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Challenge #460
Apr. 16th, 2025 06:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivverGo find a back-of-the-book blurb of a published novel that you haven't read yourself (if you can't find one, just go look at any book listing on Amazon), then spend ten minutes writing as if you wrote the book yourself.
Note: It doesn't have to be the beginning of the novel. It could be a scene in the middle, where anything is happening. This is meant to be just, take someone else's book blurb and see what you can make of it.
Note: It doesn't have to be the beginning of the novel. It could be a scene in the middle, where anything is happening. This is meant to be just, take someone else's book blurb and see what you can make of it.
Challenge #458
Apr. 9th, 2025 09:59 pmshivverWrite a couple of paragraphs about a character getting surprised. That might make you think about a happy surprise, like a surprise party or an unexpected gift, but it could also be something more neutral or even bad, like skiving off from work and walking around a corner right into your boss, or finding a mouse in your house, or bandits jumping out in an ambush.
Challenge #457
Apr. 4th, 2025 09:24 pmshivverWord prompt today:
post
What do you think of that? Blog posts? Fence posts? Snail mail? Something afterwards?
post
What do you think of that? Blog posts? Fence posts? Snail mail? Something afterwards?
Challenge #455
Mar. 29th, 2025 07:42 amshivverWelcome to the two new writers who contributed this week! It is lovely to have you here! :)
Today, let's do a bit of conflict, in the traditional sense of the word, and possibly the literary sense. Write a bit about two or more characters disagreeing over something. It could be as minor as interpreting the instructions of a recipe, or as major as two diplomats arguing over a proposed treaty which, if not settled, may be a prelude to war.
Today, let's do a bit of conflict, in the traditional sense of the word, and possibly the literary sense. Write a bit about two or more characters disagreeing over something. It could be as minor as interpreting the instructions of a recipe, or as major as two diplomats arguing over a proposed treaty which, if not settled, may be a prelude to war.
Challenge #453
Mar. 24th, 2025 04:30 pmshivverAll right, ten minutes, right? Write something based on the number 10. It could be a countdown (well, part of a countdown; it'd be hard to write a whole countdown scene in ten minutes), or ten items, or the tenth year of a monarch's reign, or ten toes. Whatever you want!
Challenge #451
Mar. 18th, 2025 04:00 pmshivverI missed again, didn't I? I've been digging into closets and stuff, and discovering things from way back in the past. So, that's the challenge today: Have a character discover things they'd forgotten about for years or even decades, and have them talk about it - the things themselves or how it makes them feel. It could be a physical object, or it could be a memory that they haven't thought about in a long time.
Challenge #447
Mar. 5th, 2025 09:14 amshivverHmm, it took me three tries to type the word "Challenge" correctly. Maybe I really need this mug of tea more than I thought.
Anyway.
The word of the day today is "subtlety"! Let's practice being subtle.
Write a couple paragraphs of either a conversation between two characters or of a character thinking or remembering to themself, in which they're talking/thinking about something that happened in a previous episode or earlier in the movie/book/series/etc. However, the point is to make it natural and not spell out every single detail, because people don't speak/think that way, and because your reader is presumably another fan and already knows the details. (Also, giving too many extraneous details can appear to the reader as the writer trying to show off their knowledge.)
As an example, let's say you're writing a character introspection with Martha thinking about the Doctor and comparing him to what he'd been like in "Human Nature". You might be tempted to write:
----
She'd served as his maid when he'd turned himself human and became a schoolteacher at Farringham School for Boys in 1913, and wow, that had been a change!
----
People don't think like that. Martha doesn't need to voice these details to herself -- she already knows them -- and since the reader has seen the episode, they don't need the details either, and talking about maids and schoolteachers detracts from the main point, which is that the Doctor was human.
So be subtle and natural.
----
At one point in their travels, he'd turned himself human, and she'd had nearly three months to get to know a completely different version of him.
----
Or, if you're writing her direct thoughts, you might even go:
----
He'd been completely different as a human.
----
Anyway.
The word of the day today is "subtlety"! Let's practice being subtle.
Write a couple paragraphs of either a conversation between two characters or of a character thinking or remembering to themself, in which they're talking/thinking about something that happened in a previous episode or earlier in the movie/book/series/etc. However, the point is to make it natural and not spell out every single detail, because people don't speak/think that way, and because your reader is presumably another fan and already knows the details. (Also, giving too many extraneous details can appear to the reader as the writer trying to show off their knowledge.)
