Left at the start

An acrostic poem uses each letter of a word or phrase to begin each line of a poem. The poem will have something to do with the initial word or phrase.

Voracious
Appetite
Mesmerizing
Personality
Icy
Reserve
Elegantly
Savage

There's some amusing ones by Bruce Lansky at How to Write an Acrostic Poem.

All the examples happen to be single words for each letter but of course they don't have to be!. Each line can be a phrase. The format of the acrostic is very loose :-)

Use a character's name, a movie title, a word, an emotion, the beginning of a favorite poem.

Top 10 Tabloid Headlines for April 2008

April is National Play with Words Month!

Actually it's National Poetry Month but to keep the prompts relatively short and encourage people who cringe at the word poetry, it's a whole lot more about playing with words.

Last year I introduced Kenneth Koch's poetry warm up exercises. (You can see them all here by clicking on Poetry Warm Ups over on the right.) They're a way of playing with words to get stuff flowing :-)

No actual poetry will be produced, though you may come up with an intriguing line that leads to a poem or a story.

For today, use the structure of the first tabloid headline and generate similar lines of the form:

Food -- Noun -- -ed verb

Cucumber Killer Captured
Bean Bomber Bamboozled
Anchovy Anarchist Annihilated

Top 10 Tabloid Headlines from APRIL 1998

1. CUCUMBER KILLER CAPTURED! -- WWN
   
2. BEN FRANKLIN SHOCKER!He was a Founding Father, a signer of the Declaration of Independence -- AND A SERIAL KILLER! -- WWN
   
3. Teens ordered to clean toilets after peeing on theater seats! -- WWN
   
4. 10 GIRAFFES HAVE HEADS TORN OFF -- when zoo truck passes under low bridge -- WWN
   
5. Kitten drowned by a giant goldfish!  Cat dips paw in tank & fish pulls him in! -- WWN
   
6. Exploding grapefruits kill hundreds in Argentina! -- WWN
   
7. DEAD HUBBY BURIED WITH WINNING LOTTO TICKET IN HIS POCKET Anxious wife digs up 103 corpses looking for him! -- WWN
   
8. FARMER DEVELOPS THE ELVIS CHICKEN! New birds sport slick hairdos & swivel their hips when they walk! -- WWN
   
9. Gun-totin' Texan shoots baby kitten. . .   THEN CLAIMS SELF-DEFENSE! -- WWN
   
10. VENGEFUL OLDSTER SUES DAUGHTER FOR DEAD WIFE'S ASHES . . . SO HE CAN FLUSH THEM DOWN THE TOILET! -- WWN

"It begins with a character ..."

Immediate Fiction

It's been a bit since I've had time to stumble across an extra that didn't feel like something to throw onto the list just because it's the end of the week ;-)

Right now I'm reading Immediate Fiction by Jerry Cleaver.

He gets into *how* to fix story problems. In the introduction he describes how the writing instructors he encountered focused on telling him his writing was wrong and that a writer needed to feel when writing was right. He kept asking *how*? Over the years he did manage to find a process that helps.

When a scene or a story isn't working, he says, look to your five tools. (Really six if conflict is broken down.) The first are the Big Three, Want, Obstacle, Action, without which a story is going no where.

Conflict (Want + Obstacle)
Action

Resolution
Emotion
Showing

When analyzing a story, first ask yourself

• "Who wants what?" If no one wants anything, that's your problem.
  
  
• "What's the obstacle?" If there is no obstacle (it can be the character, others, a big mountain) you have no conflict and no dramatic tension to move the story.
  
  
• "What's the character doing (action) to overcome the obstacle and fulfill his want?"
  

That's not, of course, the totality of writing. But if you can't figure out why a story isn't working, Want, Obstacle, Action is the place to begin.

While he does repeat himself. Over and over. A lot ;-) It's a more practical writing book than most. (It's based on the workshops he teaches so may account for the repetition which probably comes across in person as emphasis for the evening's writing exercises than it does in a book.) He's not saying anything new so much as the way he's saying it: as a set of writing tools to analyze your own writing with.

The one section that made me sit up is his analysis of why writing is so hard sometimes. It's because we need to make the characters do the opposite of what we naturally do in real life: work hard to *avoid* conflict. And I realized avoiding conflict is what my characters do a lot ;-) They do what makes sense. But what a story needs, what makes the readers turn pages, is forcing the character to plunge head first into conflict. The characters *needs* to upset his life to get to his goal.

