Articles/Ideas/Prompts - Short Fiction - Writing Exercises

Your goal for this month might be all about editing, but it's always good to keep the writing juices flowing. To help you keep writing, each week there will be a writing prompt. These are designed to be 500-1, 500 word writing exercises. They don't have to be full stories, as long as they sort of make sense.

This week, take a character from a different project than the one you're currently editing, someone who you are somewhat familiar with but who isn't quite a close friend yet. You will be writing from their point of view.

Your goal is to write 500-1, 000 words about this character traveling through an unfamiliar forest. Have them describe the forest as best they can, trying to figure out types of trees, types of flowers, any animals that they find.

I'd love to read your responses to these prompts. If you think one of them is particularly great, email it to me with Prompt Response in the subject line at diannalgunn@gmail.com.

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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Articles/Ideas/Prompts, Short Fiction, Writing Exercises

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5 Great Websites/Blog Posts

February 5th 2010 12:22

I've decided that every Friday I'm going to blog a list of great blog posts, websites, and/or markets. This is part of an attempt to try to regulate my writing and my blogging.

Today's list consists of three interesting blog posts and two interesting websites, in no particular order as usual.

~Archetype Writing randomly generates strange characteristics and phobias. These look like some fun things to work with and would be great to add to round out any cardboard characters.

~Truth In My Fiction is a guest post written by Megan Crewe, author of Give up the Ghost. It talks about how her life influenced her writing of this book. I interviewed Megan Crewe around the time her book came out, and you can read the interview here.

~Writer's Block Archive is a livejournal community. Each day they post a new question. You're supposed to answer these as your character-you might learn something new. You can also read through the answers of people who have answered before you.

~What I Saw at Revolution is an interesting post talking about changes in the publishing industry. It also addresses the recent removal of MacMillan books from the Amazon stores.

~A Rose By Any Other Name is a post on Magical Words that talks about naming your characters, and thinking about what a certain name means to you or to other people that you know.

I hope you enjoy these posts. I'll return to posting come Monday.

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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Articles/Ideas/Prompts, Short Fiction, Writing Exercises

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Making A Workshop List

February 3rd 2010 12:06

As some of you already know, this year I want to do a workshop that lasts at least one week on my blog. These are meant to be intense, short workshops. In January I did a workshop on Organizing Your Novel, and this month I'll be doing a workshop on characterization. These workshops are designed to help writers with a first draft figure out what they want their story to look like in the next draft, and to help them figure their characters out as well.

I've come up with a theoretical list of workshops for the next year. I'm hoping for some input on what you think would be most useful. Take a look at my list and let me know what you think. Suggestions are welcome.

January-Organizing your novel
February-Characterization
March-Editing
April-Developing a Religion
May-Dear Diary Workshop
June-Developing Mythology
July-Developing a History
August-Increasing Your Productivity (Scheduling workshop w/prompts)
September-Short Story workshop (writing a short story)
October-Character and Plot Building month long workshop
November-Nanowrimo related workshop
December-Short Story Editing

What do you think of this list? Which workshops are you most interested in? What do you think could be better replaced by something else?

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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Updates on Novels, Articles/Ideas/Prompts, Short Fiction, Writing Exercises

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10 Things To Look Forward To On Fictional Worlds

August 14th 2009 00:11

This is a list of ten things you can look forward to here on this blog over the coming year. I've been planning quite a few workshops and things to do around here to make life more interesting. I've also been debating making a forum for these workshops. Anyone who would be willing to help me run it should contact me at diannalgunn@gmail.com about it.

Here are some things you can expect to see

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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Updates on Novels, Articles/Ideas/Prompts, Short Fiction, Poetry, Short Non-Fiction, Writing Exercises

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Dear Diary 21

July 21st 2009 17:33

Dear Diary,

Today we rose before the sun and ate our breakfast early. We packed up our tents and our bags and put them in our storage wagons-my group has two. I talked briefly with the other generals, who told us to travel along the Appollinian border towards Drakor territory, stopping to help if help was needed anywhere

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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Articles/Ideas/Prompts, Short Fiction, Writing Exercises

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Developing Your Voice

July 8th 2009 23:20

I often see writers on various forums asking the same questions. Usually they're questions about things like chapter length, pacing, character building-all those important things. One of the most frequent questions asked isn't specifically about your story though-it's about developing your voice.

Writers ask 'How does one develop their voice

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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Updates on Novels, Articles/Ideas/Prompts, Short Fiction, Poetry, Short Non-Fiction, Writing Exercises

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Learning

January 17th 2009 03:52

Writing is in large part a learning process. A writer needs to be open to new things; this is why we have classes and workshops and books about writing. Not all things will work for you, this is true. We're all different. You probably won't find a class that's absolutely perfect for you. A method won't always work.

But if you don't try new things, how can you possibly know? Everything changes; our writing should too. Let's take the example of a well known author, JK Rowling of the Harry Potter series

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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Articles/Ideas/Prompts, Short Fiction, Poetry, Short Non-Fiction, Writing Exercises, Articles/Info

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Some Highlights

December 25th 2008 05:26

Today I'm going to highlight some of my favourite things to read. The first few are going to be actual books that I've loved and read more than once; the last few are going to be blog entries geared specifically towards writers. Reading for the cold winter months: curl up with a good book under your favourite blanket-don't we all just love it?

For those of you who have gotten Christmas money, some books to consider

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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Articles/Ideas/Prompts, Generic Fiction Rants, Short Fiction, Short Non-Fiction, Writing Exercises

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What makes a writer?

December 12th 2008 06:31

I've gone over this before, but I was reading a thread on Forward Motion earlier and it's been a while, so I felt like writing about this topic.

What makes a writer in my mind is someone who loves to write. Someone who can't help themselves; they just need to do it like most people need to breath. Writing is a passion, writing is a love; when the going gets tough we still keep going. Writers love to do what they do, and are willing to work at it

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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Articles/Ideas/Prompts, Short Fiction, Poetry, Short Non-Fiction, Writing Exercises

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When Everything Is Just Too Much

October 4th 2008 23:28

So let me tell you something. School is stressing me out; I'm trying to force myself to go but it isn't working very well. Things at home aren't pleasant either. I'm stressed; so stressed that I've been sick on and off for two weeks now. Nanowrimo is on the horizon.

It's times like these when anybody-writer or otherwise-starts to wonder about all their obligations and if they're worth it. It's times like these when normally I would abandon the blog for weeks at a time; I'm trying not to. It's sort of working. It's times like these when we just want to throw in the towel

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Posted By: Dianna G - Category: Articles/Ideas/Motivation, Articles/Ideas/Prompts, Short Fiction, Poetry, Short Non-Fiction, Writing Exercises, Articles/Info

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