Category: Writing Tips

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! <3 Kyle

Quotes

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.” -Saul Bellow

“Write your first draft with your heart. Re-write with your head.” –Finding Forrester (movie)

“Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?” -Friedrich Nietzsche

Prompts

{{Have prompts you would like to see featured on a Writer Wednesday? Submit them here.}}

Each of the lists below have a person, place, and thing. Pick a list and get writing!

1). Teacher, pool, and shoe polish

2). Stay at home dad, office building, a feather boa

3). Zookeeper, shooting range, and a potato salad

4). Nurse, grocery store, and a rusty spoon

5). Farmer, mall, and a splinter

and more!

Michael Connelly’s advice for young writers (video)

Writing lessons from Downton Abbey (because who doesn’t love Downton Abbey?!)

10 things to help your writing career before you are published

…more, more, more!

Have something to share? This is your chance to promote yourself, your blog, or even just a helpful site you came across. Submissions go here (and let’s hope they are writing related.)

Looking for more prompts and inspiration? Check out previous Writer Wednesdays!

Spread the love! Like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. Maybe Tumblr is more your speed? Let’s join forces on Pinterest as well!

Write on!

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! <3 Kyle

Quotes

“Writing fiction is not “self-expression” or “therapy.” Novels are for readers, and writing them means the crafty, patient, selfless construction of effects. I think of my novels as being something like fairground rides: my job is to strap the reader into their car at the start of chapter one, then trundle and whiz them through scenes and surprises, on a carefully planned route, and at a finely engineered pace.” -Sarah Waters

“Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all the tricks and has nothing to say.” -Raymond Chandler

“Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.” -Sir Francis Bacon

Prompts

{{Have prompts you would like to see featured on a Writer Wednesday? Submit them here.}}

[[ These exercises are from Imaginative Writing The Elements of Craft 3rd ed. By Janet Burroway (a textbook I had from one of my fiction writing classes during undergrad).  ]]

Write, quickly, a couple of pages about something banal that you’ve done in the past few days. Then replace at least fifteen nouns with other nouns that are in some way extreme, or inappropriate to the subject at hand. Any usable ideas in there?

Begin with the largest general category you can think of –minerals, food, structures –think big. Then narrow the category step by step, becoming more specific until you have a single detailed image. Try it again with the same large category but narrow in another direction. Can you, without naming a quality, make your image suggest an idea or direct our attitude towards the thing you describe?

Choose three characters from your story-in-progress and put them in a scene where they must decide on a name for something (a pet, a brochure, a dessert, a building…) Write the dialogue and their actions, in play form if you like, because this scene will probably not find its way into your story, but it will help you identify their attitudes and feelings toward each other.

and more!

Strengthen your novel with these 30 one-minute tips

Learn about Amanda Hocking and her success as an indie author

In search of a writing group? Find one now!

…more, more, more!

Have something to share? This is your chance to promote yourself, your blog, or even just a helpful site you came across. Submissions go here (and let’s hope they are writing related.)

Looking for more prompts and inspiration? Check out previous Writer Wednesdays!

Spread the love! Like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. Maybe Tumblr is more your speed? Let’s join forces on Pinterest as well!

Write on!

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! <3 Kyle

Quotes

“A prose writer gets tired of writing prose, and wants to be a poet. So he begins every line with a capital letter, and keeps on writing prose.” –Samuel McChord Crothers

“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 Michener

“Writing is my time machine, takes me to the precise time and place I belong.” –Jeb Dickerson

Prompts

{{Have prompts you would like to see featured on a Writer Wednesday? Submit them here.}}

This weeks prompts from http://www.writersdigest.com/prompts

You wake up shackled to a chair and can’t remember how you got there. Two voices are talking. You recognize one of them.

You wake up one day with an unusual super power that seems pretty worthless—until you are caught in a situation that requires that specific “talent.”

Your closest friend has asked you to give a speech at his/her wedding.

You’ve been waiting in a line for days to get concert tickets to your favorite band’s upcoming show. You’re keeping track of your experience in a journal. What does it say?

Write about a price negotiation for a car from the perspective of the car.

and more!

Writing for Comics

One-sentence stories for you reading or submitting pleasure

Handwriting Rediscovered

Is it time to take that writing-cation? Check out these hotels that are sure to get your creative juices flowing.

…more, more, more!

Have something to share? This is your chance to promote yourself, your blog, or even just a helpful site you came across. Submissions go here (and let’s hope they are writing related.)

Looking for more prompts and inspiration? Check out previous Writer Wednesdays!

Spread the love! Like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. Maybe Tumblr is more your speed? Let’s join forces on Pinterest as well!

Write on!

