The Leap
(What If? Exercise: Read the description here.)
He had been dreaming of this day his entire life.
The day when he could finally see the world.
The time had come to leave the nest.
He stood tall and spread his wings.
Then he leapt from the branch.
The long fall was daunting.
But his spirit prevailed.
The sky called.
He flew.
This piece is based on What If? Exercise 93: “Ten to One”. The exercise is to write a 55-word story in which the first sentence has ten words, the second has nine, etc., until the last sentence has only one word. The objective is to show that precision and thrift in writing can produce surprisingly powerful results. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!
10 Inspirational Writing Quotes for NaNoWriMo
It’s the first week of National Novel Writing Month, and you know what that means: time to finally sit down and write that novel! Of course, this is much easier said than done, but hammering out 50,000 words in 30 days, daunting as it may seem, is certainly possible. Sometimes all you need to get started on reaching that goal is a bit of motivation.
So to help start you off on your NaNoWriMo journey, here are 10 tips on writing in the form of inspirational quotes from famous authors. Enjoy, and best of luck in this year’s NaNoWriMo!
1) Be ruthless about protecting writing days, i.e. do not cave in to endless requests to have “essential” and “long overdue” meetings on those days. – J.K. Rowling
2) If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. – Stephen King
3) This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done. It’s that easy, and that hard. – Neil Gaiman
4) No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. – Robert Frost
5) The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes. – Agatha Christie
6) Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. – Mark Twain
7) Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. – Anton Chekhov
8) There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. – Ernest Hemingway
9) You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. – Ray Bradbury
10) If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. – Toni Morrison
What are your thoughts on these inspirational writing quotes? Any other favorites you would add to this list?
Word of the Week: Superfluous
Word: superfluous
Pronunciation: soo-PƏR-flə-wəs
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: unnecessary, especially through being more than enough
Source: Oxford Dictionaries
Today’s Word of the Week is a good one to know for unsatisfactory writing. Often when a writer goes overboard with the descriptions in their fiction, it detracts from the action of their story. In this case, an editor or reviewer could say the detail in the story is “superfluous”, as it has crossed a limit into being unnecessarily wordy. Writers beware: detailed descriptions are fine, but you never want them to be excessively elaborate!
To be “superfluous” is to be excessive and thus unnecessary. The word arose in late Middle English and comes from the Latin adjective superfluus, meaning “in excess”. This adjective comprises the preposition super “over” and the verb fluere “to flow”.
With its roots in the Latin words for “over” and “flow”, it’s no wonder the adjective “superfluous” easily brings to mind the image of water overflowing. While it doesn’t necessarily have to apply to liquid, this image does make it easier to memorize the word’s definition of excess. Whether you’re describing too many objects or too many ideas, “superfluous” is a good word to keep in mind for anything that’s more than necessary. Have fun writing about the “superfluous” things in your stories; just take care not to use “superfluous” detail in your narrative! Good luck!
What are your thoughts on this word? Any suggestions for future “Word of the Week” featured words?
One Spooky Night
How frightfully fun it is to venture out on
All Hallows’ Eve, a night filled with
Pumpkins, monsters, tricks and treats.
Prepare for the terrifying night when
Your greatest fears come to life!
Haunted houses echo with screams long
After the harvest moon illuminates the sky.
Light the jack-o-lanterns on your lawn and
Listen to the sounds filling the air for this
One spooky night of the year.
Witches, vampires, werewolves, and ghosts,
Every child dons a costume and spends the
Eve playing games and collecting sweets. Let your
Nightmares roam free, and have a Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween! May you all have a frightfully fun-filled weekend!
What If? Writing Prompts: Horror III
Halloween is just around the corner, so why not stock up on some new “What If?” Writing Prompts for the occasion? This week features another set of horror-themed prompts. See what scary stories you can create from these ideas! Have fun!
What if… you woke up in someone else’s body?
What if… your neighbors became zombies and started coming after you?
What if… you discovered a monster living in your basement?
What if… the ghost stories you and your childhood friends used to tell… turned out to be true?
What if… you discovered a carnivorous plant… that ate people?
Good luck writing some more horror stories!
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!
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