Category: Writing Exercise

Writing Exercise: Read an Industry Book

Erin Penn

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

Doggo is reading about dogs because his career is being a dog, and like anyone who want a distinguished career, he constantly studies. For just a job to put food on the table each night, you don’t need to work as hard, but a life-long career – the ins and outs need to be explored.

Carrie Vaughn mentioned in a Facebook post:

When I was 16 I told my mom I wanted to be a writer, and she came home from the library with a stack of books with titles like “How To Get Published,” and “So You Want To Be a Writer?”, and “Here’s How to Write Stuff and Get Published” and so on. Some of the info was conflicting and there was a lot to go through, but I held on to the stuff I thought was useful and started going to conventions and reading magazines and following careers I wanted to emulate and absorbing everything I could about the business. I still do.
If you want to get into the book business, do the research. There’s a ton of info out there. Learn. There’s no shortcut to this part.
I found the above post when Melissa McArthur, the editor-in-chief for Falstaff, shared it on Facebook on September 8, 2017 with the following add-on: 
Yes. You have to do the work. It’s a business, people. If you want writing to be your career, it’s a job, just like any other. Learn the tools of the trade, learn the ropes, learn the people, and work hard.
Personally, one of my annual goals is reading a writing or publishing book. This year, I’m sharing the joy.
WRITING EXERCISE: Go to your local library (online or in person) and check out a book on writing or publishing. Could be a how-to, a what-to-expect, or a what’s-happening. Read it. Comment below with the book title and ONE thing that really stood out as you read it. I’ve done “Save the Cat“, “$30 Film School”, “How to Write Magical Words“, and “The Thrifty’s Author Guide”, to name a few.
My Attempt: See the book reviews for Save the Cat and How to Write Magical Words.

Other Cool Blogs: D.B. Jackson 8/12/2020

Erin Penn

Photo by doo on Unsplash

Is there meat on those bones?

Going into summer, it’s time to break out the grills and BBQ sauces. Hamburgers and steaks already fragrant the air on Sundays here in the South. Fish and ribs less so, as those need a smoker and breaking out a smoker means a Crowd is needed for the resulting disgorging of meats.

Ribs need meat on the bones to be worth the hassle.

Just like a writing idea needs meat on the bones to be worth the hassle.

As you know, this year I’ve been working on catching up on all the writing the pandemic smothered under worry, concern, and change from the normal. 2019-201 were barren years for the blog, but I’ve caught up with nearly all of it at this point except for the flashes.

Those are getting filled in quicker than expected thanks to a Facebook group I belong to doing a weekly flash using a word or a visual. Well, we started with a word or visual, but no one responded to the word prompts so we have switched to 100% visual prompts. Since the point of them for the group is to kick-off writing, not substitute for a Work-In-Progress, the group asks people to limit themselves to around 50 words.

This makes them short, very short, maybe too short to tell a story. Most of the time I end up doing just vignettes, scene descriptions, a world-building blink, or character sketches. Creating a STORY – beginning, middle, and end – a growth arc for characters – something changing or developing – a true flash, that is difficult.

When I worked on an anthology for LTGBQ+, I reviewed a lot of character sketches. Writers honoring people they knew, explaining how LTGBQ+ might think, a situation they lived through or were told about (a news article). Very, very few of the submissions were STORIES.

D.B. Jackson describes his trials with working through anthologies submissions looking for stories instead of noodling-out an idea to see if it has meat on its bones. The 8/12/2020 post is titled “Writing-Tip Wednesday: Short Fiction Anthologies – When Does an Idea Become a Story?“

Many of the ideas I test out in flashes appearing here don’t have enough meat to become a story. And many of the ideas done even have the meat to be flashes. Let’s break down some of the things that aren’t stories.

To be a story, a reader needs to connect. There should be a beginning, middle, and end. A character development arc should occur, as well as the beginning-middle-end rise and fall of action/activities. A point or theme helps strengthen the base of the plot. Most importantly, something happens, something progresses, something changes.