"Ask yourself how you get along in society, how you survive when you're out in the world. By making as much trouble as possible every change you get? No, you survive by avoiding conflict, by playing it safe, by being careful, by dong the exact opposite of what you ned to do to write exciting stories.

"Writing compelling stories goes against the grain of all our socialized, civilized training. Creating fiction is an antisocial act. .... If you take the easy way out, which yo will be prone to do, consciously or unconsciously, because of your civilized nature and your affection for your character, if you take that easy way, you character will not act in a compelling way, your story will sag, and the reader will leave. So you must be cruel to your characters. It's the only way."

(Of course there's cruelty and there's character revealing cruelty! Running over a child's puppy is cruel. What you want are more obstacles in the character's path. Obstacles that challenge and illuminate in a way that makes sense in your story.)

Wish you were here

You (or your character) have taken a vacation on Naboo (just before Star Wars Episode 1 begins.) Then the Trade Federation invades. Write home about it.

(Feel free to substitute a vacation to any place in a movie or book or TV show or video game or story you've written ... :-)

A Bestiary

Create a bestiary. Use each of the following words in the name of the beast or one sentence description of the beast.

amnesiac
bewitches
chamber
disguises
eerie
flickering
graffiti
hypnotized
invisible
journey
karma
laughing
moonbeam
nuzzle
outcast
pilfer
quake
rumble
saccharine
taunt
uneasy
valkyrie
whirl
explode
yammer
zigzag

"Hardly anybody ..."

Four out of five thumbs

I wanted to do something based around anime because of the convention, but after 7 1/2 hours (not exaggerating 10AM to 5:30PM) waiting in line to register, I'm a little punchy! Ah, but Kat had enough time to make new best friends ;-) It's the 5th time we've been and it's never been like that. I suspect they totally forgot that Friday was a holiday with all the kids off and only expected to be registering adults and college students like they usually do.

But this ain't half bad considering ... Make up blurbs, 2-4 sentences, for the following movies that might appear in TV Guide. You can go all the way with it and give star ratings, genre, actors.

Of Mice and Men
Shadow Dancing
I Was a Male War Bride
Based on an Untrue Story
Witching of Ben Wagner
Zombie Cop
Iron Monkey
Daughter of Darkness
Christmas Evil
But I'm a Cheerleader
They Live
Secret of My Success

Quadridecennial

Anu Garg of Wordsmith.org has been sending out a word a day for 14 years. In celebration this week all the words were not only 14 letters long but defined in 14 letters.

Use them in a story, a paragraph or even a single sentence. :-)

acritochromacy (uh-KRIT-o-kro-muh-see) noun -- Color blindness.
tintinnabulate (tin-ti-NAB-yuh-layt) verb intr. -- To ring; to tinkle.
tinctumutation (tinkt-myoo-TAY-shuhn) noun -- Change of colour.
Brobdingnagian (brob-ding-NAG-ee-uhn) adjective -- Of gigantic size.
circumbendibus (sur-kuhm-BEN-duh-buhs) noun -- Circumlocution.

"Good writing is ..."

A hellhound and a suit of armor

Pick one of the following as a prompt. Mix up the elements if you wish, or go to the generator and make some new ones.

• The story must have a hellhound in it. The story must involve a suit of armor in it. A character robs someone, and they aren't happy with it. A character is kind throughout most of the story. During the story, a character drinks something they haven't had in a while.
  
  
• The story must have a water-spirit at the end. The story must involve a potion at the end. A character hits something in anger, but the action is misinterpreted. A character becomes attracted to someone during the story. During the story, a character finds out a dark secret.
  
  
• The story must have a salamander in it. The story must involve a sceptre in the beginning. A character will prepare for a religious ceremony, and they are surprisingly overenthused about it. A character is kind throughout most of the story. During the story, a character is misunderstood.
  
  
• The story ends during a funeral. During the story, there is an attack. The story must have a dragon in it. The story must involve a quiver of arrows in it. During the story, a character becomes pregnant.
  
