Category: Writing Exercise

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words – One thing at a time

Erin Penn

Photo by Desiray Green on Unsplash

One Thing At A Time

With the new year comes a hundred-dozen ideas of things that Are-Getting-Done-This-Year. And 2022 is compounded by two years of COVID burning down plans, but our energy is nearly adjusted to the “New Normal” so plans are beginning to look possible if not probable.

But All-The-Things isn’t possible. Multi-tasking, especially with the a world of worry still nibbling at the back of your brain, taking bits of energy and thought processing, produces suboptimal results.

Choose one habit to renew. Pick one thing to write. Concentrate.

A.J. Hartley, a New York Times bestseller, talks about “The Writer as multi-tasker” on Magical Words back on 1/7/2011 –

Review the article and some of the related comments.

WRITING EXERCISE: Choose one habit to renew or start.

Lots of good habits have been lost in the past couple of years. Now is a good time to flip through your old habits and dust one off to restart. Or start a new habit. Do it every day for a month.

Comment below on what you are trying to do and how it is working out.

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My Restart is this blog. So far, so good. It hasn’t been easy with all the other commitments, but I am so much happier when I am writing and creating regularly. 

Writing Exercise: 50-Word Prompts 2021

Erin Penn 1 Comment

WRITING EXERCISE

Okay. New tradition (three times makes it so). 50-word prompts as the December writing exercise. Since Writing Exercises are the third Thursday of the month, they tend to fall on or near the Christmas holidays. May as well have fun!

Quick reminder of the rules: Write two 50-word flashes. Aim for 50 words, give or take five extra words. Don’t read my attempts until after you do your own. Writing them directly in the comment section below will help you focus on the flash aspect – just getting words out.

TEXT PROMPT FOR 50-WORD FLASH: Elementary

VISUAL PROMPT FOR 50-WORD FLASH

Photo by Emmanuel Bior on Unsplash

My Attempts

TEXT PROMPT: Elementary

It’s easy they said. Elementary. Basic. Simple. Bullshit.

Just get it started and everything will go from there. You know how.

Loki’s maternity saddle!

It’s easy-peasy, and I’m not going to let it conquer me. Everyone does it.

I tear everything apart and start over. Tape, wrapping paper, gift.

(first published 3/21/2022; 50 words)

VISUAL PROMPT

TITLE: R is for Robyn (Mom Eyes 1)

I look up. The eyes burning the back of my head made me look up. Fuckin’ superheroes. Her eyes burn down – not like Lazik, but Robyn had her own magic. They call her power “mom eyes”. You feel it, the expectation. She expects better of you, of everyone. The best humans can be.

I’m not even close.

I drop my gun, defeated before she even jumps off the roof.

(first published 3/21/2022; 69 words)

Series: Mom Eyes

  1. R is for Robyn (12/28/21)
  2. B is for Billy (4/3/22)
  3. H is for Hoot (4/10/22)
  4. N is for Natalie (4/17/22)

Series: 50-word Prompts

  1. Prompts 1& 5 (2/19/2017)
  2. Prompts 6 & 12 (2/26/2017)
  3. Prompts 7, 8, 10, 11 (3/19/2017)
  4. Prompts (The Mouse Roars) (3/26/2017)
  5. 50-word prompts 2018 (12/25/2018)
  6. 50-word prompts 2019 (8/27/2019)
  7. 50-word prompts 2020 (12/22/2020)
  8. 50-word prompts 2021 (12/28/2021)
  9. 50-word prompts 2022 (12/17/2022)
  10. 50-word prompts 2023 (12/26/2023)
  11. 50-word prompts 2024 (12/24/2024)
  12. 50-word prompts 2025 (12/25/2025)

