Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends, when I get them). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 557: Wednesday 4th March
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes per exercise, having a break in between each one or move on to the next. When you’ve finished, do pop over to this blog’s Facebook Group and let everyone know how you got on.
Below are the four – you can do them in any order.
- Keywords: yum, little, know, over, 250
- Random: feeding an elephant
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Sentence start: On the streets of New York…
Have fun, and if you would like to, do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on! Remember though that it counts as being published so don’t post anything that you would want to submit elsewhere (where they require unpublished material).
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 561: Wednesday 4th March
Here are your four story exercises for today.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Today’s book review, of a comedy novella, is brought to you by yours truly, Morgen Bailey. If you’d like your book reviewed or to send me a book review of another author’s book, see book-reviews for the guidelines. Other options listed on opportunities-on-this-blog.
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Synopsis: The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely (JR Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people like the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short, her reading is subversive. The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny.
This novella is available via http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Uncommon-Reader-Alan-Bennett/dp/1846681332 and http://www.amazon.com/The-Uncommon-Reader-Alan-Bennett/dp/1846681332.
Review (of the audiobook)
The story starts with Queen Elizabeth II – thanks to one of her noisy corgi dogs barking in the grounds of Buckingham Palace – discovering the local council’s travelling library. She borrows a book, with help from one of her kitchen-hands, Norman Seakins, and her love affair with books starts. This sees Norman promoted then – without the queen’s knowledge – ‘demoted’ (to become a creative writing student at the University of East Anglia) although their paths cross again later.
During the journey of the book (and a few journeys of her own), the Queen takes every opportunity she can to read even while waving from her carriage. Resentment builds from her staff, and less-than-understanding family – on one occasion one of the books, she’s told, was taken for a suspect package and blown up. As we are lead to believe is true in real life, the Queen is very savvy and while no one knows whether she’s read this book, it’s an homage to her, her being beautifully portrayed throughout.
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Tags: writing, morgen bailey, writing tips, short stories, novels, books, writer, novelist, fiction, character, Bailey's writing tips, novel, creative writing, author, writing guide, Amazon, literature, book review, marketing, story authors, collection, Kindle, Roald Dahl, Kate Atkinson, book reviews, story author, Morgen with an e, alan bennett, Morgan Bailey, university of east anglia, audiobook, main character, text-to-speech, book-reivew, The Queen, Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace, Norman Seakins, JR Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends, when I get them). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 556: Tuesday 3rd March
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes per exercise, having a break in between each one or move on to the next. When you’ve finished, do pop over to this blog’s Facebook Group and let everyone know how you got on.
Below are the four – you can do them in any order.
- Keywords: together, happy, excited, week, move
- Random: a rebuild
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Tuesday Title: Replacement
Have fun, and if you would like to, do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on! Remember though that it counts as being published so don’t post anything that you would want to submit elsewhere (where they require unpublished material).
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 560: Tuesday 3rd March
Here are your four story exercises for today.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends, when I get them). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 555: Monday 2nd March
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes per exercise, having a break in between each one or move on to the next. When you’ve finished, do pop over to this blog’s Facebook Group and let everyone know how you got on.
Below are the four – you can do them in any order.
- Keywords: great, believe, light, huge, doors
- Random: a boiling kettle
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- Monologue Monday: Write a first-person poem – meeting an old friend
Have fun, and if you would like to, do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on! Remember though that it counts as being published so don’t post anything that you would want to submit elsewhere (where they require unpublished material).
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 559: Monday 2nd March
Here are your four story exercises for today.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Welcome to Post-weekend Poetry and the one hundred and twenty-seventh poem in this series. This week’s piece is by Samantha Wilcox.
Huózhe
An ever-changing tonal wail
competing with the Chinese violin
People move arms up
And circle the air
Sashay hips
Fixed stare
Daylight in the entrance to the park
Or later as fading light turns to dark
Colour lights by battery
red and blue
Cascades from cheapest plastic
Some, a few
Are sold
But eggs or chestnuts make the sales
Keep the streets alive with smells
Tofu, eggplant, pineapple
Dusty carts laden with foods
Stand on corners by the roads
Under the bridges
And next to the lights
Walking through another time
Breathing smoke and dust and grime
Staying close to locals to make it through the roads
The weaving cars, buses, bikes
Cross safely to the other side
*
I asked Samantha what prompted this piece and she said…
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Tags: Abraham Verghese, Blade Runner, Christina Rossetti, Clean Cut Media Ltd, creative writing, Elizabeth Los, Ellen Miller, fiction, five senses, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, Huózhe, iambic pentameter, Jane Austen, Jasmine Heydari, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, online poetry group, Online Poetry Writing Group, online writing group, Philip K Dick, poem, poet, poetry, Ridley Scott, Samantha, Samantha Wilcox, the bridge, The Sister Worlds, villanelle, Virginia Woolf, writing, writing group, writing poetry, Zeruya Shalev.