  
• A character hits something in anger. During the story, a character discovers someone has written a book or article about them. The story is set during a sporting event. The story takes place at midnight exactly. During the story, there is a sudden change in weather.
  

From Seventh Sanctum Writing Challenge Generator where there are tons of generators for stories and characters and names and creatures ...

Barbarian Cult Hero Bewitches Bunny Queen

Print out the following words in a largish font, cut them up, shuffle them around to create fantasy tabloid headlines like:

Acclaimed Ghoul Eats Mist Enshrouded Monastery
Toothless Pig Dumps Ugly Android

You may need to throw in some prepositions (in, through, on, etc.) to use the places and things. Feel free to add in your own words. There's also a longer list at  Dragon Writing Sticks. 

Adjectives

acclaimed
annoying
barbarian
blasphemous
disturbed
enigmatic
foul
fractured
glowing
golden
grotesque
insectoid
mad
massive
mist enshrouded
morbid
oozing
quirky
sapphire
toothless
ugly

Creatures

android
assassin
baby
bunny
dragon
queen
cult hero
dragon hunter
fiend
fortuneteller
ghoul
mouse
musician
pig
priestess
soul
thief
vampire
warlord
witch
worm

Verbs

assaults
avenges
betrays
bewitches
blesses
burns
cheats
completes
corrupts
curses
deceives
destroys
deviates
disguises
dooms
dumps
eats
escapes (from)
exorcises
falls for
fears
hits
imprisons
jealous of
kidnaps
loses
mourns
quests for
rebels against
rejects
resists
rips off
rules
sacrifices
saves
seizes
separates
shoots
silences
smashes
strikes
sues
summons
surrenders
terrorizes
threatens
tortures
traps
tricks
weeps for
yields

Places

abyss
altar
bakery
bones
camera
castle
diary
dungeon
goblet
grave
heaven
island
key
monastery
paradise
ring
runes
space colony
tavern
volcano
well

"The best way to have a good idea ..."

1,2,3 ...

Write a paragraph that begins with a one-word sentence. Followed by a two-word sentence. Followed by a three-word sentence. Keep going as long as you can :-)

From #167 in Unjournaling: Daily Writing Exercises that Are NOT Personal, NOT Introspective, NOT Boring! by Dawn DiPrince and Cheryl Miller Thurston.

Deadly drumming

"Now I don't have to listen to those damn drums every morning -- and all the dead bodies are gone!"

You're an investigative reporter and you overheard this. Dig in to find the story behind it. (Of course, if you get inspired in another direction, feel free to go for it :-)

"Writing is the best way ..."

Top 10 Tabloid Headlines for March 2008

Though the Weekly World News is no more, here's the headlines from the archives of City Newstand in Chicago, for writing prompts or just for fun :-)

Top 10 Tabloid Headlines from MARCH 1998

1. TORCHED BY AN ANGEL! -- WWN
   
2. GERBIL JUGGLER BRINGS PARTY KIDS TO TEARS -- SUN
   
3. NOW it can be told . . . Liberace was a rough & tough he-man who spied for the CIA! -- WWN
   
4. Did Castro replace Pope with a Communist double? -- WWN
   
5. SCIENTISTS TO CLONE NEANDERTHAL MAN -- FROM 30,000-YEAR-OLD DOO-DOO -- WWN
   
6. GIRL GETS PIG'S ARM -- BECOMES BOWLING CHAMP! -- SUN
   
7. 3 out of 5 Americans are reincarnated in Brazil -- WWN
   
8. Prisoner escapes & mails handcuffs back to cops -- WWN
   
9. Medical students expelled -- for throwing human brains at each other! -- WWN
   
10. Cursed rocks scare tourists -- SUN

Curses!

Curses and spells come in many flavors: love, money, revenge, protection, healing, curse removal, luck, happiness.

