I first pulled this one out of my big coffee mug:

“Write a scene comprised only of dialogue between two characters. Use dialogue tags as sparingly as possible. Make each character as unique as possible by the words they choose.”

I decided that, while this would make an exciting format for a prompt, I wanted something a little more to go on, so I drew another slip.

“There are rewards to confronting fear. Explore the consequences of submitting to them. Write a scene where one character learns something about himself or herself by how a second character who is close to him or her deals with something that terrifies the first character.”


“Dude, you gotta get back in the game. Friends and family are starting to talk”. ( Read more... )

JOHANNES CABAL, THE NECROMANCER by Jonathan L Howard

This book continues to be surprising, and the writing is continually fresh. I'm not going to give away particulars at this point, because I don't want to ruin a single surprise. However, go get this book; it's fun and worth the price of admission.

THE FIRE IN FICTION by Donald Maass

This is super agent, Donald Maass's newest book on fiction. My dad got it for me today. I've been reading the introduction while waiting for my Project Pipeline class to get going.

In the intro, Maass describes two types of novelists, Status Seekers and Storytellers. He describes how each of them approaches a career in publishing, from beginning to mid-carer. In reading this, I have realized some things about myself and gotten clues to why I may have been having problems keeping myself on task with writing. I'm looking forward to this book even more than I was when I picked up his other book, WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL. It feels like this book is speaking directly to the conflict within me. Hopefully, it will help me come to terms with internal and external stresses on my writing.

JOHANNES CABAL, THE NECROMANCER by Jonathan L Howard

http://www.amazon.com/Johannes-Cabal-Necromancer-Jonathan-Howard/dp/0385528086
(no, I'm not getting kickback for the link)

I started this novel last night. I discovered this first novel by Mr. Howard with my friend Clint on a whimsical trip to Barnes and Noble. I read the first interchange of dialogue between the main character ( Read more... )

“Write two pages with two characters in conflict and then cut 50% of the writing—overwrought explication and dialogue, passive verbs, etc—without cutting out the meat of the story. Then compare the before and after versions.”

THE LONG VERSION
“Whiskey,” he said, spitting a glob of chew at a stray cat in the Gutter, “will change your life.”
( Read more... )

It all started with Jonny and Boy Scout. God, has it really been forty years? It’s hard to tell with all the memories I’ve given up, and all the ones I’ve taken from others. But I’ve never let myself give up the memories of Jonny. He’s the reason I got into the memory trade.

Mom inherited Jonny the same way she inherited the dogs and cats. He was wandering the streets like the other strays. When I first met him he was scruffy, a little dirty, and had that look in his eyes that came with not having eaten in several days. I promised I wouldn’t fall in love with him, just like I did with all the other strays. But I loved all of them anyway, only not in the same way I loved Jonny. Loving Jonny was like an addiction. I knew it was bad for me, but I couldn’t stop. At least not until I caught Jonny – naked – in between my mom and younger sister, who were also naked. My last meal threatened to come up as I fled the house.

I wandered around for a long time and finally decided that I was going to kill Jonny. I was young, and my passions got the best of me, so I went looking for a gun.

I went to the Tombs. That’s a place where I had heard that you could get anything for the right price. I wanted a gun. “Go to the Boy Scout,” I heard more than a couple of times. “He’s always prepared.” So I go to Boy Scout and he looked strung out as hell. He asked me what I wanted a gun for. I told him it’s none of his business. “No story, no gun. That’s the rule.” I figured that no one would believe this stung out junky if it ever got to court, so I told him who and why. “I used to know Jonny. For him I’ll make you special deal for a special gun. Fifty bucks and the memory of your first kiss.” That seemed like a weird thing, and I didn’t believe him, so agreed and handed him fifty dollars. Now I can’t recall the details of about five minutes after Derek Myers walked me home from the homecoming dance.

That was the first time I’d lost a memory in trade, but it wasn’t the last time. In time, that habit got more addicting than Jonny.

"Write a scene in first person with two characters in conflict. Then, still in first person, write about that scene from the point of view of that same character from 5, 20, or 40 years later."

Mom inherited Jonny the same way she inherited the dogs and cats. He was wandering the streets like the other strays. When I first met him he was scruffy, a little dirty, and had that look in his eyes that came with not having eaten in three days. I promised I wouldn’t fall in love with him, just like I do with all the other strays. But I love all of them anyway, only not in the same way I love Jonny. ( Read more... )

"Write a scene where one character's motivation is to suppress the motivation of another character. This must be something the first character believes is in the best interest of the second character. Then have the second character realize what's going on an confront the first character."

