Tag Archives: work shop

Weekly Writing Prompt — June 4, 2014 Edition

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Prompt:  Prepare something to share for Tuesday’s workshop. Make at least two hard copies of it. Make sure it’s not longer than 8,000 words.

Remember:  RSVP for the work shop on Tuesday, June 10 at 6 p.m. at the North Bend Library.
Nudge:  Keep doing your snap writing, morning pages, and artist’s dates.
Question:  When was the last time you were at a writers cafe?  Plan to attend one in the next month.
Writing Zen:  “You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.”

― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

Weekly Writing Prompt — May 7, 2014 Edition

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Bet you thought I forgot about you? Nah! Just been busy taking advantage of the dry weather to get some urban farming chores done. Now it’s back to the write life.

This week’s prompt is about carrying a notebook & pen. It doesn’t have to be a leather-bound journal. It can and should be something uber portable — something that fits in your pocket, in your purse, in a side pocket of your knapsack. Same for the pen. No feather plumes, or calligraphy pens necessary. I somehow ended up with a Jay Berry’s Pen and a QFC pen in my purse. Still there. Still using it. Nothing fancy, see? Do not think your digital notebook on your phone, ipod, or tablet is the same. We want old-school paper and pen. Ya dig?
Your job is for the next week, carry this tiny notebook and whatever pen with you and write whenever you are stalled. Stalled on the bus, waiting for the doctor, waiting for the kid after sports, drinking coffee in the morning. Your code words (maybe emboss it on the front of the notebook?) is:  Squeeze & Scrawl. Squeeze in some writing time — just a sentence or two. A thought. An idea. A quick Haiku. Anything. Something. Do this every day through next Tuesday’s Workshop and then, let’s talk about it. I’m betting you will fine that you have a ton more words than if you’d not carried that. Five minutes extra a day can net you that many more words, thoughts, ideas, maybe even a whole short story to work for submittal when the week is up.
Email me photos of your notebook and pen, or text them to me, so I can post on our web site. This is just a bonus, just an option, but I’d love to see it and I bet you all might find it inspiring to know that many of your writing colleagues are doing the same.
And now take a moment and RSVP for May 13ths work shop. 6 p.m. North Bend Library Meeting Room. If you’ve already responded, no need to do again. Looking forward to seeing you all at the various cafes or the forthcoming workshop.
Here’s your Writing Zen for the week:

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” ~Carl Sandburg

 

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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 — April 23, 2014

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Writers!

Wow! We’ve had a busy writing-centered week. Love it. Poetry on Monday. Work shop on Tuesday. And tonight is Writers Cafe at Jay Berry’s.
Congratulations on a great event on Monday! The library seemed fairly happy with the participation — both from poet and audience. Feels good!
Last night’s workshop helped our authors focus in on what to do and not to do to be a better candidate for an agent to notice:  Do’s and Don’ts and things to do before you knock on the agent’s door. Now, go get ’em gang!
Our May 13th workshop will be on Finding Time for Writing. Over the past few months at workshops and cafes I keep hearing folks make a comment about writing time getting pushed down in the priority list. We’ll go over strategies to make time for writing, juggling your writing needs and family/work/community responsibilities. For some it will be a repeat, but it seems we all need it, including myself. I also have learned a few more things that I will share with you during this time as well. Oh, and we’ll also write.
There is some desire from the groups for me to repeat the “Solidifying Your Online Presence” work shop. So, I’m going to put that on the calendar for May 27th.
Our first June workshop, June 10, will be on critiquing. Be prepared to bring a few copies of one of your short stories, sample chapter, or a few poems (not more than 5 pages) to exchange with a couple of the group. Remember, we practice a creative safe zone tactics. Don’t know what that is? Then plan to be at this work shop.
Please put these dates on your calendar and be there. As always, 6 p.m. at the North Bend Library meeting Room, until about 7:30. Last night we went over a bit, but dealing with agents is kind of intense. 🙂 I’m always happy to stay later (we have the room until 8) to answer questions.
Today’s prompt is a straight-up prompt getting you to just pause and get words down.
Start your piece based upon this sentence:  The janitor finds something interesting in the accountant’s waste basket.
Go.
Write.
Don’t just stare at the screen, go write. After you write you can get your Moment of Writing Zen:
“You need three things to become a successful novelist: talent, luck and discipline. Discipline is the one element of those three things that you can control, and so that is the one that you have to focus on controlling, and you just have to hope and trust in the other two.”

