Quotes, prompts, inspiration, and more to help writers get back to writing. As always, let me know what you think! If you’re brave enough to post your writing in regards to a prompt, let me know –I would love to check it out! ❤ Kyle
Quotes
“Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.” -Sir Francis Bacon
“Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.” -Plato
“Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.” -Ray Bradbury
“Prose is like hair, it shines with combing.” -Gustave Flaubert
How to Kill a Character –For when you need it (or even if you’re just looking for a fun infographic…also if you want to see if your fav. book makes the list of extensive examples)
Quotes, prompts, inspiration, and more to help writers get back to writing. As always, let me know what you think! If you’re brave enough to post your writing in regards to a prompt, let me know –I would love to check it out! ❤ Kyle
Quotes
“Story is to human beings what the pearl is to the oyster.” -Joseph Gold
“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.” -Ernest Hemingway
“Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, ‘Please will you do my job for me.'” -C.S. Lewis
“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” -John Steinbeck
Prompts (This week’s scifi and fantasy holiday prompts from here)
You find a music box that, when played, brings a sugarplum faerie to life. She’s not friendly.
When a blizzard strands several people in an abandoned factory in Northern California, they find the factory’s workers — elves — never really left.
The crew of earth’s first deep-space ship celebrate Christmas together, until they receive a distress call from another ship apparently on its way to earth.
It was the night before Christmas, and suddenly all the creatures were stirring.
After bringing your newborn baby home from the hospital, you get a visit from three men who claim to have traveled a long way to see your child. Oh, and they have gifts.
In a chest you’ve inherited from your mother, you find a copy of a family tree you’ve never seen before that seems to indicate you’re a direct descendant of Ebenezer Scrooge.
Slowly, a man comes to the realization that his world and everything he knows is just the inside of a snow globe.
and more!
Looking for some insight on how to structure a story? Check out this 8-point arc
Quotes, prompts, inspiration, and more to help writers get back to writing. As always, let me know what you think! If you’re brave enough to post your writing in regards to a prompt, let me know –I would love to check it out! ❤ Kyle
Quotes
“Start early and work hard. A writer’s apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he’s almost ready to begin. That takes a while.” -David Eddings
“The faster I write the better my output. If I’m going slow, I’m in trouble. It means I’m pushing the words instead of being pulled by them.” -Raymond Chandler
A man spends the afternoon building a snowman with his son, but as he’s getting ready for bed that night he notices that snowman has moved at least 20 feet toward the house.
While hiking in the woods, a man and his partner come across a reindeer that seems to desperately want to be followed.
“I found it, on a branch, in the Christmas tree.”
Two twin girls set out on Christmas Eve with a plan: to capture Santa Claus.
A family decides to spend their winter holiday in their uncle’s cabin in the woods, but they wake up in the middle of the night to a visitor digging through the trash: an abominable snowman.
A Christmas Tree that loses its star sets out on a mission to find it.
and more!
My Pinterest board filled with gift ideas for writers and readers! It’s not too late to get the writer in your life what they really want this holiday season.
This site has a really cool infographic about mythical creatures from around the world. Seriously, it’s worth checking out!
Titles are important. Here are some things to think about when naming your book!
…more, more, more!
Looking for more prompts and inspiration? Check out previous Writer Wednesdays!
Quotes, prompts, inspiration, and more to help writers get back to writing. As always, let me know what you think! If you’re brave enough to post your writing in regards to a prompt, let me know –I would love to check it out! ❤ Kyle
Quotes
“So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it.” -Harold Acton
“When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. But if you have not a pen, I suppose you must scratch any way you can.” -Samuel Lover
“I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.” -James Michene
Prompts
Is that a threat?
They thought he was dead. Boy were they wrong.
What if?
Oh to be young again
and more!
The prompts above didn’t tickle your fancy? Try this site where they give you a word (just one!) and you have to start writing right away. Best of luck!
Notice certain words that tend to appear over and over again in your writing? This is the site to help you. Have a similar problem, but with actual phrases? Check this out.
Find a cliché and toss it out, all day long you’ll feel good about…going to this website
…more, more, more!
Looking for more prompts and inspiration? Check out previous Writer Wednesdays!
Quotes, prompts, inspiration, and more to help writers get back to writing. As always, let me know what you think! If you’re brave enough to post your writing in regards to a prompt, let me know –I would love to check it out ❤ Kyle
Quotes
“A story needs rhythm. Read it aloud to yourself. If it doesn’t spin a bit of magic, it’s missing something.” -Esther Freud
“Go on thinking that you don’t need to be read and you’ll find that it may become quite true.” -Dylan Thomas
“The real joy of writing comes from surprising oneself.” -Alfred Kazin
Prompts
“I can go if we’ll be back by 10:30.”
She could not get the smell of glue off of her fingers.
