500 words one sentence...

The Rules:

- Write 500 words - no more and no less - based on and including the sentence I will set each week.
Exactly 500 words … discipline is fun, people.

- The given sentence should be included in the 500 words unless I specifically say otherwise (like the second week where it was extremely long so I gave you the option), though the title - if any - should not be counted.

- I'll set the sentence on a Friday to give you the weekend to think about it.
Stories should be posted ready for inclusion in the following Thursday's Story Post.
Latecomers will be added at the bottom of the post and you can at any time go back and write a story based on an earlier sentence should you feel inspired to do so, which will then be added to that week's post.

- I am the law. No arguing.

Writing Exercise...

500 words based on one sentence...

She tried not to think to hard about her gift, because then she would think about how frustrating it was not to  know why people needed the things. --Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen.

Hannah is a witch.  She comes from a long line of witches known for their special gifts.  Hannah's gift is knowing what someone will need in the future, not a complete picture of what and where, just a snippet or a snapshot, a tiny fragment of a bigger picture. Hannah lives in a quaint thatched roof cottage she inherited from her grandmother. It's located on the outskirts of Bainbury, population 500 souls strong...

Hannah looks around at the sea of packing boxes the movers dropped off earlier that day. Memories come flooding back of Summers spent with her Nan collecting wild plants to help the good people of Bainbury. Dried bundles of herbs still hang from the wooden beams causing Hannah to blink back tears. It still doesn't seem real that Nan is gone. Hannah wipes her eyes and opens the nearest box. The sooner she gets settled, the better.

Placing the last empty box aside, Hannah takes a deep breath and stands brushing dust and bits of paper from her jeans. Glancing at her watch she realizes she missed lunch and was dangerously close to missing dinner also. Grabbing her purse she heads out the door in search of some groceries.

Bainbury is a small hamlet tucked away in the corner of nowhere. A single street runs through the town with shops and cottages sharing both sides. Growing up Hannah use to think of it as a place where Shakespeare could have found his inspiration. It's been a few years since Hannah has been to Bainbury. The last five years of Nan's life being spent closer to London with Hannah's mother.

Hannah sensed a feeling of tranquility wash over her as she parked her bicycle outside a little shop called "Emma's Imports".  A bell jingled from somewhere inside the store as Hannah pushed open the door. The sense of calm Hannah was feeling intensified and snapshots went racing through her mind like a photo album. A sterling silver cake knife, someone in the store needed a sterling silver cake knife.

This was Hannah's gift, knowing the exact thing people needed at the exact right time they needed it. She tried not to think to hard about her gift, because then she would think about how frustrating it was not to know why people needed the things.

A woman with fiery red hair came out from behind the counter to great Hannah. She looked to be about the same age as Hannah and was wearing a sundress with ballet flats. "Hi, can I help you?” I'm Emma and you must be Nan's granddaughter. Hannah wasn't surprised to hear Emma calling her grandmother Nan, to most residents of Bainbury she was their honorary grandmother.

"A sterling silver cake knife, you wouldn't by any chance need one would you??” It's always tricky to work people's needs into a conversation thinks Hannah. "A cake knife, no I don't think so” laughs Emma. Hannah glances around the store to make sure they are alone and it is indeed Emma who is in need of the cake knife. "Well you should definitely buy one; it will come in handy very soon" says Hannah with a wink.

To be continued…

Photo Inspiration...

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (Baptised  26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Creative Writing Tips...

Fiction Writers

Fiction writers learn to write by writing. Although writing is an art, there are skills, tools, and techniques that can be learned in order to develop talent. And constructive criticism and feedback can help this process. 

To be a good writer you need to read a lot, listen and observe everything about you carefully, and write a lot. Writing a lot takes discipline, because writing can actually be hard work- but very satisfying. Setting up a routine for writing is important; it is very easy to find something else to do besides writing. A compulsion to write is very useful.

Fiction writers should have a good grasp of the language, but most of all they must be storytellers. A really good story can compensate for less-than-brilliant writing, but brilliant writing will not save a bad story.

