Another day with two lovely hosts:
Available from https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01I220L2E and https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I220L2E.
courtesy of https://shortstops.info/2018/09/08/12-writing-tips-to-get-you-started:
As Anne Frank poignantly wrote: “I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” Writing can be an incredible outlet, but sometimes there are stumbling blocks along the way.
Which is why the team at READ Foundation has put together a list of 12 Writing Tips to Get You Started.
READ is an education charity which builds schools and enables children from poverty-stricken backgrounds to access schooling. We’re currently running a writing competition (closed for 2018, will reopen this year) for short stories, poems and personal essays which will inspire children in their educational path. Scroll down for more details on how to enter.
The charity has gathered the best tips from well-known writers, blogs and the wider web to help writers in their pursuit of the perfect prose.
http://storyaday.org/day-30-change-your-point-of-view
J
ulie says: After setting you free yesterday, I’m putting a few more limits on you again today.
The prompt: Take a story that you wrote earlier this month, and tell it from a different point of view
The point of this prompt is to show you that sometimes a story benefits from being told in a different way. Noir stories work in first person because that’s what we’re used to. Something set in a Victorian era works well in Third Person Omniscient because that’s how Dickens wrote–it’s what we’re used to.
Use this prompt as an excuse to play with a story and make it richer, through voice.
Go!
And me? Sadly, I’m not doing the challenge this year (too busy) but do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.
Not a lot of today left… sorry about that!
http://storyaday.org/day-29-the-story-youve-been-waiting-to-write
Julie says: I know you have stories you want to tell, that the world needs to hear.
Your experiences, your outlook, your way of expressing yourself, are unique in the history of the world and I’m so glad you’ve come this far, and you’re still writing.
And I know you’re going to continue to write, because you’ve come this far.
Today I’m giving you a prompt that might seem a little lazy from me, but there’s a reason.
The Prompt: Write the story that you’ve been hungering to write.
I’ve been very proscriptive this month, telling you what you write, and you’ve been writing for four weeks. You’ve got stories in your head that are nipping at your brain, whispering “tell me!”, so today I’m setting you free.
Tell one of those stories.
Go!
And me? Sadly, I’m not doing the challenge this year (too busy) but do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.
http://storyaday.org/day-28-use-these-words
Julie says: This is the kind of writing prompt that puts so many limits on your story that you can’t worry about making the story good. Sometimes you end up with a good story, but the silliness of the prompt removes all pretension and blocks.
The Prompt: Your story must include these words; ink, previously, work, breeze, seven, run, delicious, example, spontaneous, barb.
Go!
And me? Sadly, I’m not doing the challenge this year (too busy) but do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.
http://storyaday.org/day-27-start-at-the-end
Julie says: Start a story that begins with the ending, then immediately jumps back in time.
e.g. “It all started 12 hours ago.”
Think of this as the way someone might shoot a heist movie: a character is being led out in handcuffs and a voiceover says, “It all started 12 weeks ago.”
(In a short story you probably need to keep the scale in hours as this means you don’t have too many scenes.)
Don’t worry too much about getting this perfect. Feel free to be cheesy. Just have fun. Leave a comment to let us know how you got on!
Go!
And me? Sadly, I’m not doing the challenge this year (too busy) but do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.
http://storyaday.org/day-26-the-sale
Julie says: Today’s prompt lets you practice your dialogue and thinking about communicating your characters’ motivations to the reader.
One character is trying to sell something to another character. .
This could be metaphorical: they are trying to sell them an idea.
It could be literal: they’re trying to sell them a car.
Go!
Sadly, I’m not doing the challenge this year (too busy) but do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.
http://storyaday.org/day-25-the-moral-dimension
Julie says: Write a story about someone whose boss is doing something contrary to the main character’s morals.
Today I want you to write a story about a character whose boss (or somebody important to them, with power over them) is doing something illegal/unethical. How will your character react?
Go!
Sadly, I’m not doing the challenge this year (too busy) but do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.
Ironic that the day I forget to share the Story A Day May prompts should be about something that’s not there!
http://storyaday.org/day-24-disappearing-act
Julie says: Tell a story that features a disappearance
This could be an Intrigue/Idea story. At it heart it has a question, or a mystery or a big idea.
It could be the disappearance of a person, a cultural phenomenon, or of the bees, or of Arctic Ice. Or it could be something more nebulous. Your story could be serious or slapstick. What will you come up with?
Go!
Sadly, I’m not doing the challenge this year (too busy) but do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.
Julie says: Choose a detail that only your character would notice in this story
(This exercise is borrowed from Donald Maass’s The Emotional Craft of Fiction, a book I highly recommend.)
Think about your character’s past, so that you know what matters to your character, what background they came from.
As an example, I noticed a vase in my in-laws’ house because my parents had the same one. It was really the only notable thing about the vase! It tells you something about our relative backgrounds that our parents chose the same decor…
You might pick something with more emotional resonance: a smell, a song, a flower.
Tell a story about your character that includes a detail that tells us something more about your character.
Go!
Sadly, I’m not doing the challenge this year (too busy) but do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.