This morning was different from the rest, and not just because he decided to eat breakfast for a change.
There are three things I wish to tell you:
I have my doubts.
Tell the story of your Thanksgiving…from the perspective of the turkey
Quotes, prompts, inspiration, and more to help writers get back to writing. As always, let me know what you think! If you’re brave enough to post your writing in regards to a prompt, let me know –I would love to check it out! ❤ Kyle
Quotes
“A lie is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth.” -Gabriel García Márquez
“All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are.” -Pablo Neruda
“I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.”-Toni Morrison
Prompts
Your character is getting ready to move to the moon
Your character is suddenly 20 feet tall. How did this happen? What is life like for them now?
Borrow from a friend! Got a favorite character from someone else’s book? You can either go the route of fan fiction or just borrow a trait or two that you see them use and give it a whirl.
When dinosaurs roamed the earth…oh wait, they still do!
Note from Kyle: For graduate school, one of my assignments was to write a piece that takes place in an alternate universe. There were more notes and restrictions in regards to the prompt itself, but that is what it boiled down to: alternate universe. The idea was terrifying! I had never written a piece that took place in a world other than our own and I was unsure how to create such a world in a short amount of space. Worse yet, what if it came off as phony? Ultimately I survived and ended up with a piece I actually am quite fond of, but for those of you attempting your first “alternate universe”/”fictional world” or even if you are more experienced, this post might be of use to you. As always, practice makes pretty writing! ( I mean, is it ever “perfect”?)
Note from Kyle:A lot of writers accidentally overlook setting (myself included), and this is a mistake! Whether you are creating your own world (see link above) or placing your characters in the “real world,” you want your reader to feel as if they are really a part of that world. Tell your reader what’s around them but, more importantly, show them what’s there. Develop your setting into a world your reader will fall in love with as if it is one of your characters.
Note from Kyle:Unsure of what point of view to use to tell your story? Try writing the same part of the story from a few different perspectives and see what “feels right.” I find that this allows you practice the use of different perspectives, recognize when you might want to use one perspective over another, and, of course, get a feel for which is the right fit for your story.
Quotes, prompts, inspiration, and more to help writers get back to writing. As always, let me know what you think! If you’re brave enough to post your writing in regards to a prompt, let me know –I would love to check it out! ❤ Kyle
Quotes
“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” NORA EPHRON
“Art has an obligation to offend.” EDWARD ALBEE
“Torture yourself about your failures. And then get back to work.” TONY KUSHNER
Prompts
I have never been more frightened then when…
Describe your home town from an objective perspective.
Write a letter to your friend about something you cannot tell them face to face
Quotes, prompts, inspiration, and more to help writers get back to writing. As always, let me know what you think! If you’re brave enough to post your writing in regards to a prompt, let me know –I would love to check it out! ❤ Kyle
Quotes
“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” -Ernest Hemingway
“Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing.” -Meg Chittenden
“Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.” -Jack London
You’re outside cutting your grass when you come across a large hole in the ground. You’ve never noticed the hole before, but it looks to be some sort of tunnel to another world. You decide to peek through and see where it leads, only it leads you to a pivotal moment in your past—and it’s giving you an opportunity to change it. Write this scene.
You had that dream again. The one where the beast with the drooping hands and wicked fangs stares you down from your window. Except the windows open this time—and you’re awake! What happens next?
You wake up in—wait this isn’t your room. Confused you step to the mirror and see that you’re famous actor Robert Downey Jr. How did you get here and what do you do?
Quotes, prompts, inspiration, and more to help writers get back to writing. As always, let me know what you think! If you’re brave enough to post your writing in regards to a prompt, let me know –I would love to check it out! ❤ Kyle
Quotes
“Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.” -Sir Francis Bacon
“My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel –it is, before all, to make you see. That –and no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there according to all your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm –all you demand; and, perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.” -Joseph Conrad
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” -Joan Didion
Prompts
Pick a line of dialogue from the list below and use it to start your piece. Change punctuation as needed.
Quotes, prompts, inspiration, and more to help writers get back to writing. As always, let me know what you think! If you’re brave enough to post your writing in regards to a prompt, let me know –I would love to check it out! ❤ Kyle
Quotes
“Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it, and above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.” -Joseph Pulitzer
“Start early and work hard. A writer’s apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he’s almost ready to begin. That takes a while.” -David Eddings
“Beginning writers must appreciate the prerequisites if they hope to become writers. You pay your dues —which takes years.” -Alex Haley
Prompts
Go on a date with your character (friend date or romantic date). Where would you go? What would happen? (Pro tip: stay away from 50 Shades of Grey for this prompt!)
Pull a name from a sign (relator signs anyone?!) and write that person’s back story. Bonus points if you pick a sign with two names (back to the relator sign since a lot of realtors have partners) and write their joint back story —are they married? Just work partners? Tell us their story.