Today’s Author Spotlight, the three hundred and ninety-ninth, is of multi-genre author Alan Place. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at author-spotlights.
From an early age, Alan found he had a talent for telling stories, but it wasn’t until he read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silver_Sword did he realise, being a writer may be his calling.
All through his school days, he was never happier than reading, or telling stories; he was more often found in the library than playing sports; in later life he found out this probably saved his life as he suffered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertrophic_cardiomyopathy , an inherited illness which kills otherwise healthy athletes suddenly, and for no apparent reason.
In between the dream, and the realisation of a dream, was a little thing called “life,” and it took over 50 years to reach a stage where he had the time to write.
His earliest stories were westerns, but he as yet hasn’t done any for sale; five years ago after he became disabled, he decided to take up writing, and made a rep for writing ghost stories. These have been good sellers in the UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BNDHL0U and he has been in the Amazon top 20 Ghost Anthology section several times.
Three years ago he started a blog http://alsdomain.weebly.com/which will close this month http://alsdomain.weebly.com/whats-happening/it-doesnt-matter-anymore other than contact with a few close friends, and his friends on https://www.facebook.com/groups/665685033479843/ and http://thepeacockwriters.weebly.com/ he will effectively be off line.
And Alan’s emails close with: “A writer without an audience, is like a one-handed clap.” Harlan Coben, Bristol, April 9th, 2014. :)
*
And now from the author himself:
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Tags: Alan Place, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, biography, blog post, blogging, books, characters, creative writing, fantasy novel, fellow author, ghost stories, guest blog, guest blog post, guest blogging, guest post, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, non-fiction, novelist, novelists, novels, reading books, self-published novelist, story author, story authors, telling stories, writer, writer interview, writing, writing advice, writing tips
Every weekday I post a set of poetry prompts on poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com and a set of story prompts on the script, novel and short story blogs (and poems, script / novel extracts, stories at the weekends, when I get them). As you’ll see by the headings, you’ve missed a few but they’re listed on the relevant group’s Exercises page so you can always find them there…
Poetry Writing Exercises 554: Friday 27th February
Here are your four poetry exercises for today. Time yourself for 15 minutes per exercise, having a break in between each one or move on to the next. When you’ve finished, do pop over to this blog’s Facebook Group and let everyone know how you got on.
Below are the four – you can do them in any order.
- Keywords: schedules, stressful, throat, house, update
- Random: front and back
- Picture: what does this inspire?
- One-word prompt: step
Have fun, and if you would like to, do paste your writing in the comment boxes below so we can see how you got on! Remember though that it counts as being published so don’t post anything that you would want to submit elsewhere (where they require unpublished material).
See below for explanations of the prompts, they do vary…
- Sentence starts = what it says on the tin. You can use it at the beginning of the poem or include it later, and being poetry it doesn’t have to be exact – just be inspired by it.
- Keywords = the words have to appear in the poem but can be in any order and can be lengthened (e.g. clap to clapping).
- Single-word prompt = sometimes all it takes is one word to spawn an idea. Sometimes it easy, sometimes hard but invariably fun.
- Mixed bag = an object, a location, a colour.
- Picture prompts = nothing other than a picture. What does it conjure up?
- Title = The title for your piece.
- Haiku poem= 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
- Random = whatever takes my fancy!
*
Story Writing Exercises 558: Friday 27th February
Here are your four story exercises for today.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: adverbs, author, blog, books, competitions, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, exercises, feedback, fiction, film, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, literature, monologue, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, mystery, non-fiction, nonfiction, novels, pantoum, plays, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, prose, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, science fiction, scripts, scriptwriting, short stories, short story, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, thriller, triolet, tv, villanelle, writer, writing, writing exercises, writing group, writing poetry, writing workshop
Below are the four – you can do them in any order.
