Tuesday, August 30, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 30 - My Sincerest Apologies

I had full intentions to complete this challenge, unfortunately I was challenged as well, physically and emotionally. I ended up with a Fibromyalgia flare up, migraine headaches, and some household chores that required my attention. I don't remember if I told you or not, but we moved in our new home at the end of March, 2016. We moved to Spring Hill from Tampa. There are still boxes to be emptied all around the house. Window treatments to be hung. We have windows with arches above them. Very difficult to measure and find something that works.

I do have the guest room finished, or as close to finished as I'm going to get right now. I'm also working on the backyard, creating flower beds and gardens. My favorite garden I'm working on is the Fairy Garden, which will provide me with a Spiritual Space, calming space, and a place to meditate. You can see more at Vicki's Fairy Garden and Spiritual Space

Soon, I'll provide pictures of what I have finished now. As of the moment, I'm unable to move as I worked to hard over the weekend and today to get all the plants potted in the ground that were becoming an emergency.

I've also been collecting things around the house and outdoors to create accessories for the Fairy Garden, including Fairy Houses.

It's a fun diversion. My husband thinks it's an obsession.

And, to top it off, it was my dog's 13th birthday on the 28th. We go all out on our pets' birthdays - carrot cake slice for Jack, new toys for Bailey, toys, party hats, the whole she-bang!

So, what I'm going I'm going to do, is give you a list of books that will provide you with challenges, writing prompts, exercises and overall help with your writing.

If you require help or have a question, please don't hesitate to contact me.

And for the heck of it, a friend sent this image I used at the top, and I thought it would bring a smile to your face.

Books that can help you increase your writing skills with exercises and writing prompts:

(Some are embedded and available as a download straight from their cover image)







Write Starts
Hal Zina Bennett
Paperback















The Writer's Little Helper
James V. Smith Jr.
paperback





Writing Tools
Roy Peter Clark
paperback




Now Write!
Edited by: Sherry Ellis
paperback





A Writer's Workbook
Caroline Sharp
paperback





101 Creative Writing Exercises
Melissa Donovan
paperback























Take Ten for Writers
Bonnie Neubauer
paperback






















712 More Things to Write About
San Francisco Writers' Grotto
paperback




1,000 Writing Prompts
Bryan Cohen
paperback























501 Writing Prompts
Learning Express
paperback






60 Creative Writing Prompts and and Plots
Ganga Bharani Vasudevan




510 Creative Writing Prompts
Jonathan Wright




A Year of Creative Writing Prompts
The Love in Ink Team





Writing Prompts: 150 Ideas to Help
James Maschia



Creative Exercises to Inspire
Heidi Angell




Fiction Writing Prompts
Patti Stafford





Four Seasons of Creative Writing
Bryan Cohen


I've given you some great resources to help you get started with creative writing prompts.

If you have any other questions, please let me know. If you'd like to suggest a book to add to the list, I'd appreciate that very much.









Wednesday, August 24, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 24 - Depression & Doppelgänger

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the twenty-fourth challenge we're going to discuss your goals to success.

Here is your challenge:
You are a depressed person. You are tired with life, you are tired of the disappointment and loneliness. One night, you contemplate suicide. Before you can pull the trigger of your firearm, you are confronted by your doppelganger. The doppelganger says, “We need to talk. It is urgent.”


This is a very interesting prompt. For those who have ever been this depressed, they will understand the emotional and mental effects on their mind and be able to write a thoroughly expressive piece.

For others, you may have to do some research about depression and suicide to get the right attitudes and background to help you write.

I hope that if anyone has ever been this depressed, they seek help immediately. Go to your nearest ER and let them know what you are feeling.

If this prompt is too much and you experience triggers that cause anxiety, depressive, or panic episodes, please do not complete this writing exercise.

Proceed slowly.













Wright, Jonathan (2015-06-17). 510 Creative Writing Prompts: For Aspiring and Experienced Writers (Bundle) (p. 49).  . Kindle Edition. 

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 23 - Embarrassing Secret

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the twenty-third challenge we're going to discuss your goals to success.

