Sharpen Your Writing Skills: Write Out Your Fears
What are you afraid of? Are these things keeping you from writing and writing well? Let’s get them written out. This is not just a Halloween post. I suspect that each and every one of us fears...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Write On An Uninspiring Topic
Do you wait for inspiration before you write? Then you’re probably not writing as much as you could. Frankly, if you wait for inspiration you may not have your writing skills warmed up and well...
View ArticleWriting Assignments: Analyze A Drink
Simple everyday things can be much more complex and interesting than we often realize. Your cup of coffee or tea can hold a world of wonders if you actually stop and examine them in detail. Because...
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Writing Assignments: Write In The Dark
At the end of our family adventure in Scotland this summer I took my wife and two girls to see one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, and his wife, Amanda Palmer. Together they performed an evening...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Spelling Exercise
While Randy is on hiatus recovering from a writing-induced ailment, some friends are taking up the slack. Today’s post is by Penny Mattern. As a writer learning your craft, it’s important for you...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Leave Me Out Of It
While Randy is on hiatus recovering from a writing-induced ailment, some friends are taking up the slack. Today’s post is by Jason Rehmus. Writing on the web is a very self-centered affair. Much of...
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Writing Assignment: Pen And Paper
While Randy is on hiatus recovering from a writing-induced ailment, some friends are taking up the slack. Today’s post is by Patrick Rhone. This writing assignment might be a real challenge for...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Write A Family Holiday Letter
This time of year I am regularly given the assignment to write our family holiday letter. It’s a much more difficult task than you might imagine. Here are my self-imposed guidelines: I use only 1 side...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Review A Bad Movie
I think that it is more challenging to write a review of a bad movie than it is to review a good one. Why? Because you have to make a case of why this thing that you watched is bad. That means that you...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Write A Response To “What Do You Do?”
Hi. I’m pleased to meet you. What do you do? That simple and ordinary social pleasantry is often a difficult question to answer. What do you do, exactly? I do a lot of things, but that’s not what this...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Redefine Something
This week I’ve been having a bit of fun redefining some of the most popular services online. It’s fun, and I think that if you do it right it’s also revealing and brings things into a clearer, if not...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Summarize Your Day
Keeping a journal is an excellent habit for writers, but it can become tedious and uninteresting if you attempt to capture everything you did in a single day. Very few writers can manage a...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Outline An Incident
I love a good mystery. I can’t tell you how many detective novels I’ve read or how many police procedurals I’ve watched on television. In a way, I believe that regardless of the fact the most of them...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Ten Minutes Ago
Stop: what were you doing ten minutes ago? Write it down now. Just stop and jot down what you were doing. It’s so easy to get distracted that even something as recent as ten minutes ago can be...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Record and Transcribe Your Own Speech
Recording and listening to your own voice can be a startling experience. We are used to hearing our own voices, but not as others hear them. You are the instrument that produces your voice and your...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Write A Clear Excuse
I’m very sorry but I’m unable to provide a writing assignment for you today. A sudden personal illness means the assignment I had planned for today is not ready. I hope that this is not terribly...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Write A List Of Lists
For some people, writing a list is like writing a contract. Once something is on the list, if it is not done then the listmaker has failed. For others, making a list is a delaying tactic. They make...
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The Writer’s Library: Load Up On History
While rearranging a bookshelf this week I noted, with some pleasure and satisfaction, that I had an entire shelf of books devoted to the study of living conditions across the various ages. Books like...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Write The Story Of A Day
A single day of life can seem completely uneventful or can have enough activity and incidents to fill a thick volume. Ask James Joyce about that. There’s more to a day of life than a series of events....
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Review A Shakespeare Play
I’ve had fun writing this week’s series, “Brush Up Your Shakespeare.” Now it’s time for you to do some writing. Writing reviews is a more difficult task than most people think. Everyone has an opinion...
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