Eris stood amongst the ruined bodies. He counted seven. Even at his best, which had passed away decades ago, he would have been sore pressed to have defeated six - a feat he hand never accomplished. Five was his personal best, ( Read more... )

"Choose a distinctive setting, or at least a setting that is distinctive to for a specific character. That setting must also be an important place for the character. Have the setting change in some major way. Write about how this change affects the character."

The airport shuttle service drove off as Jack opened the gate. Taking in the yard, Jack shook with a chill that had nothing to do with the biting winter wind. No wonder Mom and Dad had been suffering financially. ( Read more... )

A while back, my boss took the entire staff of the dance studio to this big motivation seminar. It was pretty cool. I got to see Colin Powell, Michael Phelps, and Rudy Giuliani among others in person. I took copious notes and thought about how to apply them to managing the staff at the studio and about my writing. One thing that struck me though, is when Zig Zigler spoke, he mentioned that he reads every day, but he doesn't read novels. He doesn't like novels because he's only interested in the Truth. (The capitalization is my own supposition due to context.) I'm going to go out on a limb, though not too far, and imagine that Mr Zigler was actually referring to fiction in general. I know that Mr. Zigler will never read this page, but I must speak out about this in some sort of public forum, and Livejournal is the best I've got right now.
( Read more... )

Write a scene where a character experiences extremely minute twists in reality; nothing so grandiose as a Dali painting, but enough to throw the characters' world a little bit off kilter.

The limp was more pronounced than it would have normally been, even on a day as cold as this. Steam came in ragged gasps as Jack trudged across the frost covered high-prairie, a bucket of feet in his left hand and his shotgun cradled under his right arm. ( Read more... )

My dad knows a guy who works in a rare bookstore. Last Friday he ordered me a first edition of A GAME OF THRONES by George RR Martin. How cool is that?

Talk about full circle.

In January of 2005, I stopped being a Dance teacher due to continued health problems resulting from an accident in January of 2004. Wow. A lot has happened in the past five years. Robin suggested that I go back to school while I was out of work. Six months later, I started at American River College in pursuit of an English Degree. I now have a Bachelor of Arts in English with a Focus in Creative Writing. What am I going to be doing with that degree? I'm going to teach dance.

http://www.dancestudio18.com

I met with the owners today. He likes me. I like him. I'm meeting with him on Friday morning to verify a schedule for me. Good times. I'm jazzed, because the pay is better than some other studios I've taught at, and it beats sitting behind a desk.

After navigating the San Francisco State University website for the umpteenth time, I finally found confirmation that I did, in fact, graduate with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English with a focus in Creative Writing. The official date of my graduation was 1/6/2006. It was a little line at the top of my unofficial transcript that I hadn't noticed before.

I had a job interview at a local high school for a tutoring position with this special class that prepares students for the rigors of college. I think I did alright. I believe I overheard someone say that there were around thirty applicants for three positions, so one of them should go to me, considering that whole degree thing and passing the CBEST. I'll find out on Monday. the best part about it will be actually using the degree I spent four years working toward.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/01/22/flying-car.html

God technology is cool.

This is a collective dream that the characters in my game are all experiencing. They have already had one similar to is, but this one goes into more details. I enjoyed writing it, so I figured I's share:

You are walking along a beach of black sand. The sky above you is a deep purple rippling with eddies of black and gray and deep blue. ( Read more... )

Just got a call back from an administrator and a local high school. (Local being the greater Sacramento area.) I am scheduled for an interview next Thursday, being the 22nd at 2:15 in the afternoon. Looks like I'll actually be able to do something with the useless degree I got besides ask people is they want foam on their lattes.

Of course, if I don't get it, I might very well drowned myself in a toilet.

Write about a character in a mundane situation and have his internal monologue drive the story while ultimately revealing interesting facets of the character’s personality.

Sam walked down the canned goods aisle, wondering why all grocery store music stations can’t seem to play anything other than love songs.( Read more... )

Job hunting sux! Someone should pay me to sit around and be clever.

I ran the first session of my new game last Sunday afternoon. Previous to the game session, I was very excite; I couldn't wait to get into my massively epic tale of modern horror. ( Read more... )