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 Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Your Mid-Week Prompt: Redefining Love
Hey writers,
How goes it? All is well in Promptland and Digest-ville. We just wrapped our October issue and are plodding onward toward our November/December mag, and the (most-excellent) post-wrap (brief) calm has descended. I’m working on a piece for the next issue involving literary journals and magazines, and I’m curious, since many of you have the short-fiction skills—have any of you written for any lit mags? Which are your favorites?
Also, a tip of the hat to J. Alvey and his authentic, spooky “Here’s to the Lion” story. It takes the cake as this week’s Notable Story pick. Thanks for the great tale and a great spin on the prompt and predators, Joe.
Be well and write well,
Zachary
PROMPT: Redefining Love
In 500 words or fewer, funny, sad or stirring:
In a scene, define love.
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Also, there’s been a lot of talk around the office about the upcoming Writer’s Digest Conference on the business of getting published and selling books. Yesterday the WD event powers that be announced that all attendees can get free critiques of their work, and 10 will be selected to meet with literary agents. (If you’re interested, it’s Sept. 18-20, New York. You can read more here.)
Notable Story Picks | Traditional Prompts
Wednesday, August 05, 2009 4:15:35 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00) 
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Monday, August 03, 2009
Your Monday Prompt: Wherever You May Write
Hey writers,
Hope everyone had an excellent weekend. I ended up stumbling upon whereiwrite.org (check it out if you have a second—it’s fascinating), a site that documents notable scribes in their natural habitats. Which made me wonder: Where do you all write?
Here’s to hoping all is well in your world (and at your desk),
Zachary
PROMPT: Wherever You May Write
In 500 words or fewer, funny, sad or stirring:
Write a scene that takes place wherever you write. Take an object [or two] that is always present at your desk, and make it a key element of your scene.
Traditional Prompts
Monday, August 03, 2009 5:42:26 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Friday, July 31, 2009
Your Weekend Prompt: That Wicked Old Scent
Hey writers,
The battle to finish our October issue wages on, and so I’ll again be brief: Here’s to hoping your writing and muses are treating you well. Mine were MIA for the last few days, but I blame it on a week of ominous, slightly frightening scents in the hallway of my otherwise cozy apartment building (see below).
Have a great Friday-Saturday-Sunday!
Zachary
PROMPT: That Wicked Old Scent
In 500 words or fewer, funny, sad or stirring, write a story inspired by or containing the following:
“It smells like something has died in the walls,” she said.
“Well, do something about it.”
“I always do.”
He remembered what happened last time, and the sun sagged low.
Traditional Prompts
Friday, July 31, 2009 7:59:39 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Your Wednesday Prompt: Here's To the Lion
Hey writers,
On Monday I read through last week’s pool of stories: How you all turn around such content so fast with innovative spins continues to baffle me. Moreover, it’s awesome to see Constant Writers (the Promptly pickpocketing of Stephen King’s Constant Readers terminology) developing—a sense of your voices is percolating to the surface. I’m proud to have you writing here, and I type that without flattery. To you, and our new writers this week, thanks for sticking around after the initial challenge. I’d like to call all of you out, but you know who you are.
As for the Notable Story pick of the week, the title goes to Loveskidlit’s story from “Photogenic Stranger.” Check out her well-written, haunting flash-fiction here. To me, she took an unexpected direction and nailed the prompt, down to the meditative final line.
For today’s story, let’s try the Literary Roadshow approach again (I’ll pull a normal, out-of-context line from a book, and use it as a prompt—is one writer’s line-in-passing another’s creative jackpot?).
Yours in writing,
Zachary
From Ernest Hemingway’s short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber":
PROMPT: Here’s To the Lion
In 500 words or fewer, funny, sad or stirring, write a story inspired by or containing the following:
“Here’s to the lion,” he said. “I can’t ever thank you for what you did.”
Margaret, his wife, looked away from him and back to Wilson.
“Let’s not talk about the lion,” she said.
Wilson looked over at her without smiling and now she smiled at him.