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! <3 Kyle

Quotes

“There is no satisfactory explanation of style, no infallible guide to good writing, no assurance that a person who thinks clearly will be able to write clearly, no key that unlocks the door, no inflexible rules by which the young writer may steer his course. He will often find himself steering by the stars that are disturbingly in motion.” -E. B. White

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” -John Steinbeck

“To a chemist, nothing on earth is unclean. A writer must be as objective as a chemist; he must abandon the subjective line; he must know that the dungheaps play a very respectful part in landscape, and that evil passions are as inherent in life as good ones.” -Anton Chekhov

Prompts

{{Have prompts you would like to see featured on a Writer Wednesday? Submit them here.}}

Prompts courtesy of http://www.writersdigest.com/prompts  (where you can find countless prompts if you need more inspiration)

You’re a pirate on a small pirate ship, that consists of only you, one other pirate and a captain. Recently you ransacked another ship and found a treasure map. After weeks of following it, you’ve finally found the island where “X” marks the spot. Write a scene where you find the buried treasure, only it’s not exactly the treasure you expected to find.

You’re walking to grab lunch when you see a crowd gathered around a building. You look up and see that someone is standing on the ledge, looking to jump. You hear a police office close to you mention that the person is about to commit suicide. He also mentions the person’s name: and it’s someone you know! Write a scene where you attempt to stop the jumper from jumping.

You head into the bathroom at work, walk into a stall and close the door. Moments later, as you leave the stall, you notice two people standing there and there’s one major problem: They are of the opposite sex. On the spot, you make up an excuse as to why you are in their bathroom.

and more!

How Creative Flow is Like Sex

That vs. Which: do you know which to use?

While not directly related to writing, sleep makes us better all around (especially with your mind working so hard)

…more, more, more!

Looking for more prompts and inspiration? Check out previous Writer Wednesdays! http://kylefreelander.wordpress.com/category/writer-wednesday/

Spread the love! Like me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kylefreelanderwriter and follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/Kylefreelander

Tumblr more your speed? Check out my new Tumblr page at http://kylefreelander.tumblr.com/

Write on!

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! <3 Kyle

Quotes

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” -Stephen King

“A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.” -W. Somerset Maugham

“It is plagiarism when you take something out of a book and use it as your own. If you take it out of several books then it is research.” -Ralph Foss

Prompts

{{Have prompts you would like to see featured on a Writer Wednesday? Submit them here.}}

A story happened here. Tell it.

and more!

How to begin writing a story (if you are stuck)

Tips for creating a compelling plot

How to write a great villain (video)

36 (plus 1) Dramatic situations (“Georges Polti says that all stories boil down to just 36 dramatic situations and takeoffs of those situations. Somebody else out there added #37.“)

…more, more, more!

Have something to share? This is your chance to promote yourself, your blog, or even just a helpful site you came across. Submissions go here (and let’s hope they are writing related.)

Looking for more prompts and inspiration? Check out previous Writer Wednesdays!

Spread the love! Like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. Maybe Tumblr is more your speed? Let’s join forces on Pinterest as well!

Write on!

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! <3 Kyle

Quotes

“An autobiography can distort…but fiction never lies. It reveals the writer totally.” -V.S. Naipaul

“A writer is someone who finishes.” -Thomas Farber

“A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.” -Isaac B. Singer

Prompts

He’d never noticed a door there before.

She’d have to hitch a ride home.

The garden was overgrown now.

This time her boss had gone too far.

A story about the werewolf/vampire crossbreed.

and more!

10 Creative Block Breakers

How the Senses Make Stories Seem Real

Let’s all write killer short stories with help from this article

30 indispensable tips from famous authors

…more, more, more!

Have something to share? This is your chance to promote yourself, your blog, or even just a helpful site you came across. Submissions go here (and let’s hope they are writing related.)

Looking for more prompts and inspiration? Check out previous Writer Wednesdays!

Spread the love! Like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. Maybe Tumblr is more your speed? Let’s join forces on Pinterest as well!

Write on!

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! <3 Kyle

Quotes

“When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.” -Enrique Jardiel Poncela

“A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.” -G.K. Chesterton

“When you are describing,
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don’t state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at all things,
With a sort of mental squint.”
-Lewis Carroll

“I asked Ring Lardner the other day how he writes his short stories, and he said he wrote a few widely separated words or phrases on a piece of paper and then went back and filled in the spaces.” -Harold Ross

Prompts

It looks like another predictable day at work/school for your character when, all of a sudden–

Why you like Wednesdays.

You’re not sure which shocked you more: the talking dog or the person who thinks they are a dog.

It is halfway through the evening when you realize that one of your guests brought a severed limb as their dish to the potluck.  You don’t know who did it or whose limb it is.

more!

Victorian Era Names (a useful page if your writing something during this time period)

Retell your favorite story with one of these eight sentences (as theorized by Kurt Vonnegut)

How to write with style (again, with help from Vonnegut)

A little less relevant to writing, but definitely a fun thing to know! How to write in Elvish

…more, more, more!

Have something to share? This is your chance to promote yourself, your blog, or even just a helpful site you came across. Submissions go here (and let’s hope they are writing related.)

Looking for more prompts and inspiration? Check out previous Writer Wednesdays!

Spread the love! Like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. Maybe Tumblr is more your speed? Let’s join forces on Pinterest as well!

Write on!