As an example, let's say you're writing a character introspection with Martha thinking about the Doctor and comparing him to what he'd been like in "Human Nature". You might be tempted to write:
----
She'd served as his maid when he'd turned himself human and became a schoolteacher at Farringham School for Boys in 1913, and wow, that had been a change!
----
People don't think like that. Martha doesn't need to voice these details to herself -- she already knows them -- and since the reader has seen the episode, they don't need the details either, and talking about maids and schoolteachers detracts from the main point, which is that the Doctor was human.
So be subtle and natural.
----
At one point in their travels, he'd turned himself human, and she'd had nearly three months to get to know a completely different version of him.
----
Or, if you're writing her direct thoughts, you might even go:
----
He'd been completely different as a human.
----
Challenge #444
Feb. 20th, 2025 08:07 amshivverToday's challenge is to write a couple of paragraphs about two (or more) characters in a public place, in which at least one of them is trying to communicate something to the other without letting anyone who might be listening in know what they're saying.
This could be as simple as trying to mask the name of a person they want to share some gossip about or as complex as two international spies having a clandestine meeting. The speaker may be natural about it or may be fumbling as they try to decide what to say. The only thing is that the reader needs to know, through either the dialogue or the prose, that they're trying to mask what they're saying (though you don't have to tell the reader what the truth is that they're trying to mask).
This could be as simple as trying to mask the name of a person they want to share some gossip about or as complex as two international spies having a clandestine meeting. The speaker may be natural about it or may be fumbling as they try to decide what to say. The only thing is that the reader needs to know, through either the dialogue or the prose, that they're trying to mask what they're saying (though you don't have to tell the reader what the truth is that they're trying to mask).
Challenge #441
Feb. 12th, 2025 02:20 pmshivverWrite a couple of paragraphs of your characters traveling, using a different mode of transportation than they usually do. If they usually drive a car, maybe they're walking or taking the bus. If they're birds and usually fly, maybe they're riding on the back of an alligator. If they usually travel by TARDIS, maybe they're skiing.
Challenge #439
Feb. 7th, 2025 07:29 amshivverToday's challenge: Choose two (or more) characters and write a couple of paragraphs about them playing a game or a sport. There are a tons of options here... a video game, Monopoly, football (however you want to interpret that word), bowling, chess, or, depending on your world, something alien or fantasy.
The only caveat: they are playing against each other.
The only caveat: they are playing against each other.
Challenge #436
Jan. 29th, 2025 09:03 amshivverDo you know how you can see an outfit on a person you like and think that it's bright and cheerful, or it brings out the color of their eyes, but when you see the same outfit on a person you don't like, you think it's garish and outlandish, or it's really unflattering? Let's harness that in your writing.
For your ten minutes today, write a couple paragraphs about a person visiting the house of someone they don't like, and without referring to their own feelings about them, describe the house. For example, if they'd liked the person, you might write,
"She sat down in the well-loved armchair."
But since they don't like the person, you might write,
"She sat down in the worn, battered armchair."
Don't include any direct thoughts from the POV character. The reader should be able to figure out how they feel about the owner of the house from the descriptions.
For your ten minutes today, write a couple paragraphs about a person visiting the house of someone they don't like, and without referring to their own feelings about them, describe the house. For example, if they'd liked the person, you might write,
"She sat down in the well-loved armchair."
But since they don't like the person, you might write,
"She sat down in the worn, battered armchair."
Don't include any direct thoughts from the POV character. The reader should be able to figure out how they feel about the owner of the house from the descriptions.
Challenge #434
Jan. 22nd, 2025 12:59 pmshivverWrite a scene where one person is watching another person and making comments about what they're seeing. The target person cannot hear the comments being made.
You can interpret this in a variety of ways. Maybe the person is watching a TV show. Maybe they're a security guard watching someone on a CCTV camera. Maybe they're the ops person on an infiltration mission, who's tasked to monitor the belt cams each of the team members are wearing. Maybe the person is a crowd watching a speech and making cracks about it.
You can interpret this in a variety of ways. Maybe the person is watching a TV show. Maybe they're a security guard watching someone on a CCTV camera. Maybe they're the ops person on an infiltration mission, who's tasked to monitor the belt cams each of the team members are wearing. Maybe the person is a crowd watching a speech and making cracks about it.
Challenge #432
Jan. 15th, 2025 09:20 pmshivverToday's challenge: novelize! Choose a movie or TV episode and write a couple of paragraphs of its novelization. However, choose an action scene and describe the action. No dialogue, no backstory, no character thoughts. Just describe what's happening on screen.
