The Friday Seeds are Planted!

1.    A faint rustling noise came from behind the……

2.    It would be all over soon Jody thought as she looked at ……

3.    Greg spied on his parents through the leaf-heavy branches ……

;For newcomers to Wake Up Writing the
Friday Seeds are here to provide a starting point for a piece of fiction.
Start your page with any of the above seeds and continue the story where your
muse takes it.  With a little creativity these can become anything from a
short short story to a full-blown novel.  Have fun.

Today’s exercise for fiction writers is on writing dialogue.

Scene:

Your character has bought a pair of shoes
at a large department store.  When she/he gets them home and takes them out
of the box, she/he notices that one of them is a slightly marked.  As
she/he paid full price for the shoes this is obviously not acceptable and so
she/he returns them to the store.

Exercise:

Write the dialogue your character has with
the store employee.  Will your character demand a refund, or a
discount?  With he/she stand her ground, or will she accept whatever flimsy
explanation the store employee gives about store policy and checking goods
before you leave the store?  Does your character know the law enough to
insist, or is he/she too timid to fight for his/her rights?  How well do
you know your character?  Think about your character and then place
yourself in the role of the store employee and have your character tell you what
to write for their response.

How do you sleep? Are you someone who needs a full 8-10 hours of beauty sleep per night, or do you function quite well on less? Do you fall asleep immediately your head hits the pillow, or are you still mentally hitting yourself on the head for still being awake 4 hours later? Once asleep are you woken by the slightest noise or could an earthquake occur and you not know about it? Do you need a cover over you, or are you perfectly comfortable without one if the room is warm enough? Where are your feet - under the cover or on top? Do you have a favorite sleep position or are you all over the bed. Would you admit to snoring? Today start your page with the words, "Sleeping for me is ….." and go on from there.

Word-A-Weave Challenge

Can you use the following 10 words in a single piece of
writing?  If you find this too easy, how about taking a more difficult
challenge and either a) use them all in a short poem of less than 12 lines, or
b) use them in a single paragraph of under 250 words!

This week’s words are:

Splendid
Maternal
Collateral
Brisk
Mustard
Hollow
Chocolate
Barnyard
Treason
Zealous

Good luck!

In our everyday life, most of us face challenges of some description. Perhaps a physical challenge, or perhaps an emotional one. Many people face a financial challenge every month when they sit down to pay their monthly bills. What challenges are in your life? Write a list, then choose one of them and write about it explaining the efforts you make to overcome this challenge so that it doesn’t affect your life more than is necessary.

Here come this week’s idea seeds

1. The balloon lifted off the ground, quickly leaving……

2. Isabella tapped her foot impatiently against……

3. "I’m sorry but you MUST have it by tomorrow" the politely disinterested voice told her, "or ……

Thursdays for Fiction Writers

Description is a great tool for writers. Readers can’t see into your imagination unless you can describe things to them in great detail, as if describing something to someone who is blind. Today describe your character’s bedroom. Is your character tidy, or messy? What colours, fabrics, furniture have they chosen? Does their bedroom show anything about the kind of person they are? What kind of activities do they love to do in their bedroom - is it also an office, or a refuge for example? Do they make their bed every morning? What does your character think about their bedroom? Take a blind reader on a virtual tour of your character’s bedroom so that they can visualize it in their mind.

Thinking about shopping today!

Are you an organized shopper? Do you go to the store armed with a list of everything you intend to buy, and then purchase only those items? Or are you an impulse shopper who arrives at the store with no fixed idea of what you want, and so throw things that look appealing into your basket as you see them? Do you buy groceries on a daily basis, or do you shop a week or month in advance? Write an account of your usual grocery shopping habits.

Tuesday is Challenge Day at Wake Up Writing: This week we have a haiku challenge.

Haiku is one of the Japanese forms of poetry. In its basic form, It’s based on the amount of syllables in each of the 3 lines of the poem as follows:

line 1: 5 syllables
line 2: 7 syllables
line 3: 5 syllables

Today your challenge is to write a haiku based on a summer theme - whether it’s the picnics you enjoy at the beach, the vacation you take from work/school, the annoying way sun affects your eyes, or the activities you love to do during the summer months, try and write them down in a haiku, and then if you’re a subscriber, why not share your haiku with me and see if you are chosen to be the first "featured" exercise of the week writer at our newly constructed site.

Starting the week with an easy one!

What were you doing as midnight struck to welcome in the New Millennium? Write down the events you can remember as if it were a page in your diary/journal.