Category Archives: Weekly Writing Prompt

Weekly Writing Prompt — April 1, 2015 Edition

Weekly Writing Prompt

I don’t do April Fool’s Jokes. I’ve tried. I fail at it.

Instead, I always make sure there’s sweet stuff in the house for April Fool’s.

Which reminds me about food.

Which then makes me think about several of the food-centered conversations I’ve been privy to recently.

So here we are at the prompt.

Write about food. Food you love, food you despise, food you’ve grown, food you’ve cooked. Write about it. But make sure that what you write is also about people, not just about the food. Unless, of course, you want to make the food have a personality, you know pull a  anthropomorphism card. When has food been the center of a scene of great transformation in your life? The food at your wedding, or a loved one’s funeral, or the train you took to Chicago. Whatever. Shoot for no less than 1,000 words. If you get closer to 2,500 words, even better. If you decide to post the exercise on your blog, be sure to let us know.

Next workshop is April 18 at the North Bend Library Meeting room at 10:30 a.m. More details to follow in the next few weeks. Put it on your calendar and plan to attend.

That same afternoon, at 3 p.m. the Storyteller’s Circle will be sharing stories. Location to be determined. Stay tuned for more details on that, too.

Congrats to those in the group that went outside their writer comfort zone and did #TheSketchbookProject.
Also, good luck to Free Valley Publishing in its appearance at NorWesCon this weekend. If you’re planning on attending #NorWesCon38, be sure to check out their booth.

And now your moment of Writing Zen:

“For me, comedy starts as a spew, a kind of explosion, and then you sculpt it from there, if at all. It comes out of a deeper, darker side. Maybe it comes from anger, because I’m outraged by cruel absurdities, the hypocrisy that exists everywhere, even within yourself, where it’s hardest to see.” ~Robin Williams

—
—
What did you Write today?
~Casz

Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron

Weekly Writing Prompt — March 18, 2015 Edition

Weekly Writing Prompt

Writers:

Simple prompt today. Get your first pages (chapter even) of your current Work In Progress. Make two copies of it. Attend the peer-review workshop at the library on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. (North Bend Library Meeting Room).
Do it.
You’ll be glad you did.
Then that afternoon attend the Storytellers Circle at the North Bend visitors center at 3 p.m. This month we’re focusing on stories of our matriarchs: stories about your mother, grandmother, aunt, and other historical women in your life.
Hope to see you at both.
Have a great day. 

—

—
What did you Write today?
~Casz

Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron

Weekly Writing Prompt — March 11, 2015 Edition

Weekly Writing Prompt

Writers:

Sorry for the unannounced mini vacation from the prompts. That sometimes happens in life. I’m sure you were busy with your writing anyways, so you hardly missed it?
Well, no need to fear, we’re back.
Don’t forget March 21 is the peer-review work session at the North Bend Library Meeting Room at 10:30 a.m. until Noon. Bring two copies of a first chapter. Bring a pen/pencil. Bring a smile and an open mind and heart. Coffee optional.
If you have questions, feel free to send to me.
Today, your prompt is about support. When was the last time you went to a reading? Bought a book? Reviewed a book? Took a writing class? Can’t remember? Then it’s time to put those on your radar and get going. Support another artist. Today. Now. Go.
Lastly, it’s that time of year when I ask folks to let me know if they want off this crazy ride of an email list. Just respond to this email with “remove” and I’ll take you off the list. Even if you’re inactive, but still enjoy the prompts, feel free to stay. You’re always welcome. If not, no worries, we’ll send you off with good wishes.
Have a great week, folks. See you on the 21st.

—

—
What did you Write today?
~Casz

Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron

Weekly Writing Prompt — February 25, 2015

Weekly Writing Prompt

Friends,

I’m so glad a few of you decided to join the Storyteller’s Circle on Saturday. What an incredible afternoon! Songs, stories, history, community! I hope that some of you will make plans to join us in March, too. March 21, 3 to 5 p.m. at the North Bend Visitor’s Center.
The morning before, is the peer-review work shop at 10:30 a.m. until Noon at the North Bend Library Meeting Room. This month’s focus is on first chapters. More information to follow on that next week.
In the interim, you need to be writing, revising, editing, and sending out. When was the last time you sent something out? Sometimes, it could be said, that traditional publishing is a numbers game. To an extent, that can be true. The more you write, the more you send out, the more you’ll learn, the more you’ll get acceptance. Be brave. Kill your fear. Get it out there. Your prompt is to at minimum make a plan to send something out, with a definitive deadline. Best case scenario is to send something out before this time next week. Or send a few things out. Whatever! Just get it read and send it out!
And now your moment of Writing Zen:
“If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.”
—Wally Lamb

—

—
What did you Write today?
~Casz

Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron

Weekly Writing Prompt — February 18, 2015

Weekly Writing Prompt, , , , , , ,

Good Morning Writers!

