I recently read Donald Maass's The Emotional Craft of Fiction and am now on the task of working through some of the exercises. The book reminded me to do what I usually try to do--go through the work searching for certain key words and seeing how often I repeated myself. Oh boy. Here are the …
My mom loved carousel horses. Back in the 80s when malls were the places to hang out, we'd spend Saturday afternoons window shopping and chatting at one of the malls nearby. There was store that sold music boxes, and some of those music "boxes" were carousel horses. Mom really wanted one, but they were, of …
A dragon may be lurking behind me. But hopefully it is a nice dragon. In other news, I'm selling art, as ever. But until July 4th, I'm donating a percentage of sales to RAICES. If you'd like to help out and have some art, here's the link to my Etsy page: WordsAreArtStudio. Thanks for stopping …
After a challenge comes the crash. For me, anyway. The momentum vanishes and I flail around wondering what to do next. Most likely, I will return to my sci-fi fairytale and finish the massive rewrites. Today, I'm feeling daunted by the task. Perhaps tomorrow I'll feel inspired. I hope so. Over the last few months, …
The first time I heard of Story-a-Day, I thought, "That's madness." I also thought, "I can't write short stories. I write novels." I'm not a snob about novels. It's weird when some people say that short stories are just stepping stones to novels or that they're easier or some other nonsense. Short stories are an …
Story-a-Day May comes to an end! I have things I want to write about the experience, but I'm tired. I've managed today's final story, and that's all I can do. The prompt was to write about a writer. Oi! Well, I decided to write a fairytale about a writer. Sort of. If you know your …
Tomorrow may be the last day, but it doesn't feel like it. In any event, yesterday, I scribbled the beginning of a story in my notebook. The prompt was to write the story you've wanted to write. I think I've done that. Perhaps I haven't written it well or in the way I originally envisioned, …
Continue reading Story-a-Day. It’s never going to end, is it?
I planned on skipping today's prompt, but changed my mind. The prompt said to use these words in a story: ink, previously, work, breeze, seven, run, delicious, example, spontaneous, barb. I managed to work in all ten words! It will probably come across as forced, but at least it's written. Thanks for reading. Barbara Squire …
I do not have the energy for this, but I wrote something anyway. I didn't look at today's prompt though. Instead, I thought about the character I've been writing about for the least few days and gave her a nemesis. This is a just a fragment for now. With luck, I'll catch up on my …
I'm back from my trip. I did manage to write a tiny bit every day. The first day (the day I woke at 2:30 am), I wrote an opening scene for a longer story. It would be better if I could have written a complete story, but by 10pm, I didn't have the energy. The …
Marta Bacon 