Here is your challenge:
You have an embarrassing secret: you can't swallow pills. Therefore, you prefer a liquid medicine. When you visit the doctor due to illness, he hands you a cup full of pills. You asks if he has it in liquid form and he sternly says, “No. Swallow the pills.” Sweat starts spurting from your face like a garden sprinkler, especially when the cute nurse enters the room... What do you do?

This is not an uncommon issue. Many people cannot swallow pills at all, while others can take a handful and toss them in their mouth, drink a swallow of water, and easy peasy, done.

My husband used to be unable to swallow pills. At all. We got liquid medicines when we could. However, I resorted to purchasing a throat spray that helped the pills slide down. My husband even found that a problem.

So, we talked about the mental and emotional issues tied to the inability to swallow pills. Once he opened up, eventually, with some guidance, he can now take pills, even more than one at a time, by tossing them to the back of his throat and drink a good amount of water.

So, if this is an embarrassing secret you've been hiding, or you know someone who is, know that it can be overcome.

Let's get writing.









Wright, Jonathan (2015-06-17). 510 Creative Writing Prompts: For Aspiring and Experienced Writers (Bundle) (p. 21).  . Kindle Edition.


Monday, August 22, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 22 - Gardening

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the twenty-second challenge we're going to discuss gardening and how it relates to other aspects of our life.

Recently, we moved to a new community with an acre of property. I'm planting various flowers, shrubs, vines, and herbs as well as creating a fairy garden. Each flower bed will be connected to the other by paths of pine mulch. The central garden is my Zen garden. It has a "round-a-bout" made out of the pine mulch breaking off to different plant beds.

I thought today's challenge would be an interesting twist on gardening.

Here is your challenge:
Certain plants like yarrow flowers, Russian sage, and frostweed, thrive with low amounts of water and might actually die with too much. What does it mean to have too much of a good thing? Has that ever happened to you? If so, explain what occurred, and if not, what might you overindulge in and why?


How can you connect plants that die if they have too much water to over-indulging with something in your life?

Write as much as you can for about fifteen minutes. Don't edit, don't think, just write.

I wonder what you found out about yourself?












Excerpt From: Bryan Cohen. “Four Seasons of Creative Writing.” iBooks.




Sunday, August 21, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 21 - Writing a Critique

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the twenty-first challenge we're going to turn the tables and you are going to write a critique.

Critiques are similar to reviews except they address a writer rather than a potential audience; a critique explains what's working and not working to the author in an effort to help a fellow writer improve his/her work.

In a critique, you start by listing what you liked about the piece. Then, you list the areas that could be strengthened. Don't try to change the piece into what you would have done as a writer; take it for what it is.

Finally a proper critique discusses the work, not the person who created it. Your objective is to use positive, supportive language framed in the context of how the piece could be improved.

Here is your challenge:
Choose a piece of writing and compose a critique. You can use a book, short story, poem, article, or blog post. You will address the critique to the author, but you will not send it to the author. Also, your critique will discuss the work, not the person who created it. The length of your critique will depend on how long the piece of writing is and how deeply you evaluate it.

TIPS: While the focus of this exercise is to evaluate and analyze the overall content of a piece of writing, you should also look for spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes as well as typographical errors.

As a change of variety, you could also do this exercise using a TV show or movie, or any kind of story or art medium.

This exercise teaches you to look at a piece of writing objectively and assess it thoughtfully in an effort to consider how it might be improved. Writing critiques helps you build skills that benefit your own writing projects.

Enjoy!


Saturday, August 20, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 20 - Moral Dilemmas

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the twentith challenge we're going to dig into moral dilemmas.

It's not enough for your characters to have simple opinions. Each of us also has deeper philosophical ideals and values. Our values come from our families, religions, and cultures. They shape our morals and the decisions we make.

People are complex. What we believe is right or wrong changes when we find ourselves in real situations. Consider an honorable character who believes that one's highest loyalty is to his or her family. Then, that character learns his/her brother is a serial killer. Does he/she turn him in? Testify against him? Stories get interesting when characters' morals are put to the test.