--
Also, I run writing exercises in our InkWell section of the magazine, and yesterday stumbled upon Bonnie Neubauer's new WD "Take Ten for Writers" book, which is jampacked with endless prompts and exercises. If your prompt quota is still not filled, check it out or read an excerpt here—it inspires jealousy in even the finest prompt scribes.
Traditional Prompts | Notable Story Picks
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 2:42:47 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Monday, July 27, 2009
Your Monday Prompt: Next Time, Chew
Hey scribes,
We’re waging a final salvo against the October issue of Writer’s Digest magazine, so I’ll be brief today, and wish you an excellent Monday. I hope all is well in your universes, both fictive and traditional. I’m planning to drop a WD nod of the hat to last week’s Notable Story pick Wednesday.
Write on,
Zachary
PROMPT: Next Time, Chew
In 500 words or fewer, funny, sad or stirring:
At dinner, you choke. Something flashes before your eyes, only it’s not exactly your life.
Traditional Prompts
Monday, July 27, 2009 6:17:02 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Friday, July 24, 2009
Your Friday Prompt: The Terrible Decision
Hey writers,
At an old copy-editing job, I worked with a writer who thought it was hilarious to slip the occasional vulgarity—often spectacularly creative and monstrous—into one of the publication’s stories before I proofed them all. It became a sort of game, a sort of watching Zac over the top of a page as his eyes widened in final-proof horror. Sure, I chuckled, grumbled and deleted the intruder (albeit on the brink of journalism tears).
But what if I hadn’t?
Forget that for a second, and consider a moment from yesterday or today, a moment when you could have done something terrible if you had just changed one small thing. It could be anything stirred up in your imagination: bellowing a cheerful vulgarity to a co-worker who issued you the standard morning Hello!; mumbling, “No, more, all of it, everything,” when cashing a check at the bank; choosing not to extinguish a candle burning close to the curtains in a house you’ve lived in for too long.
How do you define “terrible”? And isn’t it sort of fascinating how one otherwise mundane moment, decision or turn of phrase can change a life, spreading alternate futures out like the branches of a tree?
So keep the terribleness confined to your writing (and away from poor, young copy editors), and have a great weekend!
And, happy birthday to Audrey.
Yours in writing,
Zachary
PROMPT: THE TERRIBLE DECISION
In 500 words or fewer, funny, sad or stirring:
Choose a moment from yesterday or today, an otherwise normal moment when you could have done something extreme, something terrible, if you had just done one small thing different. Do it in scene.
Traditional Prompts
Friday, July 24, 2009 6:21:13 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Surprise Attack; New Pet
Hey writers,
Do you know what house centipedes are? Those multi-legged monsters that look like the next generation of weaponized spider, and move with the speed of a gazelle? I found one in my apartment last night and a scuffle ensued. Afterward, as we sat there looking at each other, beaten and exhausted, I felt a little bad for Clyde him, and the following prompt bubbled to the surface.
Intruders aside, here’s the latest news about moving forward: Every week, I'll go through and pick a great story to call out in an entry as a "Notable Story of the Week." At the end of every month, we'll have the usual swag-off, and I'll rotate my co-judges to keep the perspectives fresh (I'll also get a logo drawn up for the winners, in case they have websites they want to use it on).
Yours in writing,
Zachary
PROMPT: Surprise Attack; New Pet
In 500 words or less, funny, sad or stirring:
Something unexpected attacks you. Now, you have to decide whether or not to keep it as a pet.
Traditional Prompts
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 4:10:40 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009
And the Kick-Off Winner Is . . . ?!
Hey writers,
After gobbling up mobsters, distopian doctors, cracked families and even old ghosts, it’s time for the results of the Promptly Kick-Off Breaking-Block Challenge. Even though I was frequently overtaken by interrobang-like feelings (?!) of indecision, I won’t go into the usual long-winded rant about how difficult it was to pick a winner.
Or how I lavish special props on my heroes who entered all three prompts, some of whom even tied them together in incredibly cool ways.
Or how we loved how everyone took the prompts and spread them out in their own directions and genres.
Or, simply, how appreciative I am to everyone who participated, and how I hope they’ll stick around for more stories.
