#WeekendWritercize 9 - Broken Powers

Welcome to the 9th edition of the #WeekendWritercize competition!

Join in and spread the word to friends and family! 

(...and if you haven't had a chance to read entries from past weeks, check them out on the #WeekendWritercize tab - some seriously talented folks like to play)

writercize: Write a scene about a character who has a special power that seems to be broken.

To enter the competition, leave your entry as a comment below. Be sure to include your Twitter handle and link to your blog or website. Tweet and Facebook fellow entries using the hashtag #WeekendWritercize.

Since this blog is used by teachers and students, I kindly request that you abstain from profanity and gratuitous violence. (In other words, keep it PG-13.) If your story can't be told without, just provide a link to your post on your own website along with a disclaimer.

Competition closes at 11:59 p.m. Sunday night (Pacific time). Winner announced sometime Monday, often knocking on midnight's door.

This week's winner and honorable mention(s) will receive a #WeekendWritercize Winner badge to proudly display on their website.

Get Outta Here! - writercize #170

As a writer, I spend altogether too much time inside my head, and I find that it is good practice to remind myself to turn off the computer, get away from the screen, put down the pen, turn off the voice in my head, and get out of the house for a nice long walk. So that is exactly what I want you to do today. Break away from your head, breathe deeply and live in the moment. Oh, and take a camera.

writercize: Reboot your creative juices by turning off the writer and open yourself up to new possibilities. Grab your camera and go for a walk around the neighborhood. 

Click a few photos of the world around you to record your journey and see the world in a different light.

Breathe. Smile. Skip, run, jump, walk backwards. Enjoy the spring and breathe in life. Whatever you do, do not compose any sort of story or description in your mind.

Inspiration will come later.

I'll be back with a photo from my walk later in the week for a new writercize for everyone to try, but today I will treat myself to a little reboot and pause from the writercize sample response for a day.

#WeekendWritercize 8 Winner - Sarah Aisling

Oh my goodness, I am such a lucky girl to get to read flash fiction by truly gifted writers every Monday. Everyone who writes for #WeekendWritercize has a unique voice and perspective and there is no greater joy than seeing what they can do with a little prompt. If you haven't already, look at the past entries and follow these people on twitter, because they are really great.

As a reminder, this week's #WeekendWritercize asked participants to create a story with the same opening line: "She awoke at dusk in a field of daisies." It is so fun to read various interpretations of a single sentence.

So whose story takes the cake?

This week's winner is:

Sarah Aisling / @SarahAisling

This is her SECOND win!

Sarah won the first #WeekendWritercize with her lyrical voice, and this week she once again proved she has the soul of a poet in the way she paints a picture with her words and the eye of a cinematographer in the details and ebb and flow of the scene.

Fireflies winked in the gloom, hovering in the air like glinting jewels. One landed on a daisy beside her head, its tiny legs probing the petals gingerly. Eliza was entranced by the explorations of the little insect, until it dawned on her that the last thing she remembered was being in this very field in the middle of the sunny afternoon. With Jeremy.

What a beautiful pause. I know this is a woman who lives so deeply in the moment that she captures magic. As the story unwinds and takes her to a fearful place, Sarah exhibits her mastery of the scene and builds suspense.

 

“Jeremy?” Her voice came out as a hoarse croak, and she cleared her throat and tried again. “Jeremy?”

Her only answer was the chirping of crickets and the croaking of frogs. As she walked toward the edges of the field, there was a rustling in one of the trees and the haunting “Hoo, hoo!” of an owl.
 

You have to read the story to see what happens next. It is 629 words of pure literary joy.

Sarah, please pick up your badge below! Congratulations to you on your second win and I hope to read much more from you!

 

Honorable Mention:

Lisa Hollar / @jezri1

Lisa is becoming a regular at #WeekendWritercize and I am really getting to know her voice, which is a wonderful reward. I think I could almost look at several stories and pick out the one penned by Lisa McCourt Hollar among them, which is really a testament to her skill.

This week, I was blown away by once again by Lisa's strength in story telling. She is the queen of twists and turns, and I never know what surprise is lurking just around the corner.

This week, Lisa took me to a world where vampires and priests meet in the most unusual circumstances, and we had the opportunity to meet a new character, Eva. Eva is a strong heroine and I am excited to see her come to life!

Pick up your badge below:

 

Once again, congratulations to ALL of the entries and thank you for participating!  I love reading what you write every week and look forward to seeing what you create next week!

All Entries:

Christopher (CHM1880)

Lisa Hollar

Sarah Aisling

 

For a look at all these great stories, click here.