Challenge #430
Jan. 11th, 2025 07:35 amshivverToday's challenge:
Choose two or more characters that you know the history and personalities of. Write a scene in which they find a book and concentrate on having each of them react in character to the discovery.
The book can be any kind of book - a modern gooey romance paperback, an ancient tome of science or magic, a medieval book of hours, a spaceship maintenance manual. That's up to your imagination. Similarly, the circumstances could be anything - they're in a library, they're deep in a cave and find a box with the book in it, they're searching through a drawer in a home, etc.
The important point is to consider the object and the setting, as well as the people, and figure out how they would react and if there's anything in their backstories that would make them react in an unusual way (or try to conceal how they feel).
Choose two or more characters that you know the history and personalities of. Write a scene in which they find a book and concentrate on having each of them react in character to the discovery.
The book can be any kind of book - a modern gooey romance paperback, an ancient tome of science or magic, a medieval book of hours, a spaceship maintenance manual. That's up to your imagination. Similarly, the circumstances could be anything - they're in a library, they're deep in a cave and find a box with the book in it, they're searching through a drawer in a home, etc.
The important point is to consider the object and the setting, as well as the people, and figure out how they would react and if there's anything in their backstories that would make them react in an unusual way (or try to conceal how they feel).
Challenge #428
Jan. 6th, 2025 08:29 pmshivverDescription practice!
Write a paragraph or two of description, conveying something to the reader. It doesn't need to be visual - it could be the sounds of the scene, or the feeling of the object, for example. You might be describing what's going on, or you might be describing a setting or something or someone's that's completely still.
Don't introduce the thing you're describing, like starting with saying, "Bob walked into the room" and then proceeding to describe the room. Just the describe the thing well enough that the reader can picture/hear/feel it without being told what it is.
Write a paragraph or two of description, conveying something to the reader. It doesn't need to be visual - it could be the sounds of the scene, or the feeling of the object, for example. You might be describing what's going on, or you might be describing a setting or something or someone's that's completely still.
Don't introduce the thing you're describing, like starting with saying, "Bob walked into the room" and then proceeding to describe the room. Just the describe the thing well enough that the reader can picture/hear/feel it without being told what it is.
Challenge #426
Dec. 30th, 2024 07:01 pmshivverHey there! I guess we kind of took an impromptu holiday. But we're back! Today's challenge is a word challenge:
"Back"
Lots of different ways to interpret that: returning somewhere, the body part, the reverse side of an object, and those are just the nouns. It could be a verb, such as moving backwards or supporting someone, or even an adjective, such as the back garden.
"Back"
Lots of different ways to interpret that: returning somewhere, the body part, the reverse side of an object, and those are just the nouns. It could be a verb, such as moving backwards or supporting someone, or even an adjective, such as the back garden.
Challenge #424
Dec. 21st, 2024 12:51 amshivverDescription challenge today! Your characters are viewing something - a famous painting or statue, a building, a TV show or movie, etc... basically something that's relatively recognizable. Write a paragraph or two about them viewing it and include some description of the thing so that your reader may be able to identify what it is. However, do not name it or state non-descriptive facts about it that could not be known from simply seeing the thing.
For example, if it's the Statue of Liberty, don't say that it's located in the harbor of New York City or that it was given to the U.S. by France. You could say, "The statue of a robed woman holding a torch aloft towered over the harbor."
For example, if it's the Statue of Liberty, don't say that it's located in the harbor of New York City or that it was given to the U.S. by France. You could say, "The statue of a robed woman holding a torch aloft towered over the harbor."
Challenge #422
Dec. 17th, 2024 08:54 amshivverPeople in stories aren't always happy and friendly. Sometimes they fight or argue, and that might even turn out to be the point of the story - that disagreement and its resolution.
For today's challenge, write a couple of paragraphs about two people fighting - physically, verbally, even psychically; doesn't matter as long as they are in contention with each other. You can't do much in a few paragraphs, but make sure what they're fighting about is obvious (so, don't just have them punching each other or trading unrelated sarcastic comments). You don't need to state either side's arguments or resolve the conflict.
For today's challenge, write a couple of paragraphs about two people fighting - physically, verbally, even psychically; doesn't matter as long as they are in contention with each other. You can't do much in a few paragraphs, but make sure what they're fighting about is obvious (so, don't just have them punching each other or trading unrelated sarcastic comments). You don't need to state either side's arguments or resolve the conflict.
