Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Writing Prompts to Build a Community



Write a story, poem, memoir or whatever else you'd like to write (even if it's not complete) of no more than 300 words using daily prompts to share on this blog as a comment. Writing prompts are a good way to keep your creative juices flowing and to practice writing skills – such as descriptions, dialogue, scene, monologues, etc.

The way writing prompts work is the prompt sentence, phrase or word must be either used in the piece or be a theme of the piece and is completed in one sitting. You should be done in no more than five minutes. Editing can be done after the initial write. A new prompt will be posted daily starting November 23, 2012.

The criteria:

1.     No more than 300 words
2.     Fiction, poetry, memoir, or whatever else you feel like writing
3.     No explicit sex
4.     No constant profanity
5.     Must be the original work of the person posting
6.     Be open to honest critique

Anything not following the above criteria will not be posted or will be deleted.

The intent for this:

1.     To practice writing with short and continual exercises
2.     To meet other writers
3.     Possibly get critiqued
4.     You may include a link to your blog, webpage or book for sale
5.     300 words is enough to keep you fresh without bogging you down
6.     Building a gracious writing community is a beautiful thing

Once a week or every other week, depending on how busy things are, I will choose a winning piece to highlight. If the winner has a webpage, blog or book, and if they so desire, a write-up will be posted along with the winning piece.

Let's keep writing and sharing to build this community!


14 comments:

  1. Huh-- this could be a fun! Even if I don't publicly post, I'll use it in my writing journal as an exercise. Fun idea. :)

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  2. That's great. Although I hope some people will post, I just hope they'll enjoy the practice.

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  3. I love this idea! I'm looking forward to the prompts!

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  4. I'm glad you are looking forward to this. And thank you for the follow!

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  5. So happy to be connected now, Nancy! <3 <3 <3

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  6. This sounds great! The shortest I've done, flash-fiction wise, is 250, and that was tough! Other than first lines of 25 or less. I'll stop by, but most likely after NaNovember.

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    1. Thanks! I know short pieces can be hard. I've done the Reader's Digest prompts often and that's 500 words. But here, it doesn't necessarily have to be a finished piece. This is mainly for practice, and you can make it longer if you'd like for your own portfolio of work. Hope I do see your work here.

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  7. I'm thinking of writing a memoir much longer than 100 words. This would be a fun exercise though :)

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    1. Trisha, you are quite welcome to post a portion of your memoir. Maybe each day the prompt can help you to write different parts of your memoir.

      Thanks for your follow!

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  8. Hey Nancy,

    I've done a few of these before - on Janet Reid's blog, but more the merrier I say :)

    PS. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for the kind words :)

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    1. I agree Mark. I've never done this on a blog - except on Reader's Digest, which is a bit different. But I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.

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  9. Thanks for following my blog, Nancy!

    I've never done writing prompts before so I may have to try it out. I'm SUPER INVOLVED in this writing community already so it will be hard to fit it in. And I'm also very busy with my personal life so maybe the next time.

    Great idea, though!

    Glad to be connected! Nice to meet ya! :)

    And, and, welcome to this online community! It's awesome! :)

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  10. Thank you Livia for following too. I know about the business of life! I'm glad you're well connected, and hope you do give the prompts a couple of tries. It's quite amazing what comes out. Some of my favorite pieces started from writing prompts, including "Anticipation of the Penitent", and also the story "Rebecca's Husband".

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Your comments add wonderful flavors. Thank you!

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