#WeekendWritercize 8 - Same Start

Welcome to the 8th edition of the #WeekendWritercize competition!

Join in and spread the word to friends and family! 

(...and if you haven't had a chance to read entries from past weeks, check them out on the #WeekendWritercize tab - some seriously talented folks like to play)

writercize: Use the following sentence to start your scene:

 

She awoke at dusk in a field of daisies.

 

(Note - you may substitute "she" with a character's name.)

To enter the competition, leave your entry as a comment below. Be sure to include your Twitter handle and link to your blog or website. Tweet and Facebook fellow entries using the hashtag #WeekendWritercize.

Since this blog is used by teachers and students, I kindly request that you abstain from profanity and gratuitous violence. (In other words, keep it PG-13.) If your story can't be told without, just provide a link to your post on your own website along with a disclaimer.

Competition closes at 11:59 p.m. Sunday night (Pacific time). Winner announced sometime Monday, often knocking on midnight's door.

This week's winner and honorable mention(s) will receive a #WeekendWritercize Winner badge to proudly display on their website.

Color Me Purple - writercize #169

I would imagine that I could name any color and it would conjure up an image, a memory, an emotion in your mind. Colors are very powerful things. In movies they control our moods. In restaurants they control our appetites. In stores they control our buying impulses.

Perhaps control is too strong of a word. Let's switch that to influence. I certainly never like to admit something could have control over me.

Call it what you will, marketing gurus know that they can use color to sway your purchasing power, interior designers are confident that the right color choice will put you in the right mood. Quick in and out at fast food? Try yellow. Calm in a doctor's office? Paint light blue. 

Now, think of the color purple. Think of everything that purple evokes in you, and write about it. 

You can use this type of exercise in the future when placing your character in any environment. By recognizing the feelings that a particular color inspires, you can play with the colors that surround your characters at home and out in the world as you create the interiors and exteriors of their lives. This could be particularly powerful in memoir or novels written in first person.

writercize: Describe purple. 

You may use any method to describe purple, including poetry, a list, a character that is purple incarnate or a descriptive paragraph.

Please share your attempt as a comment, or link to your blog. I love to see what all you creative writercizers come up with!

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.

Listed - writercize #168

What is in a name, and what does it say about a character?

A few months ago, I challenged readers to write a brief character study "Inspired by a Phone Book." Cecilia Guerra was the name that popped up for me, and I wrote a fictional account of a person whose real name appears in a local phone book.

Today, I am challenging you to a similar exercise with a slightly simpler task. No grammar or paragraphs necessary, just a list of things to know about your character. 

You can approach the list by stating facts, such as demographics and career, by acknowledging major events that have happened in a character's life, by compiling a list of adjectives to describe the character, by their passions in life, whatever you would like to do. You just have to list it. If you want to take it to the next level today or at some point in the future, you will have something to work off of!

writercize: Go to a random name generator. Get your random name and compile a list of 10-20 things about that character. 

(If you are currently working on a novel or short story, skip the name generator, and pick one of your characters who is giving you the most trouble. Use them for this exercise to get to know them better!)

Please share your results here, and feel free to leave your website if you'd like me to reciprocate the visit.  (This post inspired by the GBE2 Week 44 - "Make a List and Title It." GBE, aka the Group Blogging Experience, is open to membership and housed on Facebook.)

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.

The Pope's Perfume - writercize #167

The red-soled 84-year-young Pope Benedict XVI is reported to have commissioned his very own scent, inspired by nature and meant to bring about a peaceful, meditative state. The cologne will not be available for sale at Catholic churches worldwide, and the precise formula will be kept as secret as the inner shelves of the Vatican Library, but it's stirring up quite the flurry of interest as the Prada-wearing Pope allows himself the sweet-smelling indulgence. 

Today's writercize is all about playing with words and having a little fun with this papal news.

writercize: Pick a name for the Pope's perfume.

Have fun with it and let me know what you come up with!

Click "read more" for a writercize sample response.

#WeekendWritercize 7 WINNER - @Jezri!

Thank you to everyone who tweeted away this week's #WeekendWritercize for all the promo, and to the four fabulous writers who entered. In true Irish spirit, we had a couple of long entries which makes me happy to see the words were willing to flow! Author Cara Michaels even found the opening scene to her third novel in the Gaea's Chosen series, so fans looking for a sneak peak of what's to come, check it out here.

As a reminder, this week's #WeekendWritercize asked participants to create a story in which a lucky charm plays a pivotal role. The four entries were diverse and entertaining as could be.

