Why Do I Write?
When Asked Why I Write, I Answer: I don’t. It’s the simple truth. I don’t write screenplays and novels. I give life to them. It’s not merely putting pen to paper, I breathe life into a non-existent void. I expand...
Piecing Together Your Writing Future
When Asked Why I Write, I Answer: I don’t. It’s the simple truth. I don’t write screenplays and novels. I give life to them. It’s not merely putting pen to paper, I breathe life into a non-existent void. I expand...
As we are now in the weekend, it is time to have a little more fun and a little less learning. But… You know me by now, and there is always some type of lesson here. So let’s get into...
Ahhh Friday, the final day of work before the weekend (unless you work weekends) and a chance to unwind for a long and tedious week. Unless you’re a writer. In which case, you have a lot of work ahead of...
I don’t really like you. In fact, I am fairly confident that if I gave it a moment’s thought at all, I would hate you. There are no redeeming qualities. Always coming around asking for help. Making sure everyone around...
I can’t believe it is Wednesday already. Mid week and the next to last Wednesday in the month. A week left before we hit July and start summer vacations, celebrations and whatever extroverts do outside. But, I digress. We have...
Today’s writing prompt is going to be a little different. The hidden lesson today is to remember to have fun. Writing is a hobby or a career and either one should be entertaining, fun and even exciting. Sure, boredom and...
Today I want to cover a little part of writing that every writer, author or aspiring scribe should learn. How many actually do, though? About none of us. It is called the elevator pitch, and it is something you should...
Today’s writing prompt is a two-part lesson. In one aspect it is great practice in rewriting and “copying” from the masters. The second part is a lesson in creativity that we can all relearn from time to time. So how...
Today is the start of a good weekend. It has a lot of potential, many words can be written. Of course, that includes Father’s Day in North America and the official start of summer. What better time of year to...
This Friday we are once again looking at the end of a week, and continuing from yesterday’s prompt, the end of our stories. This prompt is something I like to do when I near the end of a long book...
Coffee at Night? Finding Out the Best Time to Write, for You When you write is almost as important as what you write. (okay, I use the term almost loosely) It may seem like a simple question to answer: When...
As we start to get near the end of this week, I am reminded of nearing the end of a story. One of the things you must do as an author is tie up all the loose ends. If you...
This week we are looking at oddities of adding to our stories. Yesterday, for example, we added sci-fi and fantasy elements to our other-genre stories. Today, I want to push things a little bit further. If you are seriously into...
Another day and we are working this week on fantasy and sci-fi aspects of all writing. If you are unaware, fantasy and science fiction elements aren’t limited to those genres. Also, unless your novel or script is primarily comprised of...
Over the last couple of weeks we have covered writing breaks and how to get back into the swing of things. We also covered a new editing technique for self-editing. This week, we will look at another continuing trend, anthropomorphization....
Another Sunday writing prompt and like yesterday, we are shooting for brevity. A quick, simple prompt designed to get you in the writing mode, ready to go and able to knock out your Sunday progress of your WiP. So, here...
A weekend writing prompt without a huge written lesson or hidden meaning? Can it be? It can. And it is. This may be the shortest DWP yet. Just have fun with it, enjoy, and then get back to your projects...
Finally Friday! Yeah, yeah, yeah! Although, to be quite fair, the actual days of the week mean little to me anymore. One of the joys of working from home is that you can make your own schedule. Currently, my schedule...
Today’s writing prompt is simple. The goal is to get you to think about your own work in a new light and by doing so, you can see any holes, shortcomings or other issues when you reread it for editing....
Good writing is all about adaption and change. Sure we all have a favorite genre or two to write in, but that will only take you so far. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not saying you need to...
Back in the swing of things, now. Yesterday’s writing prompt got us writing again after a hiatus. Let’s continue the trend then. For today’s writing prompt we are going to go old school once again. Staying in form and character...
Welcome to another exciting week here on the DWP side of the blog. Today, I want to get back to creativity a bit and return to fiction writing. For those that are interested, or missed it, last week we covered...
For the final daily writing prompt this week on copywriting, we will take a look (and practice) one more basic strategy. In case you are taking this week in reverse-chronological order, we have covered quite a bit. We started by...
Today, we will continue our week long dive into the shallow end of copywriting. In case you missed it, we covered a couple of the basic copywriting formulas (AIDA and PAS) and defined what copywriting is. For the newsletter subscribers,...
As we continue this week of copywriting introductions, let us continue with writing formulas. I want to point out one thing, and hopefully this little thing will stick in your mind a bit. Copywriting is a job, and as a...
More copywriting? More copywriting. Today’s main blog post helped define the term copywriting and is a crash course into the introduction of the craft. This week on the daily writing prompts, we have looked at ads and the AIDA approach....
Let’s start off with a base assumption. I will assume you have zero idea what copywriting is. I’ll assume you found out the term did not mean that small print explaining your rights and terms of agreement. Now, I will...
