January 21, 2016
Think About It Thursday
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January 20, 2016
Writing Prompt Wednesday – Use Color
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The crystal blue sky had won over the evil black clouds of the morning thunderstorm. Sun burst through to reveal the devastation left behind. Mark rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. The stress magnified in the lines on his forehead. The climb out of the basement revealed his home, a mass of wood, bricks and remnants of his belongings.
January 8, 2016
It’s Time
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We are a week into the new year. It’s time to have your goals written. Over the last several weeks, I’ve pondered this. I really want to achieve a higher percentage of my goals this year. So, I will have fewer of them and more meaningful. As writers, we are all about goals. Word count, time spent, pages complete, deadlines. Here it is, my 2016 writing goal is to finish my book. That’s it. Just get it done. I’m close, very close and just need to commit to doing what it takes, the right word count, the right amount of time writing, the right formatting on the pages. I’m going to complete the manuscript and have it ready for a good editor before the year is up.
The goal is written and I’m sharing it with you so that you are now part of my accountability.
What will be fun in the journey to accomplish this will be to see what other work comes out of it. No doubt that as more writing is done and the completion of a project, I’m guessing another story will creep up and more characters will asked to be written.
What do you think? Are your goals written?
Karen
December 28, 2015
Words from Will
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December 3, 2015
What Will You Name Her?
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Here’s a story starter for you. This morning I stopped at a local convenience store for a fountain soda pop. I stood in line to pay. When called to the register the short woman behind the counter, who wasn’t aging well, said “That will be ninety-nine cents.” She was short and stout, might have been missing a tooth or two. Maybe she forgot to put them in this morning.
I told her I was going to give her change. What she said next gave me a chuckle all day. “I’m not in the mood to argue with you, so that will do.”
While I’m glad she didn’t want to argue with me, it seemed a rather odd thing to say to a customer.
This woman will make a great character somewhere. Please use her if you like, but leave me the line please. What is her name? Why did she say something so odd? Did she think I was someone else?
Your thoughts please.
November 7, 2015
Characters Come Knock on My Door
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I was working at home a couple of days ago when the doorbell rang. The dog went nuts, which doesn’t bother me at all. I’m glad whoever is at my door in the middle of the day knows we have a noise maker. Anyway, I answered and stepped outside to be fortunate enough to meet our new neighbor.
He was a gentleman in his mid-sixties open collared shirt with a hint of a gold chain peeking. He introduced himself, first name only and told me the name of his wife. I welcomed him to the neighborhood.
Our conversation went on for maybe five minutes. In that few minutes of him doing most of the talking, I learned more about him than I know about friends in my Sunday school class that I’ve hung out with for five years.
He’s a widower who recently remarried a widow that he met at church. He’s semi-retired and his new wife teaches nursing. He has a 35-year-old son who is married and who he gave his house to in order to start a new home with his new wife. Need I go on?
Later as I was deep in my NANO writing for the day it occurred to me that the man had delivered not only our mistaken mail from his mailbox, but a great character sketch. He gave me a visual and a framework for a character who will no doubt end up in a story somewhere.
As writers we need to be respectful of our friends and family when it comes to using their mannerisms or personalities. But strangers are free fodder as far as I’m concerned. Begin to think about all the encounters you have in a day, need a man on the street or a lady in the grocery? Go find one. They are in plentiful supply.
August 26, 2015
Writing Prompt Wednesday
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In the spirit of summer vacation, July and August Writing Prompt Wednesdays will have a traveling theme. See what you can do with each of these.
Tim hung out in the corner of the frat house. He held his red cup, taking a swig every now and then. No one could tell it was soda and not beer. How did he get here?
August 21, 2015
Enough with the Books
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Besides my writing prompts, I’ve not done a lot of writing in the last two months. Ironic isn’t it that I’m prompting others every week. What I have done is get lost in some really great books. Tonight I finished the last one in the stack.
I have ideas for plot and blogs, but when I go to write, the words, the tone and cadance don’t come. Flat — empty — nada. It’s August, if I don’t get on it, I’m not going to come close to my annual word count goal.
So, while there are too many books to read and so little time, I declare tonight that I am not going to start another new book for one month — September 20th. And I’m going to write something everyday — even if it’s only glub, glub on a page. Words are going to flow. They may not be pretty. They may not be smooth, but there will be words on a page.
Are you with me?
August 19, 2015
Writing Prompt Wednesday
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In the spirit of summer vacation, July and August Writing Prompt Wednesdays will have a traveling theme. See what you can do with each of these.
Dawn’s life could be packed into ten milk crates, a footlocker and a laundry basket. Not much but it was a start. Although her three best friends planned to live in an apartment, Dawn chose the dorm. It was easier and easy is what she needed given her courses the first semester.
August 12, 2015
Writing Prompt Wednesday
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In the spirit of summer vacation, July and August Writing Prompt Wednesdays will have a traveling theme. See what you can do with each of these.
Rosa slowly unpacked from spending the summer with her grandmother in Brazil. Leaving two months ago she was a typical teenager with her earbuds and phone not far from her head. Her seventy-five year old grandmother turned out to be more than the dreaded relative she was being forced to spend the summer with. Rosa came home a young lady full of appreciation for where her family had come from. While she was being transformed, her family at home was changing. Rosa worried that there would be no way to reconcile the two very different changes.
Karen H. Richardson, PMP 