We all know the knight in shining armor should risk his life to save the damsel in distress. If he doesn't, then he loses his status as hero and becomes a coward. What if the knight is forced to make a more difficult decision? What if his true love and his beloved sister are both in distress but he only has time to save one of them?

Here is your challenge:
For this exercise, you will put a character's morals to the test. Below, you'll find a short list of moral dilemmas. Write a scene in which a character faces one of these moral dilemmas and has to make an agonizing decision.


  • In the novel Sophie's Choice, a young Jewish mother and her two children are taken to a concentration camp. Upon arrival, she is forced to choose one child to live and one to die. If she doesn't choose, they both die. Write a scene in which your character must choose between the lives of two loved ones.
  • A single woman is close friends with the couple next door and has secret romantic feelings for the husband. She discovers that his wife is having an affair. Normally, this woman minds her own business but now she sees an opportunity to get closer to the man she wants.
  • Some countries have strict laws regarding drug possession. A family has traveled to one such country for vacation. Upon arrive (or departure), one of the teenager's bags is sniffed out by a dog. The bag is opened, the drugs are identified, and the guard asks who bag it is. Both parents are considering claiming ownership. Everyone in the family knows the sentence would be death.
  • Your character gets to travel through time and face this classic moral dilemma: The character find himself or herself holding a loaded gun, alone in a room, with a two-year-old baby Hitler.
  • A plane crashes into the sea. Most of the passengers escape with inflatable lifeboats but they do not board them correctly. Your character ends up on a lifeboat that holds eight people but there are twelve people on it, and it's sinking. Your character can either throw four people overboard and eight will survive or they will all die expect your character, who will get rescued after the others drown.




Remember, during the scene, the character should agonize over the decision and reveal his or her reasons for the choice that he or she makes.

TIPS: Search online for "lists of moral dilemmas" to get more scenarios.

If you don't want to write a scene, you can come up with more moral dilemmas of your own.

The moral dilemmas force you to put your characters in situations that are deeply distressing, thus creating conflict and tension.

Good Luck!



Friday, August 19, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 19 - Success

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the nineteenth challenge we're going to discuss your goals to success.

Here is your challenge:
What is your number one goal in life? If you do not yet have one, there’s no time like now to think about choosing one.  

TIP: Give this some thought. Try not to think of something that can be achieved immediately. Choose a goal that takes time, effort, and thought.

  • How do you plan on reaching this goal? 
  • What would happen if you achieved it? 
  • What would be the next step?

Write about your goal, why you chose it, what you are going to do to reach it, and once you do, what goal will you set next?

I hope this makes you think about setting goals and achieving them.


Thursday, August 18, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 18 - Superhero to the Rescue!

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the eighteenth challenge we're going to turn you into a Superhero!

Here is your challenge:
You are a Superhero. Your special power is the ability to walk through walls, pass through solid objects, and hid inside solid materials. What is your backstory, and how did you get this special power?

Right up Avengers alley, or are you an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Maybe you joined the Justice League? If you need to do research on Superheroes, go ahead. Then get as detailed as you can about your backstory, using character, plot, theme, and more to build it.

Have FUN!!

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

August Writing Challenges : Day 17 - What Happens Next?

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the seventeenth challenge we're going to find out what happens next...

Here is your challenge:
You are driving home in blinding rain from a hiking trip in a southern region of Texas. It's very late, and there is no one for miles on the dark country road. Suddenly your car dips into a very deep puddle, stalls, and then stops. You have no way of calling anyone. After a while, you see headlights approaching. An old pickup pulls up right behind you and stops. 

But, no one gets out. 

What happens next?

I give you full rein to have as much fun with this as you want. Aliens, body snatchers, invisible creatures, whatever your imagination can dream up. Just be as detailed as possible using all your senses.



Tuesday, August 16, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 16 - That Was Then

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the sixteenth challenge we're going to travel back in time and have some fun with a history writing challenge.

Here is your challenge:
What is the period of history that you identify with most? The flappers of the American 1920's? The royal family during the War of the Roses? Choose one of these or your own particular period of time and write about a day you lived during that time.