For the following words, come up with names of curses or spells:

absorb
brown sugar
cat nap
deep end
eye ball
frisky
glum
humble
ice water
jewels
kaleidoscope
longings
meander
night edition
obsessive
primal
quake
rubber stamp
skillet
trio
undead
vanity
wound
extinguish
yearn
zephyr

If you need a jump start of ideas to get your brain thinking in spell names, here are the names of some actual spells you can buy on line that are a little more colorful than the generic "Love Spell". :-)

Preemptive-strike black curse
Financial-ruin black curse
Twisted-mind black curse
Doomed-to-fail black curse
Heartbreak black curse
Destroy-enemy black curse
Ultimate-revenge black curse
Grief-and-sadness black curse
Living-in-hell black curse
Haunting black curse
Break Them Up Now Spell
Restore My Life Spell
Cancel My Enemy Now Spell
Rescue Your Love Spell
Matchmaker Spell
Lucky Streak Spell
Come Back My Love Spell
Be My Valentine Spell
Couple-Buster Curse
Bind Us Together Spell
Creative Genius Spell
Winds of Change Spell
Irresistible Charm Spell
Banish Evil Spirits Spell
Shield of Isis Spell
Wall of Protection Spell

You won't remember this

On your character's birthday he or she finds in her pocket a handwritten note on a piece of paper torn from a spiral notebook.

You will have forgotten me by now but have a Happy Birthday!

Panvi

So who's Panvi and why are they sure they won't be remembered? Write about the forgotten encounter or the characters reaction or search for Panvi. Whatever inspires you. :-)

"Forget all the rules ..."

Top 10 tabloid headlines for February 2008

Though the Weekly World News is no more, here's the headlines from the archives of City Newstand in Chicago, for writing prompts or just for fun :-)Top Ten Tabloid Headlines from FEBRUARY 1998

1. INVASION OF THE CRAWFISH! -- WWN
   
2. Gal with 36-inch-long fingernails kills herself -- WHILE PICKING HER NOSE! -- WWN
   
3. It's official: Breaking wind can kill! -- WWN
   
4. Getting your teeth cleaned can KILL you! -- WWN
   
5. Man dies after eating 24 mouse heads! -- WWN
   
6. ADS ON TOMBSTONES CUT BURIAL COSTS IN HALF! -- WWN
   
7. DOG GOES CYBER CRAZY! 'Too smart' pooch turns into Internet $hopaholic -- SUN
   
8. Bible expert's shocking claim . . . SATAN IS GAY! -- WWN
   
9. IS SATAN REALLY A WOMAN? -- WWN
   
10. JESUS vs. SATAN: Who should be on the $1 bill? -- WWN

Furries!

Here's the first line:

"Surely something that furry couldn't be ..."

Take it from there :-)

(Generated at First Words)

Mind your Q's

Write for 10-15 minutes using as many "qu" words as you can.

From #126 in Unjournaling: Daily Writing Exercises that Are NOT Personal, NOT Introspective, NOT Boring! by Dawn DiPrince and Cheryl Miller Thurston.

"Quantity produces ..."

What we love

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe   

So many possibilities! An object? A person? An idea? A moral tale? An immoral tale?

Lavender demon

Choose one or more of the following as inspiration for a 10-15 minute writing piece.

telepathic student
dusty fiend
fog-enshrouded altar
cat boy assassin
stolen chronicle
emperor's tomb
lavender demon
ancient sacrifices

"It took me fifteen years ..."

In case of fire

My daughter saw the results of this idea at school yesterday and she said they were great fun to read.

It's based on "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Joffe Numeroff. If you haven't read it (the text is in the comments, though it's well worth borrowing the book to see the illustrations! -- there are also several follow ups) it begins with a simple action, which prompts other actions, that become more and more wild as they progress.

So here's the prompt:

Begin with "If there's a fire"

and end with "a fish will die."

Terballs

Use the following "words" in sentences. See what the sound of them inspires. :-)

pimtpo
poortspo
terballs
tonopmac
seyekco
rellatte
rolepsia
etatsnok
ryon
aikaisil
punitif
tedneeg
eruvargr

"A ratio of failures ..."

Revealing secrets 101

There is nothing that will not reveal its secrets if you love it enough.

George Washington Carver   

That's the theme. You can use the quote in your piece if you want but don't need to. Just see where the idea takes you.

Velveteen poison

Here's two choices for today:

Setting: In a temple
First line: He paced back and forth
Words you must use: bolt, nightmare, sunshine, contaminated

Setting: In a field
First line: I found
Words you must use: poison, velveteen, kettle, trophy

These were generated by Bonnie Neubauer's Story Spinner which is both online and a nifty wheel you can purchase.