News Article – Relating an event. It doesn’t need reader engagement and often only the end of the story is reported, not the beginning and middle.

World-building blink – I love my world-building and sometimes I just write down a definition or rule set for a new world.

Character sketches – Like world-building, and more common with most writers, a character definition, sometimes shown through a vignette.

Scene descriptions – More about the description than what is happening within the scene. Again, no beginning, middle, nor end. The concentration is on the Now.

Vignette – A scene description, but more about the emotional reaction it provokes. Reader engagement is much higher than the previous options, but there is no rise or fall of action. The story is still focused on the now.

Recent story categories:

Hotties – This flash is somewhere between a story and a vignette. The main character is on the cusp of making a change. At less than 200 words, this needs words to make more meat.

Claims a Warrior’s Heart – Over 1,500 words, we got a story with meat. I snuck in poetry and many of the characters are well defined.

Not all who wander – 879 words of character sketch. Yeah, it’s slightly more than a character sketch, but nearly everything happening is defining the main character as a character.

Long Loop – 262 words and a worldbuilding blink.

Elementary – This is clearly a vignette. All about the emotions.

Light – A scene description. (The visual prompt below it crosses into a vignette.)

Pizza and Movie Night – 123 words … and a full story. A change in expectation, a decision made. A beginning, middle, and end. It’s possible even for the shortest wordings, but doesn’t happen often.

Again, the article is: https://www.dbjackson-author.com/2020/08/12/writing-tip-wednesday-short-fiction-anthologies-when-does-an-idea-become-a-story/

WRITING EXERCISE: Look over some of your short works. Are they full stories, or is something lacking making them fall into other categories. Give two examples in comments, linking to your blog or wherever you have posted the manuscripts.

Writing Exercise: Inciting Incident

Erin Penn 1 Comment

Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash

Hannah Yang gave a very in-depth article “How to Write an Inciting Incident for Your Novel” on ProWritingAid (Jan 16, 2022)

The Characteristics of Inciting Incidents really hit me with characteristic #3 being the gut punch – “It’s out of the protagonist’s control.” I’ve never really thought about it. It isn’t Joan chose to leave home, it’s Joan was kicked out of the house. It isn’t John choosing to marry, it’s John falling in love with someone (and the plot centers around the fact he couldn’t legally marry them). Not only does Inciting Incidents happen (1) early in the book and (2) changes things / disrupts the status quo. It also isn’t in the characters control and (4) forces them to make a difficult choice.

The Inciting Incident is when everything changes. 

Genres tend to be Inciting Incident driven early in the narrative.

  1. Romance – Introduction of the protagonist to another person. A “meet-cute”.
  2. Mystery – A question/mystery arises that must be answered/investigated.
  3. Fantasy/Sci-Fi Adventure – “Answer the Call”. Something is inviting (or forcing) the character from the previous life into a new one.

Literary fiction often has something challenging the protagonist’s worldview – questioning what they are taught. These may be related to coming-of-age stories, but anyone in any genre might have an “a-ha” moment that terrifies, shifting their world with a snap,

For flash and novellas, most Inciting Incidents happen in the first chapter, maybe even in the first paragraph, dumping the reader into the fray. Downside, the reader doesn’t understand how the Inciting Incident is changing everything, but it does start with excitement. Novels might do a bit of worldbuilding and character development, giving a chapter or three before everything changes.

This is just the scratch of the surface for the article. If you want to found out more about Inciting Incidents before tackling the writing exercise below, the URL is: https://prowritingaid.com/inciting-incident

WRITING EXERCISE: Write an Inciting Incident. Just a short scene.

My Attempt: It took some doing to find flashes meeting “out of the main character’s control.” Like I said, I hadn’t really focused on that aspect of an Inciting Incident before. Need to work on it more.