Readers of fiction want very much to find the writer's work to be believable. It is the task of the writer to produce a story that does not jolt the reader into recognizing that the narrative is just the writer talking, just fiction. The writer should write about what he or she already knows through experience or can learn about through research. The narrative should read as if the writer really knows what he or she is writing about.

Major Components of Stories

1. Plot is the organization of events that will take place in the story.
2. Characters are the people or animals who will be in the story.
3. Setting is the physical time and place in which the story takes place.
4. Dialogue is the spoken words of the characters in the story.
5. Point of view is the relative identification of the narrator with the characters.
6. Theme is the main idea or meaning behind a story.
7. Style is the writer's use of the language.

Elaboration

Plot

Plot (and characters) carries the other elements of the story. The plot must be believable, plausible, and interesting. It is a sequence of events connected in a cause-and-effect manner. Generally the plot consists of a series of increasingly more intense conflicts, a climax (the most intense part of the story), and a final resolution. The plot must be advanced as the story unfolds. Usually the closer to the end of the story the climax is placed the better.

Long works like novels can have many subplots and secondary climaxes and resolutions. Avoid using subplots in order to have cliché characters. Avoid too many coincidences.

Flashbacks have been overused. A story is stronger when it runs chronologically.

Characters

The reader should be able to identify with and care about the characters in the sense that the characters seem real to the reader. The characters must do something, and what they do must seem reasonable for them to have done it.

Characters should be introduced early in the story. The more often a character is mentioned or appears, the more significance the reader will attach to the character. Also, the main character should be introduced before setting, so that the setting can be introduced from the point of view of the character.

The nature of characters can be brought out through minimal description and the actions, thoughts, and dialogue of the characters. The writer should allow the reader to make judgments about the characters; the writer should avoid making the judgments for the reader. The feelings of the character should be demonstrated rather than told by the narrator.

Yet, there are some very good stories in which much of the narration is about a character's feelings and thoughts or in which the narration goes into great detail and analysis of a character's feelings and thoughts at some point. So one rule about writing is that there are no rules, or maybe: If it works, it works.

Setting

Setting includes the place and time in which the story takes place. The setting should be described in specifics to make the story seem real, to set the atmosphere and mood of the story, to place limitations on the characters, or to help establish the basic conflict of the story. Weather can be an important part of setting.

The setting can be used for contrast, having something taking place in an unexpected place. Also, the more unfamiliar the reader is with the setting, the more interesting the setting.

Dialogue

Dialogue makes fiction seem real. However, dialogue that copies reality may actually slow down a story. Avoid unnecessary or repetitive dialogue.

Dialect in dialogue can be difficult to read. A small amount of it can be used to establish the nature of a character, but overuse will intrude on the story. The level of use of language by the characters- pronunciation, diction, grammar, etc.- is often used to characterize people in a story. Most often the main characters use the best English. 

Profanity and vulgarisms can be used where they seem appropriate. Overuse amounts to author intrusion and can interrupt the reader's belief in the story.

Too much exposition through dialogue can slow down a story. Characters should not repeat in dialogue events which have already happened in the story.

Also, one character should not tell another character what the second character should already know just so the writer can convey information to the reader. The conversation will sound implausible: author intrusion. The information can be conveyed in simple narration or by having a knowledgeable character explain something to another character who reasonably should not know the information already.

The form of dialogue should be varied to keep the reader interested. However, don't try to find too many different ways to say "said."

Interior dialogue is what a character is thinking. Dramatic dialogue is a character thinking out loud, without response from other characters. Indirect dialogue is the narrator telling what a character said.

Dialogue should be used to develop character or to advance the story. It should not be used just to hear characters talk.

Point of View

First person point of view has the main character telling the story or a secondary character telling the main character's story. Everything that happens in the story must be seen or experienced by the character doing the narration. The reader's judgment of other characters in the story will be heavily influenced by the narrator. This can be very limiting. Also, a story written in first person usually means that the main character won't die in the story. However, first person point of view gives a sense of intimacy to the story.

Third person point of view can be objective or omniscient. An objective narrator describes actions but not the inner thoughts or feelings of the characters. An omniscient narrator can describe all the actions of all of the characters but also all of their inner thoughts and feelings as well.