Most of the settings were conventional so if you'd like to use it, you might sit down and brainstorm a list of settings that spark your interest. Or use some from the following:

abyss
alley
altar
attic
bakery
bar
barrier
basement
bazaar
boardwalk
boiler room
breeders
carnival
casino
castle
cavern
chamber
checkpoint
circus
cliff
colony
"con"/convention
construction site
crypt
desert
dock
downstairs
dungeon
field
food court
forest
fumeral home
funeral
furnace room
future
garden
grave
grotto
guardhouse
haven
heaven
hell
hilltop
hollow
inn
island
laboratory
labrynth
lake
library
main street
market place
maze
mine
monastery
mountains
nightclub
outskirts
palace
paradise
pasture
pier
plain
pool
port
prison
private school
pub
pyramid
reef
repair station
restaurant
roof top
ruins
sanctuary
sea
ship
shop
side street
space colony
space station
stall
star ship
stockyard
sweatshop
tavern
temple
theater
tomb
tower
town guardstation
traveling show
tundra
tunnel
underground passages
underworld
university
vale
valley
vault
volcano
war camp
warehouse
waterfall
well
woodland
zoo

"To imagine yourself ..."

How to kill your darlings without remorse

When Google displayed "How to kill your darlings without remorse"* in a search I thought the page might be about killing off your characters, which I have a hard time doing! It turned out to be about deleting favorite passages you've written that don't move the story forward. Ah, that's hard too! I do find it easier if I let the bit live in the story for a while, read it several times, until it loses it's specialness and then I can move it off to my "Cut stuff" file, which she calls a "Dead Darlings" file :-)

Novelists don't always know where their stories are headed. In fact, some of us never know. One way of writing is to imagine a good ending and then work out how to get your characters there. Another way (my way), is to hang on for dear life while your characters take you where they will.

Yes, this is the fun part of writing for me. The problem is that often the characters want you to tell parts of their lives that don't have much to do with the story! "Let me tell you this funny thing that happened to me ..." So, you let them ramble. You get to know them a little better. Then you quietly delete it later. ;-)

They say a sculptor views a block of marble, imagines a statue, and then chips away every bit of stone that isn't the statue, thus revealing the work of art. That's how I write. My "block of marble" is the first draft of my story, which tends to be at least thirty percent and often fifty percent longer than the 55,000 words my editor wants. But that's fine. I take that draft and patiently chip away everything that isn't my story. I am a ruthless scene-killer, an unremorseful conversation condenser, a wild-eyed wielder of the Delete key. I used to save some of the better quality material that I cut, just in case I wanted it later. But I never did want it, so I no longer save it. There's plenty more good stuff where that came from. If I change my mind and want to reinsert a deleted scene, I just write it again and make it even better than last time.

Is it a waste of my time to write so much more than I know I'm going to use? No, because all writing is practice for more and better writing.

I tend to think of myself as a very mundane writer, with mundane ideas, so when I come up with something that sparks my interest, it feels like it will never happen again. So how could I delete it? But she's right, as she says in another post. The more ideas you come up with, the more ideas you have. Often it doesn't feel like it! Often it feels like the well has dried up and you've used up your last idea. But the more you stretch your imagination, the stronger it gets.

"Killing your darlings" is what many writers call deleting paragraphs, scenes, and even chapters that they've spent hours creating--all for nothing, they often believe. But a writer who can't stomach killing any of her darlings is not focusing on the big picture: her story as a whole. You may hate cutting scenes that are hilarious or poignant or suspenseful, but to be a good writer, you must do exactly that. If anything that you've written, no matter how beautifully, doesn't move your story along, it will bog your story down. By saving your "darlings," you might be killing your story.

Here's a writing tip some of you might be able to use: After finishing your first draft, find the highlighting tool in your word processor and then start reading, using the highlighter to indicate all of the sentences, paragraphs, and scenes that are absolutely essential to your story. (I use a yellow highlighter to remind myself that those parts of the story are "golden.") When you finish, delete everything that isn't highlighted. Save it in a Dead Darlings file if that makes you feel better, but I predict that after a while you'll stop bothering with that.