Writing Exercise: Foreshadowing

Erin Penn

6662996 © John Leaver | Dreamstime.com
Last month, I did an Editing Rant on Foreshadowing. The foreshadowing I discussed there was when the predictions were used POORLY. Foreshadowing, when used well, can rock the story.
Foreshadowing can be done one of two ways: directly and indirectly. Direct foreshadowing just comes out and states what it is all about – in the prolog or in a prophecy. The witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth cook the perfect prophecy prolog. Indirectly, casual remarks and superstitions can provide hints of the future. For example: “Remember three times the charm.” The characters say this famous superstition at the beginning of the story, and at the end, their third and final attempt at solving the issue, everything resolves.
Foreshadowing is not “little does the character know what is waiting around the corner” (chapter break).
This device must be integrated into the story in order to enhance it.
Why is foreshadowing needed for the story? Does it give the readers clues on how to solve a mystery? (The one murder mystery I have in my head, the character states at the very beginning the motivation of the killer based on someone else they are dealing with.) Does it add tension IN A NATURAL method?
A very well-crafted article appears in ProWritingAid breaking foreshadowing down further – for example what ISN’T foreshadowing like flashforwards – What is Foreshadowing in Storytelling and How Does It Help the Reader? (ProWritingAid, Jennifer Jahn, published June 28, 2021): https://prowritingaid.com/art/2326/foreshadowing.aspx
READING EXERCISE: Think of your present read-in-progress or a previous narrative you read where foreshadowing occurred. Was it direct or indirect foreshadowing? How did it support the plot?
WRITING EXERCISE: Think of your present work-in-progress (WIP) or a previous story you created where foreshadowing was used. Was it direct or indirect? Did the reveal come as a surprise to you (i.e., you wrote the story but didn’t realize you had done foreshadowing until the predicted action happened)?
My Attempt: In Honestly (available on Amazon), I foreshadow Troy’s disability when after kneeling for a while, he “stood awkwardly”. I hint again with a cane being in the laundry room. For the first part of the book, the romantic hero is actively hiding his disability from everyone around him but his father. Still the clues are there – the pillows, the obsessive neatness, and the emotional swings.
Another unrelated foreshadow in Honestly are the papers in the laundry room and the “nothing officially unofficial” Troy lets slip; that should come out in different story someday.

Writing Exercise: The Ride

Erin Penn

Acquired from the internet hive mind

From here to there, transportation and locomotion occurs for the characters. How did they get there? I just bought a new vehicle this month, so I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot recently.

People judge other people by the vehicle choice – public bus, private taxi, foot, car, shuttle, horse, or hoverboard. Same is true in fiction, even more so. Each option reveals something about the story and the characters. Many times a main character’s transportation choice becomes a character of its own within the series.

WRITING EXERCISE:
Pick a transportation from one of your works (present WIP or previously complete work) and describe it in 50 to 100 words in the words of its owner.

Postscript: In case you were wondering, I am now the proud owner of a gray minivan … with the license plate frame saying, “I rather be reading”.

Writing Exercise: Understatement, Sarcasm, & Litotes

Erin Penn

Photo by Muneeb Syed on Unsplash

Final writing exercise for Figurative Language for this year. We haven’t scratched the surface in how to enhance your writing using the imagery of words to paint pictures and engage readers. Today we will tackle three related ways of shifting what you write to mean something else entirely.

I’m going to start with sarcasm, because, if you have spent any time as a writer, you likely have a more solid grip on sarcasm than a regular paycheck. Sarcasm is meant to mock, and often means the opposite of what is written. This makes it challenging to work into a narrative because the reader needs to understand that you mean the opposite of what you wrote. It should only be used lightly in middle grade, when children start understanding sarcasm and shouldn’t be used in chapter books or early reading materials at all.

Sarcasm comes it multiple types: self-depreciating, deadpan, brooding, and juvenile.

Find out more here, since I know everyone likes links: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-sarcasm.html

Litotes use negative terms to affirm. “You’re not wrong.” is very popular right now, and I find myself often using it on Facebook posts. Litotes are bad English, with two negatives making a positive. A high school English teacher will call out litotes appearing in non-fiction essays and ask students to rewrite for clarity. Their decision isn’t the worst but does leaves an interesting literary device out in the cold. 

And last and certainly least, understatement. Instead of blowing out of proportion or giving a factual account, the narrator or character of a fiction piece will downplay a description of a situation.  An example would be someone discovering their best friend becomes a werewolf during the full moons and describes the situation as “she needs to shave sometimes.“

WRITING EXERCISE: You know the drill, write a paragraph giving two examples of each type of figurative language: Sarcasm, Litotes, and Understatement – for a total of three paragraphs. My attempts are built into the above posting. Comment below and let me know if you want to exercise more figurative language types.

Writing Exercise Series of Figurative Language
Metaphor and Simile (6/22/21)
Synecdoche and Symbolism (7/27/21)
Personification and Oxymoron (8/24/21)
Understatement, Sarcasm, & Litotes (9/28/2021)

Series inspired by: “Figurative Language: Why and How You Should Use it” by Zara Altair. ProWritingAid 6/11/201