 

― Michael Chabon

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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 — April 16, 2014 Edition

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Writers!

I hope you all have recovered from Spring Break and are rolling along into the active season of warming.
I have a simple request as your prompt today.
Please attend this:
Photo: Come and help celebrate National Poetry Month. There will be several published writers reading published and new works at this special event at North Bend library on April 21st. This is a King County Library System event. Join Us! Appearances by Jacquelyn Fedyk, Linda Garcia, Sheri J. Kennedy (aka Kennedy J. Quinn, Takako Wright (aka Tommia Wright), Rachel Barnard, Stephen J. Matlock, and David S. Moore
I know that it means for some of you, that you won’t be able to come to the work shop the next evening (6 p.m. 4-22, at the North Bend Library Meeting Room) But if you have to support one and not the other, please attend on Monday night. April is National Poetry Month. Fiction and Non Fiction writers, we need to support our Poet counterparts.
Please RSVP and let me know which of these events you plan to attend.
And now your moment of Writing Zen:
“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.” ~T. S. Eliot

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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 — April 9, 2014 Edition

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Warm April Greetings To You:

The work shop last night was another intimate affair. Those that attended got some juicy details on book reviews — the how, the why, the where, and the who, of course.
I’m missing many of you. But we can’t look at changing when the work shops are until January of 2015. Regardless, it seems no matter what day and time, some of you won’t be able to come. Do know that I always plan to give good information, exercises, and encouragement to follow your writing dreams and desires.
If there is a topic you would like covered in the work shops, please let me know and I’ll do my best to get it on the schedule. We meet again April 22, at the North Bend Library, 6 p.m. I hope to see more of you there. The topic is “How to be on an agent’s MUST HAVE list.”
Today’s prompt is a more traditional prompt. I’ll give you a scenario and you try to write a short story or scene in your WIP around the prompt. Try to get at least 1500 words.
You or your main character is a writer (haha, big stretch, I know), and everything you write keeps happening around you. What does the writer do?
Go. Write. Don’t worry about editing, punctuation, spelling, none of it. The goal is to just get the words down.
Don’t put it off. Go do it now. Or put it on your daytimer/calendar to make it happen before next week. Just do it.
Writers Write. So, go write.
And now your moment of Writing Zen:

“One can be absolutely truthful and sincere even though admittedly the most outrageous liar. Fiction and invention are of the very fabric of life.” ~ Henry Miller

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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 15, 2014 Edition

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All:

This is arriving in your mail box a day late. My apologies. I was trying to ferret out some information and it was taking me longer than I would have preferred.
The workshop on Tuesday was a lot of inspirational fun. I hope that many of you can plan to join us on the 28th and then head post-haste from that to the FreeValley Publishing Round Table at Boxley’s.
Also, grants, submissions, and contests, notably the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards, were discussed on Tuesday. I found that the 2014  ABNA contest has not opened yet and Amazon has, as of today, not planned to cancel it. So, finish up your pitches and everything else and get ready for it. In the meantime, here’s a link to some more contests and calls for submissions you might be interested in.
Today’s prompt is continuing on our Poor Man’s MFA plan. This prompt will take you over several weeks, so you need to be committed.
Good writers are readers.
Your prompt today is to find a novel, any novel, and read it like a writer. Have a notebook handy. As you read, make notes of the mechanics of the book:  genre, point of view, and length. Then be sure to acknowledge phrases and word choices that you like. Rewrite them so they are ingrained in your brain. Look for the character development, where is the conflict, what does the character want, what’s in the character’s way? What are the plot points/devices? Make notes as you read. Not just in your head, but in a notebook. Get a fresh one if you like, or just stick this exercise in your daily morning pages journal.
Next week we’ll be looking at even more things from the book because you’re going to write a critique/review of it.
And now your moment of Writing Zen:

“I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.”  ~James Joyce

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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