I hope you’ve been enjoying Nooks & Cranberries’ Daily Writers’ Fix posts. This week I’d like to encourage you to stretch your imagination. So, for the next seven days I’ll be posting a photo, sometimes with one of the five senses but without additional prompts. Use those photos, along with the senses if you wish, to jumpstart your creativity. It’s a great exercise in finding inspiration in the world around you, and who knows–you might just create the beginning of a masterpiece!
Daily Writers’ Fix: Grab Bag
Place your character in a new city, somewhere she’s never been before. She just arrived. What does she look forward to most, and what does she dread? How does the way she approaches a new place color her personality?
Optional: If you like where today’s writing is going, take it one step further and use yesterday’s Daily Writers’ Fix to describe this new city.
Daily Writers’ Fix: Grab Bag
The setting of your story shouldn’t be an afterthought. Done well, a setting can almost be a character, helping to propel the story forward and add richness and depth to your plot. Today consider one of your primary settings. Describe it in detail, from its landmarks to its hidden corners, from its physical appearance to the general attitudes of its population. Now review your descriptions and see how your setting can work its way into your story in fresh, exciting ways.
Daily Writers’ Fix: Taste
What’s on your character’s breakfast table this morning–steaming hot coffee, orange juice and a muffin, or scrambled eggs with bacon and a Bloody Mary? The way we start our day can say a lot about us and how we view the world. Get to know your character today by getting into his thoughts while he goes about his morning routine.
Daily Writers’ Fix: Touch
What is your character afraid of? How does that fear physically manifest itself when she’s facing it? If she’s afraid of heights, does she grip the Ferris wheel seat for dear life until her knuckles turn white? If he’s afraid of spiders, does the sight of one send crawling feelings up his arms as if he were covered in them? What does your character fear, and what do the reactions say about him or her?
Daily Writers’ Fix: Sound
Today write about home. Write about your own home–from childhood or present–or where your character lives. Is it a quiet, peaceful place providing an escape from the busyness of daily life? Or do the sounds of the city–traffic, people, sirens–filter through the windows, filling it with urban energy?
Daily Writers’ Fix: Smell
“Rose” is a common scent descriptor, but what does a rose really smell like? Today pick an object that’s commonly used to describe a scent, then give that object its due.
Daily Writers’ Fix: Sight
What haven’t you noticed in the world around you, or in the world of your story?
Short & Sweet
One of my favorite stories is only fifty-three words long.
Bedtime Story by Jeff Whitmore:
“Careful honey, it’s loaded,” he said, re-entering the bedroom.
Her back rested against the headboard. “This for your wife?”
“No. Too chancy. I’m hiring a professional.”
“How about me?”
He smirked. “Cute. But who’d be dumb enough to hire a lady hit man?”
She wet her lips, sighting along the barrel.
“Your wife.”
This story has everything; suspense, betrayal, revenge and even murder. All in fifty-three words! Think that’s impressive?
Legend has it that novelist Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
It’s crazy to think about the power captured in a single word, and crazier still, to think how that power can be augmented simply by adding one or two more words.
In this same spirit, online publication Smith Magazine presented this challenge to its readers with a slight twist. The composition must be a memoir. The website exploded with submissions from well-known and not-so-well-known writers.
The use of tools like Twitter has raised awareness to this gem of a technique. The short (or in this case extremely short) story can be a good way to practice brevity and accuracy in your writing. To make every word count.
So with this in mind, I’d like to extend to you the Nooks & Cranberries Short & Sweet Challenge. Tell us a story, it can be a memoir, a mystery, a thriller….anything. We’ll start with a six word challenge and see where it goes. Com’on now, show us what you’ve got and make it Short & Sweet.
