Pros: Very freeing; highly unusual; childlike and playful Cons: A couple of details could have been thought out better Rating: 4 out of 5 Review book courtesy of Penguin Group.. *Sounds of disused muscles stretching* It’s been a while…
Blog Archives
The Power of Ritual
Writers of all people tend to be familiar with the power of ritual in one’s life. After all—that’s one of the reasons behind engaging in writer’s prompts. The familiarity of ritual can help to put one in a particular mindset,…
Posted in Writing Tagged with: Characters, creativity, Journaling, prompts, ritual, writers, writing
Childhood Memories
Today’s prompt is called ‘childhood memories’ and it’s from another Heather over at A Creative Journal: [S]pend some time writing about a safe place you remember from your childhood. This could be someone’s house or at the top of a…
Immortality
I got the idea for today’s exercise when I was reading Bibliolatry’s review of Immortal. The character at the center of this novel is, as the title implies, immortal, but he doesn’t know why. The reviewer spends some entertaining moments…
Posted in Writing Tagged with: free-writing, immortality, Journaling, writers, writing, writing prompts
Thankfulness
I’ve read several self-help books by authors with psychology backgrounds that contend that people who focus daily on the things that make them thankful or grateful tend to be happier. (Authentic Happiness; The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You…
Posted in Writing Tagged with: free-writing, Journaling, thankfulness, writers, writing, writing prompts
One Single Emotion
Since I was recently reading (and just reviewed) Dara Girard’s The Writer Behind the Words, I have ‘the writer’s life’ on the brain. So today we have a meta-exercise. Free-write a list of emotions that get in the way of…
Posted in Writing Tagged with: free-writing, Journaling, the writer's life, writers, writing, writing prompts
“Madame Nature”
Today, take a look at the following depiction of mother, or madame, nature. Write a brief scene with her as a character, preferably told from the first person (her point of view) or second (someone with her). Or, free-write or…
Posted in Writing Tagged with: art, free-writing, Journaling, mother nature, writers, writing, writing prompts
Author Ownership?
Since J.K. Rowling made her controversial announcement that Dumbledore is gay, many people have been arguing over what ‘right’ an author has to determine the facts of his or her world beyond what’s written in their books. I was over…
Posted in Writing Tagged with: Characters, Dumbledore, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, Journaling, suspension of disbelief, writers' exercises, writing
Five Great Ambitions
Here’s an exercise you can either apply to yourself (by journaling on it) or to a character as a way to explore your fictional characters. As quickly as you can (so as to limit careful conscious thought), list out five…
Posted in Writing Tagged with: ambition, free-writing, Journaling, writers, writing, writing prompts
Honor and Integrity
Here I shall quote from something my husband once wrote: If you don’t act with integrity all the time, where does it begin and end? Do you start acting honorably when you leave the house in the morning? On the…