Writing Prompt #19
Each week, ORW will feature a new writing prompt meant to spark your creative juices. Use it to generate new fiction, creative non-fiction or poetry, or apply the prompt to a current project. Even if you don’t create a scene that fits with your project, you may find that you’ve learned more about your story.
Dialogue should not be chit chat. Make it work hard to reveal character and to develop plot and scene. For this prompt, write a 750-word scene with two characters in conversation. You may have a brief introductory paragraph if you must, but after that, avoid all tags and description. Without using dialect as a crutch, strive to make each character’s voice unique. Let the content of the dialogue reveal tension between the characters. What happens when all you write is dialogue?
Let me know how this works for you!
Writing Prompt #18
If you like first lines for prompts (I do!), check out the next two First Line contests here.
Each week, ORW will feature a new writing prompt meant to spark your creative juices. Use it to generate new fiction, creative non-fiction or poetry, or apply the prompt to a current project. Even if you don’t create a scene that fits with your project, you may find that you’ve learned more about your story.
Write a 1,000 word scene in which one character believes a second character is about to confess love. The first character does not return the feeling. Pay special attention to the first character’s actions; let them reveal his/her feelings to the reader without coming out and telling the reader. Use 3rd person pov close to character one.
Shake it up by rewriting the scene close to the second character. How do the behaviors of the first character affect the second?
Let me know if you use the prompt and how it works for you!
Writing Prompt #17
Each week, ORW will feature a new writing prompt meant to spark your creative juices. Use it to generate new fiction, creative non-fiction or poetry, or apply the prompt to a current project. Even if you don’t create a scene that fits with your project, you may find that you’ve learned more about your story.
First lines of a scene: She wanted nothing more than to leave. Unless it was to forget everything that had just happened.
I study and practice the craft of writing for multiple audiences and purposes. Through my experience in public relations, grant writing, and academia, I have acquired the ability to create text that garners results. I hold a MA in English literature and a MFA in Creative Writing. Having taught nearly 900 students in classes ranging from business writing to creative writing, I believe in writer-centered instruction as the most effective way to empower my clients. 