So whose story takes the cake?

This week's winner is:

Lisa McCourt Hollar / @Jezri

This is her SECOND win!

The story starts off innocently enough. It is a warm, familiar scene between child and babysitter, struggling with bedtime.

Lily sighed. She knew there was no point in arguing with him, not when he was wound up like this. If she wanted him to get back to bed, so she could get back to her reading assignment, she would have to let him tell his story. “Okay Tyler, what happened? Did aliens try and take you back to your planet?”

“No,” Tyler said, his voice heavily laced with sarcasm. “That was last week.”

“And they haven’t been back yet? Well then, I suppose that you were nearly eaten by zombies.”

Tyler glared at Lily and she tried not to laugh.

In the end, I picked this story because it really just made me happy to read. It was a quick and enjoyable read and the writing really supported a great story. Plus, bonus - there are a few great twists at the end, all bottled into 936 words.

Pick up your badge below! A very hearty congratulations to you!

 

Honorable Mention:

Christopher - CHM1880

I really liked the imagery in this story, and I am drawn into the characters, hoping for the woman's safety as she brings a vagabond into her home. I'm also really wondering who really considers the amulet their lucky charm, since they both feel a deep connection that has not yet been revealed. Nicely done.

Pick up your badge below:

 

Once again, congratulations to ALL of the entries and thank you for participating!  I love reading what you write every week and look forward to seeing what you create next week!

All Entries:

Cara Michaels

Christopher (CHM1880)

Lisa Hollar

LupusAnthropos

 

For a look at all these great stories, click here.

#WeekendWritercize 7 - Lucky Charms

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Welcome to the seventh edition of the #WeekendWritercize competition!

Join in and spread the word to friends and family! 

(...and if you haven't had a chance to read entries from past weeks, check them out on the #WeekendWritercize tab - talent abounds)

writercize: Write a scene in which a character's lucky charm plays a major role.

To enter the competition, leave your entry as a comment below. Be sure to include your Twitter handle and link to your blog or website. Tweet and Facebook fellow entries using the hashtag #WeekendWritercize.

Since this blog is used by teachers and students, I kindly request that you abstain from profanity and gratuitous violence. (In other words, keep it PG-13.) If your story can't be told without, just provide a link to your post on your own website along with a disclaimer.

Competition closes at 11:59 p.m. Sunday night (Pacific time) - no entries accepted after that. Winner announced Monday.

This week's winner and honorable mention(s) will receive a #WeekendWritercize Winner badge to proudly display on their website.

Thanks and may the luck o' the Irish be with you!

The Two Word Sentence - Guest Sara Dawkins

Welcome guest writercizer Sara Dawkins! Sara is a nanny and freelance writer who e-mailed me out of the blue asking for a guest post, and really did a fabulous job putting it together and sticking within the spirit of this blog. Thank you Sara! I will give it a whirl in the comments section. Please read through this great post, try out the writercize and check out the website Sara works on!

Author Bio

Sara is an active nanny as well as an active freelance writer. She also helps in providing information on nanny jobs through her writing.  Contact her at saradawkins61ATgmail.com.

It’s always hard to get inspired. Not only is having a new, fresh idea important, but it is also difficult to actually put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and get to work. To get myself writing, I sometimes just start in the middle of the action or with a phrase that’s been spinning in my mind. In that mindset, two word sentences can be great, simple starters to your work.

writercize: Create a short story or scene starting with one of the following sentences:

·      She fell.

·      He sighed.

·      It broke.

·      They left.

·      We waited.

Please share your result as a comment or link to your response on your website!

Click "read more" for writercizer Sara Dawkins' sample response. (Ed. note: Do it! You'll be rewarded with a little romance.)

Next Word - writercize #166

Next Word is a really easy-breezy game I play every once in a while to clear out the cobwebs and get your brain going. It's simple, fun and can be quite revealing! 

Essentially, next word is a game of association. You get a list of words, and you have to name the very first thing that comes to mind for each of the five words. If you are feeling particularly ambitious, make a story or poem with your five new words.

writercize: Write the next word you associate with each of the following words:

• arrow
• post
• bridge
• scales
• shadow

Some like to explain their association, particularly if it is a little off the wall. Others prefer to leave it up to interpretation. Either way is fine by me. Have fun!

(If you like the game and want more, just type "next word" in the search this blog field to your right.)

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response and a fishing dialogue between dad and son based on my next word answers.

