Stream of Consciousness
Reworking A Story That Was Submitted To A Challenge
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise - Take a story you have completed and go through it and intensify the conflict, magnifying the tension and shrillness at every turn, even to the point of absurdity or hyperbole. Add stress wherever possible, both between characters and within them as individuals. Exaggerate the obstacles they face. Be extreme. The Objective - To create an awareness of the need for a high level of tension while encouraging a healthy regard for how easily it can become excessive. This exercise is not meant to "improve" the story, although it often provokes new and more dynamic descriptions and dialogue. It raises the writer's consciousness about the need for conflict in fiction.
By Denise E Lindquist2 months ago in Writers
Lost Between Mirrors and Time
Here Luccian Layth is reflecting on what the self may be re-refracted in its mirror, between trial and betrayal, between inner death and inner light, the existential question takes place towards eternity, nothingness, and the Creator. It is a poetic excursion, between suspicion and definite affirmation, between obscurity and radiance, in which the way itself is the creature and the creature is the way.
By LUCCIAN LAYTH2 months ago in Writers
The Voice Refined Through Another Medium
For centuries, words have been the vessels of human thought, the means by which understanding passes from one heart to another. From quills and typewriters to keyboards and screens, the tools have changed, but the mind behind the message has not. Now, in the age of artificial intelligence, some claim that words refined through its assistance cannot be fully human. They say that if an essay or reflection has been shaped, polished, or expanded by an AI tool, then its authenticity is somehow diminished. Yet that belief mistakes process for purpose. The truth of writing does not depend on how the words are arranged, but on who the words come from.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast2 months ago in Writers
Here Comes Judge!
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise - Look in your files for a story that seems stuck, a story that has a story block. Next, write at the top of a separate sheet of paper the two words. What If. Now write five ways of continuing the story, not ending the story, but continuing the story to up your thinking about the events in the story. Your what if's can be as diverse as your imagination can make them. More than likely, and this has proved true through years of teaching and writing, one of the what if's will feel right, organic to your story and that is the direction in which you should go. Sometimes you will have to do several groups of what if's per story, but that's okay as long as they keep you moving forward. The Objective - To illustrate that most story beginnings and situations have within them the seeds of the middle and end. You just have to allow your imagination enough range to discover what works.
By Denise E Lindquist2 months ago in Writers
Saint Nobody
One night while I was in graduate school at the College of Charleston, I was hanging out with some friends from home who had also relocated to Charleston. We were at Brad and Alicia’s on James Island. Alicia and I took Geology together in undergrad, and I used to work at the jazz club next door to Brad’s bar. Fio and I had daughters around the same age, and they had attended a church day school together as toddlers. I had known her husband, Patrick for quite some time, and I hated her ex-husband, Todd, almost as much as she did, for different reasons.
By Harper Lewis2 months ago in Writers
What happened to Feminism?: The Invention of the Action Heroine in film
From Spectacle to Story Action women in cinema are not a new concept. They have been an important fixture since the beginnings of Japanese film, from the early “cinema of attractions” to more modern narrative cinema. But to understand the complex relationship between women and their roles on screen, it helps to start with film history itself.
By Sruti Tekumalla2 months ago in Writers
No name story..
I would say my name, but it’s unnecessary. I’ve written poems, short stories, my feelings and it’s something that’s never left my notebook. What can you do when your mind races from the moment you awaken until darkness quiets the world? Does your mental health take a toll on you like it does with me? I lie there wondering what I’m doing to cause the problems everyone seems to see come from me. Do they think like I do? I guess not, huh? Is me wondering what I’m doing wrong mean I have some good left in me? No matter how many times I bottle up my thoughts and feelings, nothing that strong can be held without a consequence. Im not sure I understand the purpose behind being so judgmental. Aren’t we family? Aren’t we all from the same origin? We all come from common grounds and to hear that one doesn’t see or doesn't help another is killing the foundation of where this all started. How can we build and grow— even maintain a life that is now considered “sustainable” if we don’t come together. One must understand another, to grow itself.
By Mariah Ciera3 months ago in Writers