Now you're left with nothing but story. Your manuscript is still in very rough form, but there's not a boring bit in there because you've taken all of the irrelevant stuff out. Now you're ready to revise and polish. I go through many drafts on a book, so I do a highlighting pass after finishing my first draft, then do it again when I'm nearly finished with the manuscript. After some more tweaking and polishing, I use the highlighting tool a third and final time. When the manuscript is all golden, I'm finished. (Two notes: First, the highlighter is invaluable to me because except during that first pass, I'm not starting at Page One and progressing to the end of the manuscript. I jump around, working on whatever scenes and chapters I'm in the mood to work on. The highlighting tells me what I've finished and what still needs to be looked at. And second, on the last highlighting run I'm just deleting words and sentences, not whole paragraphs and scenes. It's all pretty painless by that time.)

I love every part of the writing process, but bringing a story home--making that final pass with my yellow highlighter and assuring myself that every sentence, paragraph, scene, and chapter is "golden" satisfies my writer's heart on the deepest level. This is the best that's in me--at least until my editor points out something that I've missed!

Brenda Coulter, writer of inspirational romance books.

---

*The quote "Kill your darlings" is much attributed. The original came from Arthur Quiller-Couch in The Art of Writing. "Whenever you feel the impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it -- whole-heartedly -- and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings."

Whispered in the ear

There lives a great person who brought peace to his or her land.

What no one knows is that an imp had attached itself to the person and made her or him do this.

Why? Is it a good imp or a bad one? Is it for good reasons or bad? Are there other imps? Is it to benefit the imps or the person or humans (or whatever race the person is)? Why did the person do what the imp told him or her? Sounded good? Threatened? Wanted to be famous?

If you wish, try writing an entry in a diary the person has been working on during the few minutes a day the imp leaves the person alone.

Nekkid

Use this line somewhere in your prompt: "I tried to imagine him naked."

The challenge, though, is to make the story not sexual. Kids could do this a whole lot easier since their thoughts aren't locked onto a single track by the word naked! ;-)

As an alternate challenge, use the line to create as many opening scenarios as you can that aren't about sex.

"There are days ..."

Toasted Cheese

Here's a whole year's worth of writing prompts from 2007 at Toasted Cheese.

Here's a sample:

He was thankful to be himself again.
You redefine the word ego.
He lifted the corner of the pink chenille bedspread.
She might some day kill a man.
A romantic, futuristic mystery.

While they're conventional, not specifically geared to speculative fiction, they're easily adaptable and avoid the introspective type of prompt that irks me ;-)

(Hmmm! Sounds like I like to avoid looking inside! ;-) Either that or I think there are way more inspiring ideas than my best birthday party and the most uplifting experience I've had.)

There's also a monthly calendar where she posts this year's writing prompts that are collected in a list as they're posted. The prompts actually go back to 2002 and some more extensive exercises stretch back to 2001 in the archives.

Out of the blue

You can use this as a prose inspiration too, but colors tend to make me think of poetry.

List as many things as you can think of that are blue. Then next to each write an emotion. Next to those, write a verb.

Now pick your favorite and see where it takes you.

Today's and Tuesday's inspired by Susan Writes where there are a few conventional writing prompts. (Click on the picture, then click again to see a much larger view of the gorgeous colors.)

Will-o'-the-wasp

A wasp is following your character.

It can be an ordinary wasp, of course. That causes extraordinary problems. Or it could be something else. What is it? And why is it following you?

"I write for the same reason I breathe ..."

Autocrit

Creative writing often generates flabby writing. That's okay! You *should* be sending your editor on vacation while the creativity flows. Getting out the ideas is way more important than proper grammar.

Ah, but afterward, when it comes time to edit, how do you get out the flab? Check out Autocrit.

Paste in up to 800 words and click Analyze. Autocrit returns with a check list of weak words. If you click on the check box it highlights the words in the text you pasted. Here's a list of weak words it identifies:

could
feel/feeling/felt
generic descriptions
had
have
hear/heard
initial conjunction
initial ing
it/there
just/then
knew/know
look
ly adverbs
maybe
see/saw
smell/taste
that
was/were
watch/notice/observe

Fixing them is another story, of course! But just knowing they're there can help with your editing. (Initial ing, Initial conjunction, it/there, just/then ;-)

(They also offer a subscription with more critique and some free courses and writing articles.)

Money for nothing?

"Why would anyone spend all that money on an interstellar vacation just to come to someplace so backwards?"