Sell Me Some Chocolate - writercize #165

As long as we are on the food train this week with so many inspiring descriptions in Monday's Feeling Fruity, I thought we could move right along to a writercize based on everyone's favorite dessert: chocolate.

It's time to turn up the description with a sales pitch. Take all those sumptuous, sensuous words you used when describing the look, taste, touch, smell and sound of fruit and infuse it with emotion. 

I realize chocolate itself is not a very difficult sell for most people, but think of how competing companies attempt to stand out from one another to gain customers. They have to find a way for the shopper to pick their 85% dark cocoa bar over the neighboring one. Graphic design can do a lot, but words hold true power.

Think about the names of chocolate. 

Ghiradelli's slogan is "moments of pleasure," and they give their bars exotic names like midnight reverie, twilight delight, evening dream, hazelnut heaven... Tell me you don't want a bite right now! 

Then there is the After Eight chocolate mint. 

Dove chocolates has created a home sales empire with "simply irresistable" Dove chocolate "discoveries." 

The names literally whisk you away to another place. Marketing collateral makes use of the five senses to describe the quality of chocolate much as a sommelier describes the qualities in a fine wine, while the slogan or name of the chocolate conveys the emotion.

writercize: Sell me some chocolate. 

Use anything in your power between emotion and the five senses to sell it. You may describe the chocolate, create a name or slogan, or combine efforts. This is all about building up your business marketing skills.

(Oh, and since chocolate looks to be a little more sultry than my normal fare, please remember the blog's student readers!)

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.

Feeling Fruity - writercize #164

This weekend I attended another fabulous workshop hosted by Nutschell Windsor, known in the blogging world as The Writing Nut, and in real life as the founder of the Children's Book Writers of LA, among her many hats. As usual, I walked away inspired, with a writercize or two that formed in my head while there.

Last year at the March meeting, Nutschell encouraged writers to start a blog as a way to get writing and build a platform. Since she is brilliant, I heeded her advice and writercize was born. It is unbelievable to me that an entire year has passed, and even more unbelievable to think that I would not have met several of you bloggers from all around the world whom I now consider friends.

This weekend's meeting was all about voice, style, tone, and ... description, which is where I am taking you on today's writercize. 

Nutschell challenged everyone to expand their linguistic capabilities with description. Not the type of long, drawn out description that brings boredom and tears to the readers' eyes, but the type of description in which the writer carefully selects his/her words to most accurately portray whatever s/he is talking about and incorporates it directly into the action of the story. She had us play around with taking nouns and verbs to the next level to spark interest, and reflect on the five senses in general. 

I want to apply the concept of description to a particular item that is guaranteed to stimulate each and every one of the five senses.

writercize: Using all five senses (sight, sound, taste, smell and touch) describe a piece of fruit. 

If you are low on time, make a list. If you have a little time to spare, write it out in paragraph form.

Please share your writercize experience as a comment!  I always love to see what readers come up with!

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response about a lemon.

#WeekendWritercize 6 Winner! - LupusAnthropos

Thank you Lupus and Nicole for your fantastic entries in this week's #WeekendWritercize!  How strangely coincidental that you both ended up with 15-year-old professional singers at the mall!  It was a very close match-up - the modern-day mystery disappearance versus the ultimate reality star dream of fame.

As a reminder, this week's #WeekendWritercize asked participants to roll three dice to learn the who, where and when of their story. It was really fun to see what you did!

Without further ado ...

This week's winner is:

LupusAnthropos / @LupusAnthropos

This is the SECOND win!

What can I say? This was a fun entry. It could be my recent dive into the Hunger Games trilogy, but I'm kind of digging the vast possibilities of unreasonable vanity that the future holds. The Instafame store. Awesome. I also really like that you took a risk and played around with what professional singer could mean to you.

Pick up your badge below! Congrats again! I will message you for the gift card!

 

Honorable Mention:

Nicole (Madlab Post) / @MadlabPost

A missing kid singer at the mall, every security guard's worst nightmare, let alone mom and manager. I want to read more! I want to know what happened, whether this girl is hiding from fame, if she's been kidnapped, had an accident or worse - murder. You set up a fantastic opening to a story here, and I am very intrigued to know more!

Nicole, pick up your badge below:

Once again, congratulations to ALL of the entries and thank you for participating!  I love reading what you write every week and look forward to seeing what you create next week!

All Entries:

LupusAnthropos

Nicole (Madlab Post)

#WeekendWritercize 6 - Roll of the Dice: Who? Where? When?

After a holiday repose, 

I would like to welcome you back for the sixth edition of the #WeekendWritercize competition!

