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Don’t Envy – Improve
A few years ago, when I finished Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin while doing the eleventythousandth revision of my own novel manuscript, I closed her book and looked at mine and thought, “Why bother?” The bother is that I’ve got my own story to tell. It’s not Atwood’s story, or Melville’s or Twain’s, or even yours. You’ve got your own story, too. Because it’s your story, the issue isn’t whether you write as well as Hemingway or Fitzgerald or King or Roberts or anyone else whom you admire or sells bigger. The issue is whether you can tell...
read moreLiterary – April 11
“Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is the way you can both hate and love something you are not sure you understand.” -Dorothy Allison, born this date in 1949. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist must decide the fate of something s/he both hates and loves.
read moreJournaling + Fiction – April 11
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.”C.S. Lewis Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about that to which love makes you most vulnerable. Fiction writing prompt: Write the scene in which your protagonist’s heart first was broken.
read moreBig Questions – April 11
What song do you most frequently sing along with? Journaling prompt: Spend 15-20 minutes writing your answer in the spirit of exploring yourself and the world around you. If you can answer with a simple “yes” or “no,” explain the sources or implications of your response. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene that forces a character in your story to answer the question, or spend 15-20 minutes answering the question in the voice of a character you want to know more about. Photo from Unsplash, the internet’s source of freely usable...
read moreRomance – April 11
“Certainly I agree with you that women are not the equals of men, Colonel. But neither are men the equals of women. They are quite simply different creatures, thank God, and not to be compared.” -Madeleine Brent, born this date in 1920. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist intends to be the equal of a person of another gender and fails.
read moreMystery – April 11
“I don’t want to try analyzing what I do because I’m afraid that would lead me into some kind of formula. I think formulas squeeze the juice out of stories.”- Peter O’Donnell, born this date in 1920. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist’s formula for figuring out a run-of-the-mill problem creates a much more complicated challenge.
read moreSciFi/Fantasy – April 11
“If I’m up there on that bar and you’re not, I’ll be looking down. I’ll always have your back.” – Commander Shepard, born this date in 2154. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagnoist lets down a friend who’s counting on your protagonist.
read moreSecondary – April 11
Describe the kind of person you would like to call your best friend for the rest of your life. Then describe how you are different from that person.
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Literary – April 10
“Fiction gives us the second chances that life denies us.” -Paul Theroux, born this date in 1941. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist realizes s/he won’t get a second chance.
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David B. Schlosser is an author of award-winning fiction and non-fiction, and an editor of award-winning fiction and non-fiction.
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