That's the beginning. See where it takes you. :-)

Flashlight flip-flops

Write a news report that includes the following words:

cantaloupe
toothpaste
guitar
flashlight
flip-flops

This is from Unjournaling: Daily writing exercises that are NOT personal, NOT inrospective and NOT boring by Dawn DiPrince and Cheryl Miller Thruston. Which lives up to its title. Kat and I have been dipping into it and though written for kids it can be a lot of fun for adults too. :-)

Writer's New Year's resolution quote

Take it with you

I used to do these every Friday, but with time less free, I'll try once a month.

If you don't already own one, buy yourself a New Year's gift of a small digital camera. Keep it with you and capture a quirky house, something that makes you smile, the uniqueness of a particular season so when you need to write a vision of snow in the middle of summer, there it will be! :-)

A walk among the dead

It's been quite some time since I posted a writer's notebook idea and the beginning of the year seems like as good a time as any for anyone seeking a new writing habit.

A writer's notebook is a place to capture ideas, bits of conversation, observations, dreams, words that capture your attention, favorite phrases, passages that you would love to have written .... anything and everything.

There are several ideas here at the blog.

Keep several notebooks. Keep a dream journal by your bed. Keep a small notebook in your purse or glove compartment. Keep one near where you read. Start a blog or a file on your desktop to capture bits that fly by you on the internet. (Though the physical process of writing by keyboard and perhaps even more so by hand helps you internalize the words.)

Today, visit a cemetery, preferably an old one. Try a non-Christian one. I visited Albuquerque several years ago and was captivated by the colorful shrines on the graves (many of them still decorated for Christmas). (Click the picture to enlarge it.) Here in Boston it's winter and the graves and headstones are covered with snow. Capture names and sayings. Notice the groupings. Once several generations would share the same plot but how often is that true in newer cemeteries? If it's winter, have people been visiting? Why do you think they would brave the cold?

Top 10 tabloid headlines for January 2008

They're back! While the Weekly World News is no more* :-( (though it is still on line), the City Newstand list goes back to 1998 so I'll post from the beginning until they run out.

Top Ten Tabloid Headlines from JANUARY 1998

1. BELIEVE IT OR NOT . . . CONDOMS FOR DOGS! -- WWN
   
2. WARNING: Someone may be snorting your grandmother! Teens sniffing human ashes to get high! -- WWN
   
3. Americans have the smartest dogs in the world! -- WWN
   
4. TALKING PARROT FINGERS HIT MAN -- SUN
   
5. COLLIE BIT MAN'S TESTICLES OFF -- TWO WEEKS AFTER HE HAD THE DOG NEUTERED -- WWN
   
6. Doctor vows to clone Elvis from a mole removed in 1961! -- WWN
   
7. Werewolf sues boss for time off during full moon! -- WWN
   
8. BEWARE! Squirrel brains can kill you! -- WWN
   
9. MIRACLE CABBAGE CURES THE SICK! -- WWN
   
10. WIFE USED HUBBY'S TOOTHBRUSH -- TO CLEAN THE COMMODE! -- WWN

* Ah, but there have been sightings! According to the City Newsstand:

From the December 2007 MAGBAG:

MORE NEW ISSUES OF THE WEEKLY WORLD NEWS?

— Special to the MAGBAG

More unconfirmed reports of new issues of the defunct Weekly World News have proliferated in recent weeks. A housewife claims she saw a Nov. 16 issue on sale at a Wawa in Egg Harbor, NJ and an Elvis impersonator swears he saw a Nov. 2 issue at a Terrible's in Henderson, Nevada.

The Egg Harbor copy was said to have contained the stories, 'SANTA'S ELVES REALLY SLAVES FROM THE PLANET MARS!', 'UFO ALIEN NO LONGER VISITS BUSH... nor admits to ever having done so' and , 'PACK OF WILD COCKER SPANIELS TERRORIZES WYOMING!', while the Elvis impersonator could only remember one headline from the edition he saw: 'Elvis is
Alive and Pretending to be an Elvis Impersonator in Henderson, Nevada!'

Subsequent trips to both stores found empty racks where the new issues had been said to be.

You must remember this ...

Rather than project forward, have a favorite character (yours or someone else's, good guy or bad guy) reflect back on what they did right last year.