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Hello, hello, my fellow adventurers (sleepy as we may be)!

So, when I’m in the planning stage of a draft I have a bad habit of getting SO caught up in outlining and theme and fancy things like ~*~subtext~*~ within my novel that I forget to keep my skills sharp and practice actual prose.

So here’s a game to fix that, and maybe wake us up a little! This is a game meant for a few rough sentences to fit into a busy schedule or a no-pressure place to practice something in your writing without having to work too hard at it, all towards the aim of writing every day. Don’t get caught up in trying to impress us or spend more than twenty minutes on something (unless you’re having a brilliantly good time) because I find those things tend to cripple that writing habit. It doesn’t have to be good, just write!
<p style=”text-align: left;”>The rules:</p>
1) The person above you will give you a super short, super vague prompt. It could be anything from “Music in prison” to “Hearty laughter” to “Autumn”.

2) Take that prompt and write something with it! You could write with the description of a character (saying, relating a person’s face to autumn and really work on vivid descriptions), talking about a character doing something small and building empathy (e.g. a person laughing and the feeling inside their gut or a character that’s stressed out or a character that’s about to make a big decision), a snatch of dialogue, or even a joke. Remember, though, you only need to write a minimum of two sentences and probably shouldn’t do more than eight (unless you’re having an absolutely brilliant time). There’s TWO different ways to do this:

1) Just writing without any sort of guidelines. Creative dump, NaNoWriMo-style. That’s totally important and it’s fun to see.

2) Taking a prompt and spending a few sentences trying to practice a specific skill in it. This is probably better if you have more time on your hands, but not so much that you let perfectionism cripple you . Every skill in writing takes practice, but it’s so easy to get caught up on trying to suceeed in a skill perfectly that you don’t let yourself practice at all! Don’t worry about “suceeding” – that bit is optional and entirely unimportant. You don’t even have to tell us what you’re aiming to accomplish.

A few ideas:

– Work on a really, really vivid but short description

– In dialogue, try to write a few sentences with a very, very specific voice

– Work on tone and write a few sentences of anything, really, that are designed to make your reader feel a certain way. Maggie Stiefvater talks a lot about tone!

– Write something completely mundane within someone’s head: a few sentences of a really cocky person trying to start running without letting others know they were out of shape to begin with, or eating a sandwich, or mowing a lawn and meditating on the meaning of life. Write something funny, or emotional, or touching, or gloomy.

– Work on pure prose and experiment with a third-person voice or a certain style of writing

 

Whichever route you decide, remember the one and only goal is just puting sentences down on paper. While practicing a certain technique is great, ultimately you should just be able to write something, no matter where you’re at. This isn’t just limited as a “sitting at the writing desk” game, let it be a subway commute game, or a “scrolling phone before bed” game, or a “homework/work/parenting has melted my brain and I need TWO seconds to do something FUN and WRITE” game.

3) When you’re done writing (editing is optional, unless you’re trying to improve your editing) leave a short prompt. Make it vague. Rather than “dragon tries to capture a maiden but the maiden fights back” make it “dragon”, or “dragon and maiden”, or “sassy” or “fear” or “unexpected trouble from a very small creature” (it seems specific, but the characters and the exact situation are still very vague – all we have is the size, or perceived size, of a character and a description of said situation), or “fighting in the air”. Give the next person room to do something. On the flip side, though, I’d prefer it if the prompt isn’t something super vague like “apotheosis”.

4) If you have time, read a post from the person above you and compliment something about it. It doesn’t have to be an extravagant compliment. Everyone is more inclined to write if they get free compliments.

 

Tl;dr

1) Give compliments and read prompt 2) Write a short thing loosely based on prompt

3) Leave prompt that’s not too specific

4) Go on with your life with the satisfaction of having written something that day.

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I’ll start with a few sentences I wrote the other day.

 

First of all, nice job person above me. You don’t actually exist, but I really like your writing style all the same. You captured the emotion well.

Let’s say the prompt was “singing silently”. I was doing some description work here. I was trying to capture the moment when you can hear a song in your head and it immediately cheers you up even if nothing changes around you and what that song ~feels~ like since you’re not actually hearing it.

Setting (I’m writing the setting down to keep me from having to waste time on exposition, which is always useful if I’m short on time – unless  I’m specifically trying to work on writing good exposition and setting up a world in a few short sentences): prison-type, a character is slumped on the ground without hope when she suddenly remembers an old song.

 

Long example (this is probably the longest you’ll want to write): “She lifted her head as the first notes drifted upwards from an invisible source, imperceivable by anyone else but vivid all the same. It became a flickering candle in the wings of her shadowed mind. It roared in her head even as all was quiet around her. It colored the silence with flowing melodies, enlivening her by the very reminder that music existed at all, even if she was its only refuge in a barren wilderness. Her cracked lips formed bold words and her trembling soul became firm. She had the courage to rise to her feet. Nothing had changed, except this: she would endure. She knew that now.”

Short example: “It became a flickering candle in the wings of her shadowed mind. It roared in her head even as all was quiet around her.

^^ Yes, it can be that short. I could have also written something with that same prompt about someone jamming out to their favorite song with the windows rolled up and another character wondering why they’re acting so weird, or a scared girl at a music recital who tries to sing but no words come out, or a person who recently became mute but still mouths the words to his favorite song. I could have even deviated from the prompt a little by having one person singing IN a silent place (like on an awkward elevator). Ultimately the prompt is a gift given to you, to use how you will. If you feel limited, rather than encouraged by the prompt given, then think outside the box! If the prompt is “zombies” and you HATE zombies, then write about a zombie that’s not scary, or write about a person who hates zombies and is complaining to someone about them for some dialogue practice, or write about ordinary zombies for a sentence or two but put a twist at the end that reveals they’re actually toddlers in costumes in a especially bizarre Christmas play, or anything else that takes the prompt and turns it into something you enjoy (though, alternatively, feel free to break out of your comfort zone and write about normal zombies, the choice is yours).

 

Prompt for next person:

”Whispering pines”