This Saturday you’re planning on being at the North Bend Library at 10:30 a.m. in order to polish your pitch for whatever project you’re currently on, right? Don’t know what a pitch is? You should be there to learn as well. This will be a round-table discussion and critique workshop, so lots to learn. Bring a couple of copies of your pitch to share.
Afterwards, take time for lunch and your Saturday errands, or a nap, whatever, and join us at 3 p.m. at the North Bend Visitors Center for the Storyteller’s Circle. Bring a poem, a short story, a legend from your family, your guitar, your ukulele, a drum, whatever. Tribal leaders plan to be there and partake this month, so it bodes to be a special session. Hope to see you there.
Before Saturday, there is other writing work to be done. If you don’t have your pitch ready, get that ready. (Here is a cheat sheet to get you started.) Or spend two hours editing. Or get 1,000 words on the paper/screen. Go to a writing cafe. It’s free-reign week! Just make progress. Pitch, edit, write, and then write, edit, pitch. Tell your story. It matters.
Now for your moment of Writing Zen:
“We’re past the age of heroes and hero kings. … Most of our lives are basically mundane and dull, and it’s up to the writer to find ways to make them interesting.”
—John Updike

—

—
What did you Write today?
~Casz

Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron

Weekly Writing Prompt — February 11, 2015 Edition

Weekly Writing Prompt, , , , ,

Writers:

There is lots of good things going on with the group. Many of our author-friends are having success with people finding their stories and publishing. I hope that you are making time to go to the cafes and soaking up this goodness.

You, too, should be part of that success track. Today’s prompt is about finding a home for your work. We spend so much time working on the work — creating, editing, revising, recreating — that some of our energies never see the effort of finding a home, whether that be an anthology for a short story, a magazine for an article, or an agent for our novel. I want you to set aside time this week to find a home for your work. Take the time and send out that inquiry. Find the submission guidelines and send in that short story. Do a pitch to the acquisitions editor at your favorite magazine.

To steal a marketing term:  Just Do It.

Because as writers we know that even in rejection we are learning, growing, and honing our craft.

After you send it out, pitch it, or inquire about it, I want you to let me know. I want to do some sort of tracking matrix for our group. I want us to be able to say in February, X number of authors sent out work, and Y number of authors were accepted. I do believe that if we just up the amount of folks sending stuff out, the results will be amazing. This is a very talented group. Don’t keep your talent in a box in your closet. Your story matters. The world wants to read it.

Do not forget that the peer-review workshop is Feb. 21st at 10:30 a.m. at the North Bend Library Meeting Room. Round-table review for your pitch/inquiry is the focus this month. The workshop goes until noon. Come prepared. Any questions, feel free to ping me.

Additionally, the Storyteller’s circle is also Feb. 21 at 3 p.m. at the North Bend Visitors Center. Come read a short story, a flash fiction piece, a poem. Anything. Come tell about that crazy time you almost caught the sturgeon in the Snoqualmie River. This is an electic group of folks– musicians, poets, historians, etc.  Best of all, it’s lots of fun, and for me, has created new inspirations for story lines. Hope to see you there.

And now your moment of Writing Zen:

“Writing means sharing. It’s part of the human condition to want to share things – thoughts, ideas, opinions.” ~Paulo Coelho

—

—
What did you Write today?
~Casz

Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron

Weekly Writing Prompt — February 4, 2015

Weekly Writing Prompt

Writers:

Winter has mere weeks before it passes. Huzzah!
During that time, there’s still good inside time to kickstart our writing life into gear. Today’s prompt is about looking at our own personal creative cycle. Do you know when you are most creative? First thing in the morning? At lunch? In the middle of the night? You need to maybe do some morning pages and explore what your most creative time looks like. Personally, I’m best first thing in the morning, especially around the full moon. But, I also can be productive when just left at it, too. When is your time. Should you guard that time? Of course you should guard that time. You should set yourself up so that your most productive creative time is set aside and held sacred. Yes, I said sacred. We all know this to be true. Life does get in the way. I’ve gotten away from that, having gone through some severe family crises lately. Life will do that to you. The important thing is to get back to holding that creative time sacred. For you it could be a writing cafe time — I tend to hold Friday mornings as sacred as anything else and head to The Black Dog. Does life get in the way sometimes? Yes. But, I keep putting it on my calendar and blocking it out. Therefore, more times than not, I’m there, doing my thing — writing, networking, working through being stuck.
This is a great time of year to figure out where the busyness of life, the interruptions, the not as important things have crept into your sacred writing time. Figure it out, and fix it. Before the sun is beckoning us to come out and play.
Don’t forget, Peer Review Workshop on Feb. 21 at 10:30 a.m. Bring your pitch for your novel for roundtable discussion and critique.
And now your moment of Writing Zen:
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” ~William Penn


—

—
What did you Write today?
~Casz

Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron

Weekly Writing Prompt — January 28, 2015 Edition

Weekly Writing Prompt, , , ,

Good morning, Writers:

There are times when I sit down to do this that I am unsure of how else to encourage, support, mentor, and motivate you to do what I know you want to do, what you should do — your story matters — and keep things interesting along the way. We’ve been at this collectively for more than six years. Clearly there’s more work to do — each and every day.

