Stream of Consciousness
The Wife And The Girlfriend
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise — A man is having an affair with his secretary. He goes to bed with her in a motel room. When he wakes up in the morning, he’s in the same motel room, but the woman next to him is his wife. Two pages of dialogue. A few lines of action. We can assume the description is already in place. The Objective — A writer needs to be able to imagine an improbable scene and bring it to life. This is a separate issue from making up a story.
By Denise E Lindquist2 months ago in Writers
5 Small Habits That Improved My Creativity This Month
How do I even begin this… The key is to start from somewhere, right? I can say that I took a little, actually more than a little, break from this site. Contributing factors owed to how buzz-filled life became, and that's when I really had to pave more time for my writing. Slacking off isn't a wonderful experience, I tell you — and not only in writing, in literally all aspects of your life.
By Gift Abotsi 2 months ago in Writers
A World That Was Never Meant for Me
In a perfect world, my story would have never needed to exist. My mother would have grown up in a home where tenderness wasn’t rare. She wouldn’t have learned to turn herself invisible just to stay safe. She wouldn’t have confused silence with peace or obedience with love. She wouldn’t have fallen for the first man who made her feel noticed, even if the attention came wrapped in warning signs she had never been taught to read.
By Salman Writes2 months ago in Writers
Dropping Out Of College
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise - You're a senior in college writing home to tell your parent(s) that you're dropping out of school for your last semester; you can't promise that you will ever go back. You want them to understand, if not exactly approve of, your reason(s) for leaving. Make these as specific as you can - and as persuasive. The second half of the exercise is to write the answer, either from one or both of the parents. Limit: 550 words The Objective - To get inside the head of another person, someone you have invented, and assume her voice to vary your narrative conveyance.
By Denise E Lindquist2 months ago in Writers
Do You Remember Ann Landers?
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise — Collect Ann Landers columns, gossip columns, and stories from Weekly World News or True Confessions that seem to you to form — either partially or wholly — the basis for a story. Often, these newspaper accounts will be the “end” of the story, and you will have to fill in the events leading up to the more dramatic event that made the news that day. Or perhaps the story leads you to ask what is going to happen to that person now. Clip and save four or five items. Outline a story based on one of them, indicating where the story begins, who the main characters are, what the general tone (that is, the emotional timbre of the work) will be, and from whose point of view you elect to tell the story. These articles can be used for shorter or focused exercises. For example, describe the car of the person in the article, or the contents of his wallet. Or have the person from the article write three letters. The Objective — The objective is threefold. One is to look for an article that triggers your imagination and to understand how, when you dramatize the events, the story then becomes your story. The second is to increase the beginning writer’s awareness of the stories all around us. And third, to practice deciding how and where to enter a story and where to leave off.
By Denise E Lindquist2 months ago in Writers
Someone Is Walking Around In My House
The water hit my shoulders like a warm blanket, washing away the stress of a long, lonely evening. I was home alone—something I had never minded before. The house was quiet, calm, and perfectly still. The kind of stillness that lets your mind relax… until it doesn’t.
By Alexander Mind2 months ago in Writers
Revisiting My Old Writings
As you might have noticed if you read my most recent post, “The Museum of Freedom”, I have been looking through some of my old writings today as I have been trying to find inspiration for new writing. (So far, it has not worked, but I have been having fun—and a little bit of cringing—reading what I used to write.) And, of course, I wanted to share some of those writings with you, my readers, because—well, why not? I would love to see some of the earlier works by my favorite writers, just to see how their voices developed over the years and how their views might have evolved. Why not give my readers the same chance?
By Stephanie Hoogstad2 months ago in Writers
Someone Is Walking Around In My House. Top Story - November 2025.
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise — You're taking a shower in your house or apartment. You are not expecting anyone, and the front door is locked (the bathroom door is not). You hear a strange noise in a rooom beyond the bathroom. Now, take it from there for no more than two pages. This can be in either the third or the first person. Don't spend any time getting into the shower; you're there when the action begins. The Objective - To tell a convincing story centered on speculation and terror.
By Denise E Lindquist2 months ago in Writers