“Not All Who Wander” (February 27, 2022) – This is a sci-fi romance, with romance being the central part of the story, and starts with a meet-cute. Yes, the two had played a VR adventure together, but it was a “for-hire” from a chatroom one-and-done. Garrett takes the first big step saying he wants more. Becca starts her normal comfort zone declining, but decides to Change Things to the point of sending him a Contact Card when she returns to real life. I really would like to return to this couple to see how things go – between her real-life body betraying her and his body being … well, that is what the story hinges on.

“You Have Mail” (February 6, 2022) – An urban fantasy romance starts with a mystery. A physical letter from an on-line friend with just a key and a sheet of paper with an address. Should Bryan investigate or leave it be? Given his normal life, worldbuilt into the story as he does the initial letter investigation, how bad can looking into what the key goes to be?

Magical Words: The Five Mantras

Erin Penn

Photo by Rachel Nickerson on Unsplash

The Five Writing Mantras of James Maxey:

  1. The worst novel you put on paper is better than the best novel you have in your head.
  2. Here. Now.
  3. To write a good novel, you must first write a bad novel.
  4. Never look back.
  5. Little by little, the work gets done.

In other words – Write it, concentrate, write to grow, perfection is the enemy of the good, climb a bit every day.

Get the full picture at Magical Words 2/19/2011 –

Writing Exercise: Which mantras do you need to work on? Which of one hit you the hardest when reading about them? Choose that one to work on this week. Make a colored card and stick it on the wall where you write with the beginning date.

Writing Exercise: Stretching (W is for Write)

Erin Penn

Photo by Boxed Water Is Better on Unsplash

It’s been a tough two years. Emotionally draining, which means also creatively draining. Eventually authors will process the emotions through writing some amazing works, but right now survival is the primary concern.

I’m finally getting the energy back. Tax season gave me a reset, a change of duties and thoughts, which resets other things. Fortunately this year they didn’t extend the tax season, allowing me to keep up hope, energy, and momentum. I’m ready to write again.

But how?

You may have noticed, I’ve been attacking my blog, catching up on two years of sporadic creation. First Book Reviews to remember reading and analyzing other people’s writing, then Magical Words for writing advice and lessons, next Editing Rants to revisit lessons learned. Onward to Writing Exercises to bring those lessons to life again and Geeking Science for ideas and the joy of learning. Other Blogs for writing advice.

I’m stretching.

If you run, you don’t start cold training cold. It doesn’t matter if you ran marathon before, after two years off you have to work your way back up. And the first step is stretching.

Likewise BIC after a long break – COVID, surgery, or raising children related – and expecting to return to your old writing production level is unrealistic and self-defeating, just like running a marathon out of the gate. First you stretch. If your production level was 2,000 words a day, but when you started as a new writer, it was only 500, then start at 500. Don’t set yourself up for failure.

Reading was my first stretch. I hadn’t really read in months. 2021 was my first year since I started keeping track on Goodreads I read only 100 books. I’m over 50 already for 2022.

Then my warm-up expanded to blogging. Daily BIC for most of March.

During the last of tax season, the beginning of April, I broke out the flashes. Sprints of full on creative. I forgot how exhausting pure creation is.

Once those creative muscles have built up again, I will move onto novellas and, finally, novels. In a few years, maybe even series of novels. According to my Strategic Plan (created during the blogging muscle builds), I will write two stand-alone novels this year.

I may need to stretch some more.

WRITING EXERCISE: Have your muscles sagged during the COVID drain? Think back to when you first started writing. What “exercises” did you do? Me, it was book reviews, so kicking off my reading and book reviews got everything flowing in the right write direction. Create a daily writing exercise for this week which will get a bit of time in chair to start building the creative writing muscles again and share below. 

My attempt

As I mentioned, I read and did book reviews. Yes, for the month of January I read 20 books, nearly a book and book review a day. My brain finally kicked back into gear. The reading frenzy is slowing down as my mind continues down the writing path to rediscover other old skills.