tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87150621967499545282011-06-01T07:00:18.174-07:00New creative writing prompts and exercises every week day designed to inspire creativity and refine your writing skills.Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-11966605340679808992011-06-01T07:00:00.000-07:002011-06-01T07:00:18.179-07:002011-06-01T07:00:18.179-07:00

There are many modes in which stories are told through, most common being a narrator telling you what you are supposed to know.  However, there are others which can be just as effective as a narrator, and sometimes more effective depending on you subject matter. One of these modes, and perhaps the 2nd most popular following a narration driven story, is the epistolary story, or a story written

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-49828189798276393662011-05-31T07:06:00.000-07:002011-05-31T11:46:18.757-07:002011-05-31T11:46:18.757-07:00

Author David Shields once told me something along the lines of "plot is irrelevant."  He believes that plot is old news, and those who use plot are behind the times.  He's also not a big fan of fiction, which shows as his older books tend to be novels containing plots while his newer works have evolved into memoir and fact driven collages of short scenes , or fragments, which only vaguely relate

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-63300122273280586982011-05-30T12:16:00.000-07:002011-05-31T11:46:35.528-07:002011-05-31T11:46:35.528-07:00

This week we are going to be focused on story structure.  Sounds fun, right!  It can be if you take a little effort to break away from the norm and get creative a little.  Remember this is creative writing, not follow a formula writing. What I mean by this is the importance the English language has put on plot over the centuries has been diluted into formulas.  Ask any creative writing class

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-34399784596044980202011-05-28T07:00:00.000-07:002011-05-31T11:47:11.564-07:002011-05-31T11:47:11.564-07:00

They are the stars of your performance, they are the channel through which your readers feel and connect to your work, and because of this, proper execution of character writing is extremely important.  The following creative writing prompts are all designed to help improve you character writing ability.  Be sure to check out the recommended reading as well, these are all top tier examples of

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-23507083408826035492011-05-27T07:25:00.000-07:002011-05-31T11:47:29.299-07:002011-05-31T11:47:29.299-07:00

Writing character development is hugely important, especially in longer works such as novels or even long short stories.  However, when we talk about writing character development, what do we mean exactly?  Does the character have to learn something ala South Park ("You know what, I learned something today..."), is that even sufficient?  Does the character simply have to move from point A to

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-3087344879868077272011-05-26T07:55:00.000-07:002011-05-26T07:55:00.230-07:002011-05-26T07:55:00.230-07:00

There are a few qualities in particular that make a character feel believable, and one of the major ones is character motivations.  What drives your characters to do the things they do?  These motivations can be large or small, grand or minute, but they must be there. However, just because a character has a motivation to do something in particular, that doesn't mean you have to spell it out for

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-46402023065751448182011-05-25T09:18:00.000-07:002011-05-31T11:47:46.409-07:002011-05-31T11:47:46.409-07:00

What was Kurt Vonnegut best at?  He could make you laugh at the darkest of situations, including events such as the Dresden fire bombing (which he lived through) and more.  But he also made you fall in love with his characters in a very peculiar way. Vonnegut said in his 8 Basics of Creative Writing, "Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. [...] Be a sadist. No matter how

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-48381416442366890792011-05-24T16:49:00.000-07:002011-05-24T16:49:35.050-07:002011-05-24T16:49:35.050-07:00

Her at Creative Writing Prompts we focus on one thing, challenging yourself to become a better writer, and we generally do this through writing prompts and exercises.  However, we don't tend to branch out much beyond that.  Well I recently discovered a great site called Writers Circle when they linked here because they were impressed with our prompts (and weren't put off by the misspelling in our

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-64608368952583188812011-05-24T09:25:00.000-07:002011-05-31T11:48:01.070-07:002011-05-31T11:48:01.070-07:00

One comment frequently made in writing workshops is along the lines of "I like the action, but I want to know what the character is thinking."  This is often a tough area for writers, because our internal monologue is constantly running.  What do we show?  What do we filter out?  Should a characters thought be limited to one sentence or should it be a sprawling Shakespearian monologue?  Should

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-71579041103278882142011-05-23T10:55:00.000-07:002011-05-31T11:48:13.008-07:002011-05-31T11:48:13.008-07:00

As you may have grasped from last weeks extra credit, creating compelling, believable characters is tough.  To do so, you must walk a tight rope, giving the character you design the traits you want while striving to make sure he or she does not come across as one dimensional. First, what makes a one dimensional character?  Let's put it this way, Paragons and Villains often come across as one

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-22680127680589625462011-05-22T15:45:00.000-07:002011-05-31T11:48:29.016-07:002011-05-31T11:48:29.016-07:00

The art of crafting sentences may feel very basic, and for the basic writer it is.  But within each sentence resides a realm of possibilities, some unique to a particular writer, some still yet to be explored.  When one talks about style, it is the sentence structure and word choice which first comes to mind.  The following creative writing prompts all focus on sentences, and will help to hone

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-41228782476469575122011-05-19T23:40:00.000-07:002011-05-31T11:48:40.531-07:002011-05-31T11:48:40.531-07:00

Last day for the week of the sentence!  The form of a spoken sentence differs greatly from the form of a written one.  But how do we represent that through our writing, after all, spoken language transcribed is full of "um"s, "er"s, and other idiosyncrasies, that to read it is often boring or distracting. As writers, we have to tightrope around a line when it comes to dialog.  How real do we

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-39371414032551227502011-05-19T10:04:00.000-07:002011-05-31T11:48:50.524-07:002011-05-31T11:48:50.524-07:00

The week of the sentence continued!  One skill all great writers have is the ability to craft incredibly long sentences.  They don't need to utilize this at all times, but the ability to do so is another great tool in the writers arsenal.  Long sentences can create a stream of consciousness  feel, it can build tension, or be used as a device to bring two seemingly unrelated topics together.

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-29824004177867338172011-05-18T09:03:00.000-07:002011-05-18T09:03:09.185-07:002011-05-18T09:03:09.185-07:00

This week we are going to focus on the meat and bones of writing, the art of crafting engaging sentences.  For some, sentences are everything, they revel in the joy of word play, they dance with their structure, all in an attempt to make every work you read feel exciting. Others however, are more inclined to focus on the broad strokes of writing, things like plot and ideas, characters and

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715062196749954528.post-56557633775207639892011-05-17T23:07:00.000-07:002011-05-31T11:49:05.616-07:002011-05-31T11:49:05.616-07:00

Crafting an effective, eye catching opening sentence is an invaluable skill in the arsenal of any writer.  Opening sentences can hook your reader or turn him away.  Beyond this, an opening sentence has the ability to bring attention to major themes, characters or setting.  Remember, this is the starting point in the eyes of the reader and if done well, the opening sentence has the potential to be

Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569684959284660148codybarrus@gmail.com0