Theme

The theme of a story is often abstract and not addressed directly in the narrative. It is imparted to the story by the concrete events occurring in the story.

Style

Style is the way the writer uses language. The longer the work the less important language becomes. Above all, the writer's work must tell a story. The writer should not be more concerned with the words used than with the story the writer is trying to tell. Don't be a fanatic about words. The language is less important than character and plot. However, a combination of a good story and good English will be a delight to read.

Mistakes in English amount to author intrusion and detract greatly from the story being told.

The most effective writing uses the active voice. Shorter, concrete words tend to be stronger. Long words tend to be abstract. Avoid wordiness. Write in a concise, precise, concrete, and specific manner. However, recognize that English has an enormous number of words in it, and the words can have very precise meanings. Sometimes no other word will do. And be specific. Don't mention just a tree; say what kind of tree it was.

The choice of words can help set the tone of the story.

Beginning writers may get defensive and touchy about their style. When offered constructive (or maybe destructive) criticism about their style, beginning writers may tend to say something like,"Well, that's just my style." The implication being that the reader must like whatever style the writer chooses to use. But that is backwards. It is up to the writer to please the reader, not the other way around.

Other Tips

In no particular order.

• Be specific in your writing. The more specific the detail, the more real the story will seem to the reader. 
• The best fiction can come from the preposterous imaginations of writers who are good storytellers. 
• Becoming a skilled typist (on a word processor) is extremely useful to a writer. 
• Very few people make a living at writing fiction. 
• Revision is important. A writer can always do one more revision. At some point the writer has to stop revising and get the work published. 
• Show, don't tell. 
• Avoid starting a story with dialogue. 
• Don't use clichés. 
• The more detail in the story, the more interesting the story. 
• Revise, revise, revise, revise, . . . 
• Avoid author intrusion. 
• Write what you like to read. 
• Don't use exclamation points. 
• Use surprise and irony. 
• The shorter the story, the more important each word becomes. 
• Descriptions and technical details must be authentic; when the reader suddenly realizes that the writer made a mistake, the reader is jarred out his or her temporary acceptance of the story as reality, i.e., author intrusion. 
• Avoid overused words. 
• Success breeds success. The more published you are, the easier it is to get published again. 
• Every word can be used appropriately somewhere in some story. 
• Don't tell what happened; recreate what happened. 
• The beginning of a story must be interesting. Readers can be lost on page one. 
• Scorning the work of a writer does not make that writer a better writer.

A Final Observation

Whatever rules or tips you read about writing you will be able to find some published work that violates them. Sometimes the violation is glaring and amounts to author intrusion. Other times the violation may actually help the story. Usually the latter occurs when the writer actually is an excellent wordsmith and deliberately, with great specific purpose, violates some rule or tip.

From (Dakota State University)

Story Ideas...

• Old Victorian house, Romance, Loss, On the coast of Maine, Finds love again, Artist, Writer, Sells Jams (Pies, Cookies etc), No Children, Man has a child.

• Little cottage in England (Ireland), Rides a bike to nearest shops(town), Abusive past, Doesn't trust men. Quirky village people, a best friend that lives in London(?), Local man that helps her fix the cottage, Received cottage an an inheritance, Finds love letters (maybe old photo album. (Maybe somewhat magical in style)

Famous Quotes

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
English novelist (1812 - 1870)

Photo Inspiration...

Death by Books...

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Beginning...

This is a story I started today, at this point I have no idea where it is going, or even if it is going anywhere..

Jesup sat on his porch squinting his eyes against the glare of the freshly fallen snow. A northeaster blew through overnight leaving the town buried under a thick white blanket. He is an old man, creeping steadily towards 90, his face a tableau portrait of heartbreak and happiness long past.

Jesup takes one last sip of his coffee feeling the grit from the grounds coat his tongue and slowly gets to his feet. It is going to be a long day.

Photo Inspiration of the Day...

What this blog is...

I have always wanted to write and now I have the time to pursue it. Am I any good, probably not, but just maybe I don't suck at it, so this is going to be my little corner of the web where I post my poetry, stories and writing, along with writing and quotes from those great writers that inspire us all!

Oh yes, there will be photos also... ;)