Tag Archives: writing prompt

Yay! It’s my favorite Day of the Week! It’s Write a Story with Me day! Part Five

Posted on July 31, 2012 | 51 comments

Write a Story with Me! Is going full-throttle.

Are we having fun yet! The answer is “Yes!”

So… What’s happened so far?

Part 1: Twelve year old Marci picked a leaf off a hallowed tree.

Part 2: She runs home and sees her pregnant mother and little sister Lauren greeting her father’s flying ship, one of the Planetary Raiders from a long voyage. Marci gives the leaf to Janelle, a tiny person who emerges from a hole in the floor.

Part 3: Bethany (and older sister) is introduced. She is the villain of our story, and very jealous of her sister Marci. She sneaks back home from greeting her father, and eavesdrops on Marci. She discovers the illegal fairy, and prepares to use the information against her sister.

Part 4: Bethany is carted off by fairies. A big scary beetle-fairy tells Janelle she has to come back to the nest with him. (He’s Janelle’s brother. Janelle wants to start a new fairy nest, but her brother (Janosc) does not want her to do it, because a fairy queen is like an ant queen. Janelle says they need to start a new nest because their world is in danger.

Part 5: The next installment comes from the wonderful Miss Eileen Snyder. No need to click a link this week. We are posting right here! Take it away Eileen!

Jodi looked up from the book she read and began to rub her eyes hard to a watery end. The street bench had grown rigid and hard and she shifted her weight and stretched her entire body with an audible yawn. She plucked her eyeglasses from the crown of her head and with a minor adjustment they fit her face again. She didn’t need them for reading; in fact she didn’t need them at all.

Unexpectantly, a wistful March wind tunneled the entire length of Carlisle Street. Jodi turned toward the breeze to feel it touch her skin, it was refreshing. She caught sight of the unbridled ivy leaves fluttering against the brick of antique row homes that lined the narrow easement, not much wider than an alleyway and paved in blue cobblestones, the window boxes were decorated with cold weather pansies, bright yellow and purple. Their beauty was evident but their genus was no match for the encroaching ivy that clung steadfast to the masonry bricks of Colonial Philadelphia.

She thought of her favorite book on Greek mythology, when the Sirens of Circe flapped their leaf like wings to intimidate Odysseus and his shipmates. What lie in a hardy leaf, what purpose a leaf if it bears no flower? Does it not nourish the bud? Yet, its shiny veneer was a fitting contrast to the flat, red brick. Perhaps, a leaf does have powers!

Now It’s time to scoot on over to the Nederland’s with Mysocalleddutchlife’s Mikaela Wire for the next installment. Mikaela gets to figure out who the heck this girl is, and what Colonial Philadelphia has to do with flying ships, and fairies. Well, I guess it all has to tie in to that leaf from installment #1. Ummm… Okay, Mikaela… better you then me.

Tag Mikaela! You are “It”.

Here are the previous installments:

Part One – Jennifer M Eaton

Part Two – Jenny Keller Ford

Part Three – Susan Roebuck

Part Four by — Elin Gregory

Stop by next Tuesday to see what happens next!

Happy National Fairy Day (autumnsunshineandgabrielleangel.wordpress.com)
making a fairy garden (tutorial) (alittlecraftynest.typepad.com)
Investigating Fairies (destinydelivered.wordpress.com)
Fairy Rings (withglitterinherveins.wordpress.com)
Innocent Darkness: Fairy Mythology (novelnovice.com)
Fairy Tales (awriterisborn.wordpress.com)

51 Comments

Posted in Flash Fiction, Write a story with me

Tagged art, Fairy, Flash Fiction, Folklore, group writing, Literature, Mikaela, Odysseus, Tinker Bell, Tooth Fairy, write a sroty with me, writing exercizes, writing for fun, writing prompt, writing team

Write A Story with me! Installment #4

Posted on July 24, 2012 | 9 comments

Write a Story with Me! Is off and running.

If you missed out on all the hoopla last week, there is a list of links below so you can catch up. This week Elin Gregory really mixes it up with some unexpected elements, and a brand new plot line.

Now It’s Eileen’s turn to figure out how to build on that last line, twirling us back to that sneaky leaf element.

Tag Eileen! You are “It”.

Hope over here to Elin Gregory to see the latest, or catch up with the story from the posts below.

Here are the previous installments:

Part One – Jennifer M Eaton

Part Two – Jenny Keller Ford

Part Three – Susan Roebuck

Part Four by — Elin Gregory

Stop by next Tuesday to see what happens next!

9 Comments

Posted in Write a story with me

Tagged fiction writing, Flash Fiction, group flash, group writing, write a story with me, writing group, writing prompt, writing with others

Writing to a Deadline Part 3: “I got something… now what?”

Posted on March 12, 2012 | 13 comments

“I got something… Now what?”

If you’re just hopping into the insanity that is my writing life, check out Parts #1 and #2 or this won’t make sense.

So, I have a main character. I know who she is. I’ve written two pages. She meets a little girl and a dog.

I stop myself.

Learn from your mistakes, Jennifer. You need more than this. You only have two months to write and polish this story for submission. There is no room for error. You need an outline. You need absolute direction and form. No room for straying.

Was I stuck? No. Two drives alone in the car gave me four more characters. I have their wants, needs, and desires set in my mind. I know how they will react when meeting my main character. I know what is going to happen. I know how it will end. It wasn’t on paper, but I had an outline.

I went back and looked at the first two pages. Wow. They were beautifully written. Probably the cleanest first draft I’ve ever done.

Too bad they didn’t work anymore.

I took a few key descriptive sentences I liked, and set the rest aside to start over.

In the back of my mind I knew everyone else was three weeks ahead of me. But I knew where I was going now. I had focus.

I knew how the story started. I knew all five character’s motivations. I knew the plot, and I knew the ending. In fact, I could picture it. The publisher gave it to me— it was that odd picture that I could not find a story in three weeks ago. Funny how that happens, huh?

So, I knew where I was going… Now, I just needed to bring my characters there.