Join in and spread the word to friends and family!

(oh, and PS - this is my 200th post - in one year, four days since the blog's inception. wahoo!)

writercize: Grab three dice. (Or one die, and prepare to roll three times.) Roll the three dice, and record the number of each roll - i.e. Roll 1 = 5, Roll 2 = 2, Roll 3 = 6.

Now, this #WeekendWritercize will give you three components of a story, based on your roll. Your job is to use those three components, and build around them to create a compelling story. The categories you will be given are: Who? Where? When? You have to figure out the rest of the story, the what, why, and how.

Roll 1 - Who? (you pick the gender)

1: 75-year-old muscle builder

2: 3 1/2-year-old beauty pageant contestant

3: 42-year-old community college student

4: 22-year-old single parent

5: 15-year-old professional singer

6: 65-year-old recent retiree

Roll 2 - Where?

1: in the bleachers

2: at a roller skating rink

3: in a mountain lodge

4: on a boat

5: at the mall

6: in Mother's kitchen

Roll 3 - When?

1: 2 a.m.

2: year 2065

3: year 1950

4: Sunday night

5: Monday morning

6: 5:30 p.m.

To enter the competition, leave your entry as a comment below. Be sure to include your Twitter handle and link to your blog or website. Tweet and Facebook fellow entries using the hashtag #WeekendWritercize.

Since this blog is used by teachers and students, I kindly request that you abstain from profanity and gratuitous violence. (In other words, keep it PG-13.) If your story can't be told without, just provide a link to your post on your own website along with a disclaimer.

Competition closes at 11:59 p.m. Sunday night (Pacific time) - no entries accepted after that. Winner announced Monday. Remember the time change this week - turn the clocks ahead one hour before you sleep Saturday night!

This week's winner and honorable mention(s) will receive a #WeekendWritercize Winner badge to proudly display on their website. 

The lucky winner will also receive a $5.00 gift card to AMAZON, as a way to celebrate the return of #WeekendWritercize!

Thanks and good luck!

Lost in Translation - writercize #163

Finally saying goodbye to the jetlag!  I've been fine daytime, but by the time 8:00 rolls around, I have been crashing too hard to write a word, but I think all is on the road back to normalcy now. It is high time to get back to the writercize daily grind! 

That said, tomorrow will bring the return of #WeekendWritercize, so tune it at nine a.m. Pacific time to see the new challenge. And write fast, because the time change Sunday morning will steal an hour from your weekend!

While I was on my trip, one sign in a bookstore in Naples caught my eye. The sign was in English, above a display of English-language books. The bookstore was at the train station, and Naples is near Pompeii and the Amalfi coast, so there are a decent number of English-speaking travelers who undoubtedly make their way through the store, looking for a book to soak up along the sunny Italian coastline.

The sign read:

ENGLISH BOOKS: NOT JUST FOR STRANGERS

It is a very easy mistake to make.  In Italian, the sign would read "non solo per stranieri."  Stranieri is often translated into strangers, although "sconosciuti" would be a more appropriate word for the English definition of a stranger. In this case, "stranieri" really means foreigners, and the sign should have read, "English books: not just for foreigners." It is an understandable error, and one that I surely make in the reverse all the time, but it still had me chuckling.

So, where to take this train of thought? I don't expect most of my readers to speak a foreign language, and it's tough to come up with a new mistaken translation, so I will offer two options.  One is a writercize and the other is just a fun question.

writercize: Use the verbiage "English books: not just for strangers" to inspire a short story or poem. It really is a great title to work with!

question: What is one of the funniest signs you have seen, either driving around or on your travels? (I have always found signs in front of churches and farms to be great sources of inspirational quotes!)

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.  I'm feeling pretty rusty, so please be kind!

I'm Baaaack Home! Guest One and Guest Two

Hello writercizers! 

I am officially home from nearly three weeks in a far away land, and excited to dust off the fingers and get typing. In the meantime, I have two guest posts that you are welcome and encouraged to visit, and I'll see you back here again within 36 hours!  :D

Today's Guest Post - Freelancing and Setting Writing Goals with children's book author Clar Bowman-John: http://clarbojahn.wordpress.com/

February 21 Guest Post - Tackling the Taunting Letters at the A to Z Challenge home page

Please visit these fabulous websites and comment away!

As a note on writercize guest posts, I welcome submissions Fridays. If you are interested in posting a writercize, please read the guest post guidelines first and then send me a message with your preferred date and proposed writercize to alanagwrites(at)gmail(dot)com. I'll write back and we'll get you on the calendar!