Denise E Lindquist
Bio
I am married with 7 children, 28 grands, and 13 great-grandchildren. I am a culture consultant part-time. I write A Poem a Day in February for 8 years now. I wrote 4 - 50,000 word stories in NaNoWriMo. I write on Vocal/Medium daily.
Achievements (1)
Stories (1205)
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Restating Fiction Paragraphs
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise — Red the following passages to see how the writers convey information while shaping our attitudes and emotions. In Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises an obscure character is killed by a bull being taken to the bullring in a Spanish town. The first brief sentences deliver the objective facts almost as coolly as a newspaper obit. The final two sentences are longer and have a more complex structure (why?), and the string of ten short prepositional phrases that ends the passage not only mimics the rhythm of the train wheels but creates a poetic, lulling, hypnotic effect, suggestive of a chant. The Objective - To shape sentences to do your bidding. Sentences aren't just snowshoes to get you from the beginning to the end of your story. They are powerful tools with which to carve a story that wasn't there until you decided to create it.
By Denise E Lindquistabout 5 hours ago in Writers
The Colors Of The Five Senses
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise — Using five different-colored highlighters, mark a text with a different color for each sense impression, e.g., blue for visual, red for auditory, green for taste, etc. Synaesthesia would, of course, be indicated by more than one color. Writers vary greatly in terms of the dominance of one sense or another. The goal, though, is to find passages using all five senses — then to write such passages. The Objective — To heighten awareness of the need for a full repertoire of sense evocations in good writing. Ideally, you should call forth all five senses as well as synaesthesia. The writer thereby evokes from the reader a full range of responses.
By Denise E Lindquist2 days ago in Poets
Tarot For 2026
Three Blue Roses Tarot - My summary of 2025 - Queen of Air: You are a wordsmith, a clear communicator, and 2025 helped you shed any falsehoods in your life. You accepted the truth, no matter what it was, and you set and kept healthy boundaries for yourself.
By Denise E Lindquist3 days ago in Motivation
Bringing Abstractions To Life
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise — Make several of the following abstractions come to life by rendering them in concrete specific details or images. racism, injustice, ambition, growing old, salvation, poverty, growing up, sexual deceit, wealth, evil The Objective - To learn to think, always, in concrete terms. To realize that the concrete is more persuasive than any high-flown rhetoric full of fancy words and abstractions.
By Denise E Lindquist4 days ago in Writers
It's Winter . Top Story - January 2026.
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise —Write a scene involving two characters. Have the point-of-view character presume something entirely different about the situation from what the other character's overt behavior seems to imply. For example, a landlord comes to visit, and the tenant suspects that it isn't a visit but an inspection. Make up several situations in which one character can fantasize or project or suspect or even fear what another character is thinking. The Objective - To show how your characters can use their imaginations to interpret the behavior and dialogue of other characters.
By Denise E Lindquist6 days ago in Writers
Making A Short Story Less Long
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise — Here are the events that might make a long short story. Write a scenario in which you indicate + Where you would place a full scene or incidental scene. + Where you would use summaries, either narrative summaries or summarized scenes and indirect discourse. The Objective - To learn to identify which parts of a story should be presented in a scene and which parts of a story should be summarized. To develop an understanding of pace.
By Denise E Lindquist8 days ago in Writers
Language Differences
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise — Examine a scene you are having trouble with, one that (1) demands action, although not necessarily physical action, and (2) provides a turning point in your story. If you don’t yet have such a scene in your story, try writing one. Make it at least three pages long, although five pages will give you a greater chance to develop the personal dynamics and show how the balance of power can keep changing. Tish, discovering that Mort has cheated her in a business deal, confronts him with evidence that would stand up in court, forcing him to return funds he has stolen. Alycia, a charming jewel thief, is caught in the act by her intended victim — an attractive diamond merchant — and seduces him, ensuring both his silence and the gift of a handsomely insured necklace. The Objective — To show that by the time the scene is over the position of dominance has changed while the characters remain consistent and credible throughout.
By Denise E Lindquist10 days ago in Writers
Atrial Fibrillation
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise — Choose a story that doesn't seem to be working and cut it apart into the separate components of scenes and narrative passages. Lay these story pieces out on a large table and just take in what is in front of you. How many scenes do you have? Are there any "missing" scenes? What would happen if you began with the beginning of the ending scene and use it to frame the story? The Objective - To see an early draft of a story as something that isn't etched in stone. Not only are the words and lines capable of being revised, but the story structure itself is often still fluid enough to rearrange and analyze for the questions listed above.
By Denise E Lindquist11 days ago in Longevity