Let’s continue our progress with copywriting! If you missed the first day, we covered spotting the customer journey through an advertisement or blog post. Usually in an attempt to get them to take an action. AIDA is one of the...
One thing we haven’t done a whole lot of here on the blog, is talk about copywriting. I figured I would dedicate this week to the craft and hopefully help some of you decide if this is a career you...
Oh no! The end of the weekend! Ahhhh! One last push to get things done. One more day without the pressure of a time clock. Once again we find outrselve looking for a need to be creative. That is what...
Hooray! It is the weekend! We had a tough week here on the writing prompt side of the blog. It was a lot of personal work on your own project without much extra creativity. Let’s change that. For the weekend,...
For the end of this week, we have touched on various aspects of details and identifying weaker spots of your writng as well as properly taking story notes. Today, we will venture a little further down the pike and look...
Details, details, details. That is what we are on about today. When you hear talk about details, you probably react like most aspiring authors. You want to equate details with adjectives. This isn’t always the best course of action, though....
The middle of the week is here! It’s hump day! Did you see how observant I was just there? If that isn’t a great segue, I don’t know what is. That’s right, today’s writing prompt is all about observations. I...
In yesterday’s writing prompt we covered the best way to utilize an idea notebook. Today I want to take it a step further and show you the best methods for note taking on a current project. Instead of the idea...
As we begin our work week, it is important to understand that there are priorities in life. Surprisingly, I will tell you that unless you are writing for a living your novel or screenplay may not be the most important...
Here we are again, staring into the abyss that is Monday looming. Hopefully you spent your Saturday writing a lot of words in your WiP. Today, you have the chance to get even more done. If you feel you need...
Weekend fun-day! No, wait, that doesn’t work. Well, whatever, it’s is the weekend and it is time to have fun! Most of the week previous we have covered ways to stay busy and productive, even if we can’t work directly...
As we round out the week and look forward to tomorrow’s start of the weekend, we also round up a mini-theme week. All week long (and quite unplanned, to be honest), we covered ways to stay productive. Let’s keep that...
The weekend is almost here, folks. Hopefully you are gearing up for a long weekend of working on your projects. After the house work is done and the lawn is mowed, you can sit back, relax and write a lot...
As we close out the middle of the week and start looking forward to the weekend, our writing prompts continue. Most of the week, we have worked on getting things done. Doing work and making progress on our WiP. Today,...
In the week of getting your ass to work, I think it is going well. With the warmer days and months coming up, you are bound to go on holidays and vacations. Take day trips to the beach and enjoy...
The first official work day in May this year, and we have work to do. Your writing isn’t going to complete itself and those ideas in your head will stay there unless you do something. So, today’s writing prompt is...
As we continue the new month, we will continue with simple weekend writing prompts. No big huge hidden lesson this time, again. We will save that for tomorrow. For now, how about we have a nice cozy little Sunday warm...
Welcome to May! Since it begins on a weekend this year, we will do a bit more practice writing with the prompts. I am still pondering a new theme week, but there is much more I need to write about...
We end the month at the end of the week, it’s like a sign or something. Since May is fast approaching and this week has been one of little prompts with tiny lessons, let us continue the trend. Besides, I...
One of our own does it again, folks! Team member and winner of the coveted super best person in the universe award, Samantha Heuwagen has out done herself once again. As you may know, the Starless Series is a tale...
Hello again! It is a beautiful day here and I hope when you look out your window it is something you enjoy seeing out there, too. For me, it is all about sunshine, ocean breezes and salty air. If you...
Welcome to the middle of the week! I don’t know about the rest of you, but the last week of the month is generally very busy for me. I do a lot of client work still and it usually falls...
Writers read. It’s just a fact. Some read a lot more than others, but at some point you wanted to tell a story because you read a great one in a book somewhere. Screenwriters read scripts. Their passion came from...
As a new week dawns, so shall our new daily writing prompts. No theme this week, but if you missed it we did do a week on writer’s voice and another themed week on story ideas. This week will be...
As we wrap up the themed Ideas Week, we take one last look at arguably the hardest part of writing. That’s right. Today we will learn how to discard a bad idea. As a writer, I know how easy it...
It isn’t often that we give a whole lot of thought to our rough drafts. By the time we sit and start writing, we have so many other things on our minds that the actual draft becomes more of “just...
No idea is a unique idea. Or so they say, I am not sure. What I am sure about though, is that you can find a story similar to yours, an idea like yours or even a whole series that...
Let’s keep moving forward in our Ideas Week writing prompts. We have already started a new idea, learned if it is a good idea and figured out if that idea was good enough for a full length novel. Today we...
So far in Ideas Week, we have looked at starting with a raw idea. We have also learned how to identify, early on, if that idea is a good one. Today, we are going to take it one step further....
It is Ideas Week here on the blog and yesterday we talked about the raw idea. This is the term I use for an unedited, initial idea that you think will make a great story. Today, we will work with...
Welcome to Sunday! After the theme week we ran on writer’s voice, I decided to do it again. This week we will look at making stories. But not just any stories. This week we will find out what makes an...
