Stream of Consciousness
Dropping Out Of College
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise - You're a senior in college writing home to tell your parent(s) that you're dropping out of school for your last semester; you can't promise that you will ever go back. You want them to understand, if not exactly approve of, your reason(s) for leaving. Make these as specific as you can - and as persuasive. The second half of the exercise is to write the answer, either from one or both of the parents. Limit: 550 words The Objective - To get inside the head of another person, someone you have invented, and assume her voice to vary your narrative conveyance.
By Denise E Lindquist3 months ago in Writers
Do You Remember Ann Landers?
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise — Collect Ann Landers columns, gossip columns, and stories from Weekly World News or True Confessions that seem to you to form — either partially or wholly — the basis for a story. Often, these newspaper accounts will be the “end” of the story, and you will have to fill in the events leading up to the more dramatic event that made the news that day. Or perhaps the story leads you to ask what is going to happen to that person now. Clip and save four or five items. Outline a story based on one of them, indicating where the story begins, who the main characters are, what the general tone (that is, the emotional timbre of the work) will be, and from whose point of view you elect to tell the story. These articles can be used for shorter or focused exercises. For example, describe the car of the person in the article, or the contents of his wallet. Or have the person from the article write three letters. The Objective — The objective is threefold. One is to look for an article that triggers your imagination and to understand how, when you dramatize the events, the story then becomes your story. The second is to increase the beginning writer’s awareness of the stories all around us. And third, to practice deciding how and where to enter a story and where to leave off.
By Denise E Lindquist3 months ago in Writers
Someone Is Walking Around In My House
The water hit my shoulders like a warm blanket, washing away the stress of a long, lonely evening. I was home alone—something I had never minded before. The house was quiet, calm, and perfectly still. The kind of stillness that lets your mind relax… until it doesn’t.
By Alexander Mind3 months ago in Writers
Revisiting My Old Writings
As you might have noticed if you read my most recent post, “The Museum of Freedom”, I have been looking through some of my old writings today as I have been trying to find inspiration for new writing. (So far, it has not worked, but I have been having fun—and a little bit of cringing—reading what I used to write.) And, of course, I wanted to share some of those writings with you, my readers, because—well, why not? I would love to see some of the earlier works by my favorite writers, just to see how their voices developed over the years and how their views might have evolved. Why not give my readers the same chance?
By Stephanie Hoogstad3 months ago in Writers
Someone Is Walking Around In My House. Top Story - November 2025.
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise — You're taking a shower in your house or apartment. You are not expecting anyone, and the front door is locked (the bathroom door is not). You hear a strange noise in a rooom beyond the bathroom. Now, take it from there for no more than two pages. This can be in either the third or the first person. Don't spend any time getting into the shower; you're there when the action begins. The Objective - To tell a convincing story centered on speculation and terror.
By Denise E Lindquist3 months ago in Writers
Today's superhero
Superpowers Wouldn't you like to have them? Have you ever thought about becoming a superhero? Just like in the movies—we get a new one almost every year. A new version, a sequel, or something completely different. I’ve talked to loved ones about this, and I think about how much I’ve learned from them. It’s all money-related. They create a superhero movie, we go watch it, it does well and then they make a sequel. That’s the pattern. Have you wondered about how everything has a pattern? There's a trend in so much around us. If a movie does well, you can bet a “Part II” is coming. Sometimes they even create new versions with new characters, which I’ve learned can be due to contract deals. That isn't the only reason, because it can be that the actor just doesn't want to be the character anymore. It can be due to other factors as well. One thing is for sure. It’s all business and money. We’re the guinea pigs in this entertainment-driven life.
By Holisticwithh23 months ago in Writers
Encouraging Speculation And Exploring Motivation
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise — Imagine you are in a line of traffic driving away from the country at nine o’clock on a Saturday morning in August. This line of traffic is much heavier than you anticipated. Who are these people and why are they leaving the beach instead of going in the opposite direction? Account for the occupants of the six cars in front of you. (For examplel the man in the Chevy is going back to town because he just found out his doughnut shop there was broken into at 3:00 a.m. He is pissed.) The Objective — To train yourself to take off from what you see and hear and create an instant story out of it. To encourage speculation and explore motivation.
By Denise E Lindquist3 months ago in Writers
My Hawks
For most of my life, I’ve envisioned two hawks perched on my shoulders. I don’t remember precisely when they appeared; certainly when I was a child navigating my tension-filled home. Much of that history is lost to blockage still, my father’s volatility and my mother’s survival skills visible to me only as peaks of experience emerging through a cloud cover, seen from a great height. I have realized recently it’s been the hawks who have kept me lifted above all those traumatic memories, and it’s only recently that I’ve begun to really make their acquaintance and honor their role in my life.
By David Muñoz3 months ago in Writers
Confidence
In every mirror, I sought a phantom, pursuing an illusion that had been escaping me for what felt like an eternity. I had mistakenly labeled this part of myself as 'dull', 'untalented', and 'delusional', yet I yearned for this missing piece to return and make me whole.
By "Ann Garza"3 months ago in Writers
I Was Robbed
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise — Here is the situation: You have just come out of the movie theater around seven in the evening, and you are mugged — a person asks for your money, then knocks you to the ground before running away. Or make up your own situation. Next, pretend you are telling the account of this event to five different people: Your mother, your best friend, your girlfriend or boyfriend (or wife or husband), a therapist, a police officer, The Objective — To become conscious of how we shape and shade the stories that we tell to each other according to the listener. Your characters also tell stories to each other and make selections about content according to who they are telling the story to, the effect they want the story to have, and the response they want to elicit from the listener. A lot of dialogue in fiction, in real life, is storytelling — and there is always the story listener who is as important in the tale as the tale itself.
By Denise E Lindquist3 months ago in Writers
