Posts tagged ‘stories’

June 19, 2012

Wattpad Workshop Series – Week 4

Week 4 (Missed the beginning of this writer’s workshop? Check out Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3!)

I’ve been really enjoying reading your work and seeing how well some of you are doing with the writing prompts. I’m encouraged that so many of you are taking part and making a commitment to improve your writing. But this week’s workshop starts with some news that might be a bit of a downer:

Writing is hard.

Really hard.

I’m not trying to make any of you feel discouraged here. Precisely the opposite, in fact. I’m trying to bust the illusion that writing has to be easy to be any good.  I want to push away the notion that writers merrily sit back while the story just flows onto the page, line after perfect line, paragraph followed by perfect paragraph, plot slotting into place, characters fleshy and real.

Real writers find out pretty fast that you have to earn the good days.

Read the rest here – and post your own writing on Wattpad.

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April 12, 2012

Reuse This Line

I was going through a draft of a book I’ve been working on, which I then left lying around on my desk. One line from the draft is visible from underneath the pile of papers now above it:

Go back to bed, Violet.

If I were a different writer, writing a different story, that line could lead to an entirely different story with different characters, plot and motivation. Why don’t you take the line and work it into your own story? See where it takes you…

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March 21, 2011

Writing Prompt

A Letter Home

Use this title to either write a letter or write the opening of a short story.  Think of the ways letters can be used to reveal your characters on the page, and of what letters can show us about the people writing and receiving them.

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