Greetings, fellow humans! And hello to the rest of you. As it is the weekend, I plan to write a lot of words. Some of them for fun, some for pay and others just because. I’m not sure what you...
Heading into the weekend and I can’t tell you how excited I am about that. There will be a slew of words written and hopefully some of them by me. One thing I have noticed going on a lot lately...
And here we enter the second half of the month. I don’t know about you, but this month has been nothing but rain and yuk where I am. The “being forced inside by the weather” excuse is a great one...
Another day, another chance to write more words! Are you excited? I’m excited. Writing words is something you should love to do. Even on days when you don’t want to write, the idea of it should still excite you. As...
Today’s writing prompt is brought to you by the letters A and P and by the number 14. Of course, this isn’t Sesame Street and we aren’t going to have puppets pop up and teach you life lessons using those...
Another week dawns and we have work to do! I was going to do another theme week, but we still have people catching up on last week’s lessons on writer’s voice. So, instead we will do another small lesson and...
I will admit this one almost got by me. Almost 10 pm local time and I completely spaced the WP today. But here I am! I remembered and we are still in today, so let’s get to it. Yesterday we...
Dreams are open to interpretation. Do they have a meaning at all or is it just a random method of our brains firing off broken synapses as it slows down for the night? For writers, dreams can spark an entire...
Last week we covered the writer’s voice theme. This weekend, we will take a little break and just have some average and normal writing prompts (whatever those are). I did like the theme aspect, though. With the standard Thursday blog...
As we wrap up this week on writer’s voice, there is one last lesson I want to impart upon you. Like I am some wordsmith wielding a handcrafted steel quill, touching your shoulders as you kneel before me. Also, please...
Voice is the topic of the week, and as of today, the Thursday main blog covers the definitions, examples and understanding a little more in depth. For the writing prompt, though, we will go a different direction and practice more...
As we continue our dive into the writer’s voice week of lessons, we turn back to understanding. In today’s prompt we will work more with identification and manipulation. Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? When you can learn to identify the various...
Yesterday we set out to define and identify writer’s voice. Today we continue on with our week long lessons about voice and how to harness it’s powers to make our readers love us (or at least our books). I am...
A new week is upon us, and you and I have some things to discuss. All 7 blog posts this week will be focused around a central aspect. That means all 5 writing prompts will have a little lesson about...
It is Easter Sunday today. I have a brisket in the smoker for me and the puppers. Also, it is time to get some writing done. What? You thought I would give you the day off? Not a chance? (mom...
It is the first weekend in April. Easter, for those of you that do things like celebrate. And for the writers it is a chance to get some words done without many interruptions. To that point, and since we just...
We will conclude our naming things week with the inside of your book. Those little pause pages that everyone thinks are so important. Of course, I am talking about your chapters. Should you name your chapters? To be honest, it...
The greatest writing prompt of them all, ever. It is right here. No special lesson today. This writing prompt is so good it needs nothing else. April 01 Work on your damn book/screenplay/script and don’t worry about anything else. That’s...
The last day of the year! Oh, it’s only March? Still? Are you sure? Okay, well what ever it is, it is almost over. And today we will continue to name things. Shall we look at characters today? I think...
Almost the end of yet another month! I don’t know about you, buy March has crawled by and seemingly lasted for at least a full year or two. I am glad to see the back end of it. With that...
Good morning fellow kids! The big theme this week is about names. Your name, the book’s name, your characters names, we will cover it all. But how can we make naming things into a writing prompt? Well, you leave that...
Greetings, kids! Today’s writing prompt is more on track and should be a good one. You can always let me know what you think in the comment section, if you disagree! For March 28th, I want to cover a new...
Today is a little different. It may be the weather. Not sure. What I do know, though, is that the writing prompt today is going to be a little challenging for most of you. A challenge, you say? I do....
This week we have been all over the map. Yesterday was sad, so, so sad. Today we will once again look at another writing term that deserves some attention. This term, though isn’t about you as a writer, it is...
It’s hump day! And while I am still trying to figure out the correct connotation for that phrase, let us move on to a more writing-focused term. The term I want to cover today is emotion. And yes, we have...
Yesterday has come and gone and here we are, starring into the abyss of the next one. Have you ever felt groggy? Even after waking up, doing your morning routine, maybe going for a walk or having a second cup...
I’ve debated back and forth about what to cover as the mini hidden lessons in this week’s writing prompts. I still haven’t decided. But that’s okay. Until I do, we will just have another fun little prompt and I will...
Another end of the weekend and another chance to have some fun. And have I got a great prompt for you today. The lesson is about correlation. By definition, correlation is the apparent relationship or connection between two things. How...
If there is one thing that every single writer faces it is the blank page. We can’t help but come across it. Every new project starts the same way: a new, shiny, blank page. Sometimes, we writers sit there, staring...
In our quest for daily writing prompts for a year, we come to March 20th. This entire week we have covered point of view (in the various forms that it represents). But this weekend, we will return to a more...
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