeat.  We spent 2-1/2 years in County Cork, courtesy of my husband’s company, and I wasn’t ready to come home.  Green, hilly, quirky, historic, enchanting, with family history thrown in. I don’t want to be an ex-pat forever, but just another year or two?
  7. I’m learning to quilt.  I’ve cross-stitched for years, but have resisted quilting – didn’t want to sit at a sewing machine after sitting at a computer. But my daughter asked if I wanted to do a Block-of-the-Month quilt with her, and I’m now working on the first one.

Here’s my list of brilliant blogs that I’ve discovered recently.  Some of them are “life blogs,” some are writing blogs, and some are a combination.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Bliss Habits: Cultivating Everyday Bliss      Ooh, I love this one. All the aspects of the life I want, from creativity to gratitude to romance.

Simple Mom: Life Hacks for Home Managers      A great blog when you need tips to simplify your life to make time to write, or just want to get back to what’s real.

Jillian Dodd:  Glitter, Bliss & Perfect Chaos     Wacky and fun, her title says it all.  But oh, you gotta check out her MANday pics!  (Wiping drool off face)  Also a ROW80 veteran with tips – I’m really going to have to try that next go-round!

Gene Lempp    Life, writing, weekly mash-ups of great blogs to check out, and some creepy mythological creatures (complete with ideas to tie them into writing).  And he’s another of these ROW80 peeps.

Tess Hardwick: Inspiration for an Ordinary Life     Lovely, insightful posts that are stories in themselves, about writing, family & life.

Procrastinating Writer: Guidance for Writers Who Struggle to Get Started     If you procrastinate (hopefully not as much as I do), she’s got lots of tips and tricks for you.

Molly Greene: Worth Becoming     New blog by great writer and fellow Wana1011 member – fun to read now, will be fun to watch it grow.

Angela Wallace: Believe, Dream, Awaken     Hunky vampire smackdown contests, paranormal book reviews, plus various life and writing thoughts.

One of the best things about this award has been exploring the blogs that Diane listed.  So enjoy exploring my list, and for you new Versatile Bloggers, have fun paying it forward!

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Using NaNoWriMo Lessons – Editing by Chunks

Posted on October 12, 2011 by

Not This Year!

I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year.  There, I’ve admitted it out loud.  I’ve decided to spend my sanity on keeping up with my homework as a “returning mature student,” developing my blog, and finishing (yes, you read that right), finishing my current Work in Progress.

But my past years of doing NaNo have taught me a lot.  In a nutshell:

  • To turn off my internal editor (still a constant effort for me, though).
  • To give characters the freedom to take the story in a different direction.
  • To develop the discipline of daily writing.  (Read more at Lessons Learned from NaNoWriMo.)

I’ve realized lately that I learned one more thing from NaNo:  how to chop big chunks of writing and rearrange other big chunks.  There’s no way anyone gets through NaNo without a big pile of crappy stuff.  We all know that going in, and we learn to go through our mish-mash afterwards to find the gems worth keeping.

That skill is coming in handy now.  My current WIP is a women’s novel told in sections narrated by each of three main characters.  And believe me – this was waaaay more complicated than I ever expected.

Even after I spent mega-time plotting and outlining, I didn’t seem able to flip from one character to the other in the order planned.  I ended up writing lots of one storyline, then lots of another, then lots of the third, only to discover that what I wrote for the first wasn’t going to mesh with the interaction later, even with the pre-planning.

You can see where this is going.  After getting on my knees and thanking God for the guy who invented cut-and-paste, I did a lot of cutting and pasting.  I’m still doing it, in fact.  Scenes move from one section to another.  Scenes get deleted because I’ve gotten to know my characters better and that scene just doesn’t work anymore.  And some scenes get completely re-written from a different character’s viewpoint.

I’m ¾ done with my rough draft, and doing some of this editing-in-chunks now to set up the remaining scenes.  I will be so glad when the rough is done, and I can really step back and make the story work.  But at least I’m learning to do the structural editing first, instead of smoothing out dialogue and narration only to cut them later anyway.

Hmm . . . the order of editing.  I could continue, but that’s a whole ‘nother post.

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Weekend Writing – Story Starters that Ask What If

Posted on October 9, 2011 by

Start a Story by Asking "What If?"

Here are five writing prompts that ask the classic writer’s question, “What if?”  Each of these could create hundreds of story lines depending on the writer’s choices.  Where would you take it?

What if . . . your brother and his wife are killed in a car accident and you become guardian of the children from hell?

What if . . . a couple of teens steal a car to go joyriding, and it breaks down in the middle of nowhere?

What if . . . the mild-mannered guy three doors down begins stalking you?

What if . . . the sun’s glare through the windshield is blinding you and you hit an elderly man because you can’t see him?

What if . . . a guy is rough-housing at the pool, shoves his friend in unexpectedly, and the friend hits his head and is paralyzed?

Choose one and see where it goes.  Was there something surprising? Did you pull on your own experiences?  Did it morph into a totally different story?

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The End of Publishing?

Posted on October 6, 2011 by

Changes in what people are reading, how they are reading, and even IF they are reading.  Hmm, what is the future of publishing?  Watch this all the way through (only 2-1/2 minutes) and find out:

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Weekend Writing Prompts – Young Writers

Posted on October 1, 2011 by

The writing prompts here are geared to some of my younger blog readers, but can be used by anyone – just adapt to something that relates to you and your experience, which is the role of a story starter anyway. … Continue reading →

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Just What Is Literary Fiction?

Posted on September 21, 2011 by

What’s the definition of literary fiction?  What’s the difference between literary and commercial fiction?  Is one better than the other?  Enquiring minds want to know! One writing instructor I had defined literary fiction as anything in the fiction part of … Continue reading →

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Saturday Story Prompts

Posted on September 17, 2011 by

Need an idea for a story?  An injection of energy in your novel?  Something to get you started in your free-writing time?  Saturday Story Prompts are here to help. Every Saturday I’ll post some story prompts: one-line story starters,  phrases … Continue reading →

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