In the end, longtime WD editor/online guru Brian A. Klems and I selected Patricia A. Hawkenson’s* “Hedge Fund” and its lively, weighted lines as our favorite entry. For winning, she’ll lay claim to a stack of swag containing The Whatchamacallit: Those Everyday Objects You Just Can’t Name (And Things You Think You Know About, But Don’t), Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling, a copy of Writer’s Digest’s new Novel Writing magazine, and a one-year subscription or renewal to WD magazine.
From now on, our favorite-story swag will be dolled out on a monthly schedule. So don’t stop writing. Ever.
Thanks again to everyone who jumped into the challenge, and see you all tomorrow with a new prompt.
Yours in writing,
Zachary
*Patricia, please send an e-mail to writersdigest [at] fwmedia [dot] com marked "Attn: Zachary Petit," so I can get the goods shipped out to you!
Winning Stories
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 7:18:09 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Monday, July 20, 2009
Your Monday Prompt: Photogenic Stranger
Hey writers,
Everyone have a good weekend? After several million recommendations over the last few years, I finally caved and my girlfriend Audrey and I hunkered down and tackled part of the first season of Dexter—Showtime’s eerie/hilarious series about, well, a good serial killer who kills bad serial killers who kill good people. Around episode four, a plot arises involving old photographs—which prompted me to look through some of mine. As I did, the following prompt developed. (Editor's Note: That pun was unintentional, so after suspiciously eyeballing it for a few minutes, I'm going to let it stand. I was also going to bring an awkward family photo from a decade or two ago to post as creative fodder, but my flash drive isn't working, so you have been spared.)
Moreover, Writer’s Digest online guru Brian Klems and I are going to sift through the stories from the Kick-Off Challenge today, and we’ll announce the winner—and his or her swag—tomorrow, so stay tuned.
Hope all is well in your writing world,
Zachary
PROMPT: Photogenic Stranger
In 500 words or less, funny, sad or stirring:
You develop a roll of film, an old roll from about 10 years ago, and sit down to sift through the photos. As you do, you stop and analyze a figure lurking in the background of a vacation photo. You drop the pictures, aghast, and gasp for air.
Traditional Prompts
Monday, July 20, 2009 6:58:52 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Friday, July 17, 2009
Promptly Kick-Off Finale: The Damaging Dispute
Hey writers,
Welcome to the last day of the Great Promptly Kick-Off Breaking-Block Challenge. My brain tends to not fully warm up until 10:15 a.m. or so, so rather than sleep-type, I'll back out gracefully by saying thanks for all of your awesome responses so far. We'll pick our favorite story from the first three prompts on Monday (you have until Sunday night to get a response in for the challenge) and shell out some WD swag.
Happy Friday!
Zachary
PROMPT: The Damaging Dispute
In 500 words or less, funny, sad or stirring:
Write an argument—the worst dispute
your character has ever been in, at least in his or her opinion—without using a single exclamation point or all-caps word. It’s an exercise in discipline: Keep the fire
contained, brimming at the surface but never boiling over. Oh, and make
sure you mention a pair of pliers and a spectator.
--
ADDENDUM! Remember how I said that my brain doesn't come fully online until 10:15? It's about 10:35, and I just realized I forgot to mention something super-cool: Next Thursday, WD friends Jane Friedman and Alice Pope will be giving a webinar on how to write a book query letter that gets a response.
I can vouch for Jane and Alice's knowledge and awesomeness, so here's the info in case you're interested in cracking book queries, or getting some feedback on one you've stalled out on:
"Extreme Makeover: The Query Letter."
Date: Thursday, July 23, 2009
Length: 60 minutes
Price: $99.00
Presenters: Jane Friedman & Alice Pope
All attendees will be invited to submit a one-page book query letter for potential critique in this hands-on session.
You’ll witness the unbelievable transformation of ordinary, everyday query letters into strong and persuasive letters that catch the attention of agents and editors.
A seasoned and experienced editor will revise letters for stronger leads, concise and efficient expression, and compelling sales hooks - so that you better understand what a professional immediately sees and responds to in your work.
Aside from the revision action, you'll also get a checklist of the five essential elements of every query.
Traditional Prompts
Friday, July 17, 2009 3:00:00 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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