TIP: History is defined as a time that that takes place in past times (usually more than fifty years ago.)

If you want to expand this challenge, you can also do research on the time in history you've chosen and delve deep into the what/who/when/how/why of the events at that time and how they affected your character.

I hope you enjoy this challenge.

Monday, August 15, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 15 - Dialogue Without Words

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the fifteenth challenge we're going to attempt to write a scene using no words to convey dialogue:

Here is your challenge:

First, write a sentence or two describing the tension you intend to explore between your characters: What does each one want?

Using NO dialogue, in less than three hundred words, let the reader discover something about the relationship between two characters by where we find them, what they are doing, and how they interact with each other.

Use this basic formula:
Reveal character A in a place (setting) doing something (activity). Character B might already be in the scene, or B might enter. Either way, B has a strong need or want - an ISSUE he/she wants to address. B interrupts or engages A, who also has an objective - something he/she is trying to get done, and / or something he/she does or does not want to talk about. This clash of objectives is an important element in the scene.

TIPS:
Focus on selecting and utilizing setting and activity so that your readers discover - because you show them, rather than tell them - something essential about at least one, if not both, of your characters.

DO NOT USE DIALOGUE.

This challenge requires you to have setting and action, not something your characters say, communicate to the reader.

This might be frustrating, and give you all kinds of ideas about what you WILL have them say to each other when you have a chance.

IMPORTANT: 
Do not tell us what they would be saying. Part of the challenge is to explore how we communicate without words.

I hope you find this challenge enjoyable.





Sunday, August 14, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 14 - Your Life by the Numbers

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?



I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the fourteenth challenge we're going to dig into your past:

Here is your challenge:

Start your sentence with "It was a ..."

Now, pick a number between 1 and 10 and write it down so you don't forget it.

Look below at the list and find your number. This is the time of your life through which you will  dig to find a story.

  1. While you were still in the womb (based on what family members have told you.)
  2. After your birth, but before your own memories kicked in (as told to you by family)
  3. When you were four years old.
  4. When you were five years old.
  5. When you were six years old.
  6. When you were seven years old.
  7. When you were eight years old.
  8. When you were nine years old.
  9. When you were ten years old.
  10. When you were eleven years old.

Now, write for ten minutes.

Try to find a story that sparks your interest and excitement.


TIP: Tell your story exactly as it happened, or use it as the basis for a piece of semi-autobiographical fiction. 

Have fun with this challenge. It might even start some memory walks among other members of your family.




Saturday, August 13, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 13 - Drama

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the thirteenth challenge we're going to see how well you can describe drama:

Here is your challenge:



Drama: Write about a time when you got stuck in between two parties fighting with each other. You can use your own experiences if you'd like to help give more personality to each character.

Next, write a letter, addressed to yourself, from the other person's perspective. In this letter, take on the voice of your adversary, as your adversary explains his/her perspective on why he/she was right and you were certainly in the wrong.


NOTE: This exercise is designed to give the writer practice at creating two characters that are coming to the battle with equal ammunition. It draws from the writer's personal history with conflict and tries to place the writer in the mind of the opponent.

This exercise is a great way to practice writing from perspectives other than your own. It's also a good way to humanize antagonists.


Enjoy!

Friday, August 12, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 12 - Senses and Color

AugustThe summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the twelfth challenge we're going to discover how our senses and color affect our writing.

Here is your challenge:
On your paper, draw a circle with five lines coming from it. Label each line with one of the five senses:
   Sight
   Hearing
   Touch
   Taste
   Smell

Close your eyes and imagine what color is prominent in your mind. Let the color wash over you as you think about it in terms of each sense. 

Fill the next ten minutes by writing down what comes to mind by this color, sense by sense. Some of the senses are more difficult than others, but making the extra effort will help you with being more specific in your future writing. 

Once you've written for ten minutes, adding to each sense, pick a number between one and ten. Write it on your paper. 

Check below and find your number. 