Each and every day brings me to our focus today. I think in conversations with many of you over the last couple of weeks, and I am guilty of this myself, that we have to feel each night when we rest our heads that there should have been MORE work done in our writing life. There should have been hours and hours of editing, instead of the quick lunch-time session we had. There should have been 5,000 words written instead of 500. We should have read for an hour instead of the 20 minutes before bed.

Stop it.

More and Great are the enemy of Enough and Good.

Did you work on your writing today? If you can say, yes, then you are good. You did enough. We all have struggles with the responsibilities in our lives that impede on our writing life. But, if you worked on it, if you’ve continued to make it a focus, even if twice this past week it took a back seat and you only got so much done — don’t sweat it. It’s kind of like falling off your diet. You get back on and keep moving forward.

Therefore, your prompt today is to know that each and every minute you spend is good. Feeling good about that will lead to more minutes, trust me. Before you know it, you’ll have that revision done. You’ll have that pitch done. You’ll have that short story sent out.

You’ll be moving forward. That’s enough. That’s good.

Speaking of moving forward and doing pitches, the February 21st workshop is all about the KindleScout (the replacement for ABNA). Things kick off at 10:30 a.m. at the North Bend Library’s meeting room. There are a few phrases every writer hates to hear. “It’s just not quite right for us,” definitely tops the list. However, second place winner is probably, “Tell us about your novel in 300 words,” otherwise known as a pitch. Condensing hundreds of hours of labor of love into mere paragraphs designed to make an agent or publisher realize what brilliance is being offered to them is enough to make any writer cry, on the spot, in public. The Feb. 21 workshop aims to take a little pain out of the process. You’ll be breaking down and rebuilding a proper monument to the pitch. Bring your first, or four hundredth, attempt at a pitch for the novel you are looking to shop to an agent, publish, or submit to this year’s KindleScout (ABNA’s cancellation was announced on Jan. 19th). We will round-robin them into book-selling shape.

Hope to see you all there.

Now your moment of Writing Zen:

“Everyone has a story that makes me stronger. I know that the work I do is important and I enjoy it, but it is nice to hear the feedback of what we do to inspire others.” ~Richard Simmons

—

—
What did you Write today?
~Casz

Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron

Weekly Writing Prompt — Jan. 21, 2015 Edition

Weekly Writing Prompt
Greetings Writers:
Today I want to remind you about snap writing — about carrying a small notebook and pen with you wherever you go to write at any moment you can.Waiting at the bus stop? Riding the bus? Stuck in the doctor’s office? In between meetings? On a lunch break? The answer is writing — snap writing. Doesn’t matter if it’s for two minutes or twenty. Just get it down. Try a poem. Keep working on your novel. Write a flash fiction short story. Anything. Everything. In a snap you could have 100 words. Those moments of snap quickly add up to 1,000 words.
What snap writing could you do today? Get that notebook and pen ready!
Also, need an artist’s date or literary field trip? One of our own is having an event:   Rachel Barnard’s audiobook for At One’s Beast just went live and she’s going to have a party to celebrate! It will be January 22nd (also her birthday) from 6 to 8 PM at St. James Espresso in Kirkland. For more details: https://www.facebook.com/events/719396628129454
This is a more open party as she will also be celebrating her 25th birthday and her love of reading and cake.  She invites you all to join her.
Now get writing! But, first your moment of Writing Zen:
“The impatient idealist says: ‘Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.’ But such a place does not exist. We all have to stand on the earth itself and go with her at her pace.” ~ Chinua Achebe

—
What did you Write today?
~Casz

Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron

Weekly Writing Prompt — January 7, 2015 Edition

Weekly Writing Prompt

Happy New Year Writers!

And brilliant sunshine for those of us in the land of Twin Peaks.
Happy Birthday to our member, Takako Wright, too.
There is lots coming up in January, so tune up your calendars:
Workshop on January 17 at 10:30 a.m. until noon. Come prepared to share writing, to read, and provide feedback. This will be a peer-lead workshop. Bring at least three copies of your work to get three perspectives. Bring a poem, a short story, a chapter. Anything that can be handled within the timeframe of this workshop.
I was telling you all about the Storyteller Circle last month and it was really inspirational and fun! So, I hope you will join us again this month. Because of the holidays the scheduling of the workshop has jumped an extra week and will be on Jan. 17th (It’s typically the second week of the month). It’s in the afternoon at the North Bend visitors’ center and art gallery (right by Bartells). We start talking story at 3 p.m. If you play an instrument, feel free to bring that as well. Musical story is appreciated as well. Join the event via Facebook if you like, too. Make this your weekly artist’s date if you like.
Speaking of artist’s dates…that’s the prompt this week. Is to look at the month of January and make sure you have an artist date lined up each week for yourself. They are an investment in your creative life and, in my opinion, an exercise in self-care. So what are your artist’s dates this month?
One last administrative note, please continue to share with me your successes so I can share with the group, post on our web site, etc. I’d like to share that on January 3rd I got notification that my first serious essay piece was accepted for publication. As soon as the ink is dry on the contract, I’ll be able to share more with you. Please share your successes with all of us as well.
And now your moment of Writing Zen:
“Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste.”
― Charlotte Brontë

—

—
What did you Write today?
~Casz

Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron