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Big Questions – January 8
Is it worse to be early or late? 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 – January 8
“The people who lie the most are nearly always the clumsiest at it, and they’re easier to fool with lies than most people, too. You’d think they’d be on the look-out for lies, but they seem to be the very ones that will believe almost anything at all.” -Dashiell Hammett in The Thin Man, his last novel, published on this date in 1934. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist catches her/his best friend lying.
read moreMystery – January 8
Wilkie Collins was born on this date in 1894. He wrote 30 “sensation novels,” the precursor to modern detective and suspense fiction, and his work famously highlighted social challenges of the time. Writing prompt: Write a scene revealing your protagonist’s response to a social issue that s/he believes too many people ignore.
read moreSciFi/Fantasy – January 8
“God not only plays dice, He also sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen.” -Stephen Hawking, born on this date in 1942. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist confronts something that is infinitely improbable.
read moreSecondary – January 8
Elvis Presley was born on this date in 1935. Although one of the most successful musicians in history, Elvis never learned to read music — he knew, instead, how to mimic what he heard. Explain how you accomplish something everyone thinks you’re good at but at which you feel you’re faking your talent.
read morePrimary – January 8
Reading teacher Evelyn Wood was born on this date in 1909. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper explaining why it’s important for everyone to learn to read.
read moreLiterary – January 7
“No man may make another free.” -Zora Neale Hurston, born this date in 1891. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist’s desire to make another person free is frustrated by that person.
read moreJournaling + Fiction – January 7
“Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”Aristotle Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about a habit of yours that you worry is less than excellent. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist fails to practice a good habit s/he has adopted to replace a bad one.
read moreBig Questions – January 7
What becomes of the broken-hearted? 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 – January 7
The Avengers (no, the original) premiered in England on this date in 1961. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist must maintain a strictly professional relationship with a person your protagonist finds irresistibly sexy.
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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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