1. Yellow
2. Black
3. White
4. Gold
5. Blue
6. Green
7. Brown
8. Pink
9. Purple
10. Orange

Now, go back and use the color that matched your number and write for another ten minutes how that color affects your senses. 

THINK ABOUT THIS:  Imagine the colorful people you have met in your life. Jot down notes about the way these people look, dress, act, talk, walk, and smell. This is a great way to work on character development and perhaps flesh out a character in need of a little more personality. It's fun to pick and choose from all the choices offered by people you know as you invent characters of your own. 



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Thursday, August 11, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 11 - Who Are You?

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the eleventh challenge we're going to have you throw yourself into a favorite character:

Here is your challenge:


If you could be anyone else (fictional or non) for a day, who would it be and why? 

Be as detailed and imaginative as possible. Choose a fantasy character if you'd like. 

Describe either in prose or dialogue who you are, who you meet throughout the day, where you go, what you do, and how you feel. 

Enjoy!

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 10 - Avoiding Passive Voice

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the tenth challenge we're going to learn how to avoid passive voice:

Before we start on the challenge, let's have a short reminder about "passive voice."
Passive Voice is a grammar term. It's a reading factor. In other words, it makes reading easier. Amateur writers horribly abuse passive voice. Corporate writers tend to use passive voice to excess, often to a level of 40% or higher. The passive sucks the life out of writing. So, be aware when using it. Clearly, any writer who uses the passive in 40% of his/her sentences isn't aware of it, right?

That's where the definition comes in:

Do you recall diagramming sentences in school? Oh, I can hear the groans all the way down in Florida!

Subject | Verb | Object

In this simple diagram of the active voice, the subject of the sentence goes ahead of the verb, or action word. The object of the sentence receives the action.

For example, "Rhonda eats the alien."

The subject of the sentence, Rhonda, acts, that is, she's the eater. The verb is eats. And, that makes alien the object. In this case, the direct object of the action, eats, acted out by Rhonda, the subject.

DIAGRAM:

Rhonda | eats | alien


To create a passive sentence we would do this:

The alien is eaten by Rhonda.

How? The subject of the sentence is acted upon.

Got it? Okay, let's try some exercises.



Here is your challenge:
Write these sentences into the active voice:


  1. The battle was begun by the scouts blundering into each other in the night. But the war - the war was begun by politicians blundering in the light.
  2. She was swept up in her own emotions, carried away by daydreams, buried in fantasy.
  3. He was struck twice, first by fear, then by the realization that he loved her.


Next:
Now go back and re-evaluate each of your changes. Do you find at at lease one or two of the sample sentences read better in the passive, maybe even all three? Good. The point of this exercise is to assure you the passive is not always a bad thing. Don't let any writing how-to book tell you otherwise.



Passive Voice uses more words than active voice to express the same idea. Passive voice also softens the impact of your writing. You won't want to do that in tense action scenes because you won't grab the reader's attention. Passive voice is sometimes harder to read and more difficult to understand. And not just because it uses more words. In long sentences, you often have to reread parts to find the bottom line or search for the actor, if one even exists, it's at the tail end.

So, that's "passive" in a nutshell.

QUICK NOTE: Unless you are using the passive with a purpose, that is, to mellow out a passage, to avoid giving away a clue, or to slow down the pace of your novel, don't use it. Like most writing coaches, I urge you to use the active voice most of the time.




Tuesday, August 9, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 9 - Dream-Catcher

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the ninth challenge we're going to reflect on a recent dream.

Here is your challenge:

Dream-catcher: Write something inspired by a recent dream you had.

 Imagine a beautiful dream you had once. Now write a story surrounding that dream. Maybe the event takes place in that area, or perhaps that is the same dream of your character, and so on. Do you have recurring dreams? Can you recall them? Draw upon your feelings about the dream and if it motivates you, create a character living that dream. Be detailed with your description, characterization, where the character lives, how the character reacts in your dream and dialogue.

Go all out. Embellish if it makes the story better. Use your imagination. 


