by Naomi L. | August 19, 2016 | Flash Fiction, J.C. Wolfe's Writing |
(What If? Exercise: Read the description here.)
I see the way you’re staring, and I know you’re wondering what it’s like to be me, but it’s not so easy to sum up a day in my life, this wonderful life of luxury and tranquility, a life where I get to sleep through most of the day and no one bats an eye, where I wake up at the crack of dawn and sing my heart out for half an hour before I run outside to greet the day, where I spend the early morning chasing birds and butterflies and lizards around until I get tired and collapse on the sunlit porch for hours, where I’m constantly waited on by adoring subjects who will pet me and scratch behind my ears when I rub myself against their legs and who know to rub my belly exactly three times when I lie on my back because four is when I attack, where all I have to do is cry to make someone open the door for me and even wait the whole five minutes until I’m finally ready to come inside, where there’s never a shortage of giant oddly shaped scratching posts and high surfaces and objects to knock over, where I always get to curl up in a warm lap or a soft bed when it gets cold at night, and where I get all the food and comfort and unconditional love I could possibly want, a life so perfect that I could hardly sum it up in a day… except that I just did, and I can tell you it’s the best life in the world.
This story is based on What If? Exercise 90: “The Journey of the Long Sentence”. The exercise is to write a short short story that’s only one sentence long. The objective is to understand how we can shape our writing in a similar manner that our minds function, building a linear order for observations that often consist of many overlapping aspects. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!
Back to the story
by Naomi L. | August 17, 2016 | Blog, Creative Writing, What If? Writing Prompts |
As I enter the incredibly hectic final stretch of a major chapter in my life, I leave you all this week with some more “What If?” Writing Prompts to help tide over my creative writing posts. Someone recently expressed interest in the last set of love and peace prompts that I shared, saying they were good positive stimuli in such a negative world, so in the face of the media’s constant storm of bad news, please enjoy another batch of feel-good prompts for your writing. What positive stories can you spin from these ideas? Have fun!
What if… in the future, war became a subject exclusively of fiction and history books?
What if… technology were only ever used to help people, never to hurt them?
What if… all nations united in an effort to end world hunger?
What if… political leaders succeeded in abolishing poverty?
What if… everyone in the world had access to affordable, high-quality education?
Good luck creating more tales about love and peace!
If you have any “What If?” writing prompt suggestions (for any theme), please feel free to share them in the comments below. Ideas I like may be featured in future “What If?” posts, with full credit and a link to your blog (if you have one)! Also, if you’ve written a piece based on an idea you’ve found here, be sure to link back to the respective “What If?” post. I would love to see what you’ve done with the prompt! Thank you!
by Naomi L. | August 15, 2016 | Blog, Word of the Week |
Word: prestidigitation
Pronunciation: pre-stə-di-jə-TAY-shən
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: magic tricks performed as entertainment
Source: Oxford Dictionaries
I know what you’re probably thinking: I gave you quite the tongue-twister for today’s Word of the Week. Though it does seem more like a spelling bee challenge than an actual practical term, I admit that I love this word just for how ridiculously purple it sounds. I happen to love stage magic (who doesn’t, right?), and yet I still had to look this word up when I first read it, because for all the times I’ve heard about “magic tricks” and “sleight of hand”, I have yet to hear anyone call this field of entertainment “prestidigitation”!
“Prestidigitation” is a formal term for magic as a form of entertainment, especially performed with the hands. The word arose in the mid 19th century and is originally a French noun, also meaning “conjuring tricks” or “sleight of hand”. This noun stems from the French adjective preste “nimble” coupled with the Latin noun digitus “finger”.
Although it certainly sounds interesting, I assume the word “prestidigitation” would most commonly be used today in an ironic sense (or as an advanced word in the aforementioned spelling bees). In fact, the last time I even came across this word was a few years ago in the title of an episode of The Big Bang Theory, notably the same episode from which I learned the word “axiomatic“. Still, nothing should stop you from using it seriously if it fits the context of your writing. If you want to take it a step further, you can also use the noun “prestidigitator” in place of “magician”, and if you need a tip to help you remember these words’ connection with magic, just associate them with the exclamation “Presto!” If you ever write characters who are magicians, you can certainly have fun detailing the “prestidigitation” in your stories!
Bonus: for those of you who’d prefer a visual example of “prestidigitation”, please enjoy this adorable and hilarious short film by Pixar!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB1Pukr0nFQ
What are your thoughts on this word? Any suggestions for future “Word of the Week” featured words?
by Naomi L. | August 12, 2016 | J.C. Wolfe's Writing, Poetry |
Over the city of Rio, there’s excitement in the air!
Let the games begin!
Years of training have led to this one
Month of fierce competitions and amazing victories, when
People all around the world gather to enjoy this
International commemoration of sportsmanship.
Celebrate the world’s athletic diversity at the
Summer Olympic Games of 2016!
by Naomi L. | August 10, 2016 | Blog, Creative Writing |
Fellow writers, let me ask you an important question: do you know how to use “affect” and “effect”? Now let me ask you another question: do you really know how to use “affect” and “effect”? If you hesitated at the second question, maybe it’s time to double check that particular area of your grammar knowledge. Luckily, Grammarly has you covered with their Affect vs. Effect quiz!
Confusing “affect” and “effect” is a common writing mistake; I’ve even briefly mentioned it before in my “25 words and phrases” post. To help clear some doubts about when to use which word, the folks at Grammarly have put together a blog post on the differences between “affect” and “effect”, complete with a quiz to test your knowledge! Why not give it a try right now? You may find you weren’t quite as affect-effect savvy as you thought! Good luck!
(Note: this quiz requires Javascript to work. If you can’t see it below, try following this link instead.)
So how did you do? Feel free to share your results in the comments, and be sure to check out Grammarly’s Affect vs. Effect post, especially if you didn’t score as well as you’d hoped on this quiz! Thanks for playing, and best of luck with your writing!
Today’s creative writing post is brought to you by Grammarly, the World’s Best Grammar Checker. For more information on Grammarly, visit https://www.grammarly.com/spell-check. Thanks for reading! Happy writing!
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