TIP: Dreams are a series of thoughts, visions, or feelings that happen during sleep: an idea or vision that is created in your imagination and that is not real: something that you have wanted very much to do, be, or have for a long time.

Enjoy. I hope you realize you can recall more of your dreams than you thought.





Monday, August 8, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 8 - Observation

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the eighth challenge we're going to see observant we are with our surroundings:

Here is your challenge:

The first step is to notice your surroundings. Your home. Start there. What is in your room - apartment - house - tent - mobile home - ancestral mansion? Your abode? Your residence? Look around. Get a pencil and a piece of paper and go to work.

Make a complete list of the everyday, utilitarian stuff in your home. For example, your bed. Next to each item, rate its degree of necessity, meaning, to what extent could you live without it. This will start you on a path of attentiveness.

How many times a day do you walk by it, see it, hear it running? How aware you you of your surroundings?

Once you've made a list of items in your hoe and rated their "essential-ness," widen the search. Observe other people's homes/work places. Look at homes on television and in movies. Write down what you see and remember. 

Think about homes you encounter in books or short stories. What particulars are other writers including? Consider the characters in your own works. Even if you weren't planning on describing their homes in detail, try to flesh out their physical worlds. Do they have a four-slice toaster?

What about trends? Have you begun to notice similarities in the way in which people lay out their kitchens? Do most apartments have a television in the living room but not a bookshelf? Do more married people have pets? Is there more art on the walls in the homes of your single friends or married friends? 

Look, see, observe, record. Write.

IMPORTANT POINT: As a writer, you will spend a lifetime sharpening your observational  skills. The more you are aware of, the more you an write about: AWARE with your eyes, with your heart, your soul, your body. The world is out there for you to gather up and hold. You are on a lifetime mission. Your assignment is to LIVE AND OBSERVE. Your objective is to gain EXPERIENCE.

The end result? Hopefully, lots and lots and lots of wonderful stories.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 7 - Story From Image

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are
going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the seventh challenge we're going to see how well we can create a story from an image:

Here is your challenge:

Find a visual image that makes you feel. Tape, staple, glue, paper clip, whatever, this image to the top of a piece of paper. Write, for thirty minutes, about what's going on with your connection of the image and yourself, and what is going on in the image. Tell a story. 

Answer these questions in your descriptive story (If the image has people in it.)

  • Who are they? 
  • Where are they?
  • To whom do they belong?
  • What are they doing right then and why?
  • What will they be doing later?
These are bare ideas. Think about some familiar images from our / your culture and try to concoct a narrative from them.

Tell a story.  Let your imagination fly. Whatever you pick, you will be using your ability to pull a story from a frozen, static moment - kind of like a baker pulls a hot tasty baguette from a shapeless lump of dough.

This is an important writing challenge. I believe that the instant your characters and their destinies take shape on a page, they have life. They exist. And it is entirely up to you to make that world a valid place.


IMPORTANT POINT: This is not to say that your fictional world is obliged to be a rational, realistic world. If that were a requisite for literature, then Alice would have have dropped down the White Rabbit's hole.

So, find a picture of something and write about it. Make up a story of what's going on in that moment in that world right then. Fill in with as much detail as you can.

I hope you enjoy this challenge. I enjoy visual journaling. It's like telling a story with only images and words cut from magazines or other papers. 



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Saturday, August 6, 2016

August Writing Challenges: Day 6 - Memories

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the sixth challenge we're going to go back in time:

Here is your challenge:

Take a time from your life (or imagine time) that you were bullied at school. Who was the bully and how did he or she affect you? Imagine a sit down chat with the bully in which the person could not bully you and had to share his or her feelings. What do you thing you would learn?

If this challenge is too personal or triggers some past trauma issues, please don't use it. Here is an alternate challenge:

Describe your first school crush or your first school significant other. What was it like? How did you feel walking around the school and possibly having people talk about you? Feel fee to talk about the entire relationship.


Going back in time and remembering events in your life can be easy or hard. Some memories come easily, while others are fuzzy and hard to remember. That's okay. That's life. The best thing about writing a memoir, is you get to re-write your story.

I hope you find this challenge helpful.