Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: The Secret Mission
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt is about that secret mission.
You are carrying on your day as you normally do. You get up, have breakfast at the usual time and leave at 8.30am exactly.
However, as you pull out of your driveway, your car gets stopped by a black sports car. The passenger window opens.
‘Get in,’ says the stranger.
From there, you get pulled into a secret mission by accident and are forced to make up a new identity on the spot. Go!
by 
Novel Kicks Writing Room: Interview Questions and Answers
For today’s writing group exercise, you’ll be interviewing your character.
Create a bunch of interview questions for one of your characters – general CV stuff but also personal questions like likes, dislikes, fears etc.
Do this for a character you’re currently working on or if you’ve not got a character who is suitable, create one named Bob James.
Now interview your character, asking them these questions. It’s interesting to see how your character will answer.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Descriptive Alphabet
Today, we are going to write a descriptive alphabet.
On a piece of A4 paper, write the alphabet down the left side of the page. Leave enough room between letters to write a little glossary.
Now, look around the room you are in and fill in each letter with an object you can see.
Once you’ve done that, give each object a description. Give as much detail as you can in the small space you have.
You could also do another alphabet but this time, you could make up the objects and then descriptions for them.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Eavesdrop
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt gives you permission to eavesdrop.
Writers are good observers. Throughout today, try to catch people’s conversations. Write down any snippets that you find funny, outrageous or inspire something.
Once you have five, use them all in a fiction piece that begins with the following sentence:
‘I couldn’t believe she did it. I mean, the nerve.’
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Use That Song
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt is all about using song titles.
Use the song titles below in your piece of writing that begins with the line, ‘What do you know about it?’
The song titles are:
What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?
Respect.
Thriller.
Can’t Stop The Feeling.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Sliding Doors
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt is going to ask what if?
Put your character in a situation where they have to make a split decision. Do they or do they not get on a specific train or bus? Do they decide to go out or stay in? Do or don’t they post an important letter or send an urgent e-mail. The situation can be anything you like.
Write two pieces. The first is if they did something and the second is from the point of view of if they didn’t do something – for example, the consequences for getting on and not getting on a train. How do the situations differ?
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Editing
For today’s exercise, I thought we could look at editing.
This is one of the most important parts of the process. This is a chance to tidy and polish your piece of writing before it goes on to an editor or an agent.
How do you like to approach the process? Do you like to wait for a first draft or edit as you go?
Write a piece of fiction no more than seven hundred and fifty words. Start it using this sentence, ‘The front door was black with a copper horseshoe knocker.’
Once you are done, try to put it away for a couple of days.
When you are ready to come back to it, edit it down to five hundred words. Then, once you’re happy with it, pass it on to someone you trust for feedback.
How was it? Did you find it a simple process? An enjoyable one? Quite difficult?
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Alternative Realities
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
For today’s prompt, it is a chance to look at an alternative reality.
Pick an important event from history – maybe from an era you’re particularly interested in. Now question what reality would be like if that event didn’t happen the way it did.
What if Mary Queen of Scots became Queen instead of Elizabeth? What if someone else started and won World War I?
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Freaky Friday
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt has a mothers theme.
As it is Mother’s Day at the weekend, I thought I’d set today’s prompt around the relationship between child and mother.
Most of us know the film, Freaky Friday where the mother and daughter swap places with one another. Write your own version of Freaky Friday. You could make up the setting and scenario from scratch or you could use a memory of your own from when you were a child. You could also you a situation you’ve had with your child.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Lines, Lines, Lines
For today’s activity in the writing room today, it’s all about putting the following sentences in a story.
Use all of the following lines of text below in a short story involving a wedding.
Write a minimum of 500 words and a maximum of 1,500 words. You don’t have to keep the sentences below in the same order.
The lines to include in your piece…..
‘But I am in love with her.’
‘The war has begun and they are coming for us.’
‘No, you can’t take the unicorn home.’
‘You know he will kill you the moment you step outside.’
‘I saw them in the bowlplex yesterday. Kissing.’
‘When the time comes, you’ll know.’
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Focus on Film
F
riday 10th March 2017: Film Focus
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt is about a character in a movie.
Think of your favourite movie. Now think about your favourite character in that movie.
Write a scene featuring this character but a scene that doesn’t feature in the current movie. Is it that the boy doesn’t get the girl? Could it be that the person you thought was the good guy is actually the bad guy?
You can write this in prose or you could have a go at writing it in a script format.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Become an Explorer
For today’s exercise, this is your chance to become an explorer for a while.
Getting out into the fresh air is always good for clearing the cobwebs and going in search of inspiration.
Get out and explore your neighbourhood today. Walk down a street you don’t normally walk down. Turn left where you would normally go right or vice versa.
What do you hear, see or smell?
You could always take a camera to keep a record of everything you discover.
Once you’re back, go through and see what inspires a story.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: A World Without…
Friday 3rd March 2017: A world without….
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt is about imagining a world without.
There are many things that we, as humans feel that we can’t be without. Make a list of the things in your own life that you feel fit this category.
Then pick one and use it as inspiration for a story. Your character has just woken up and found themselves without this object. It’s an object that becomes important to their survival. What happens?
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Off on a Tangent
Tuesday 28th February 2017: Off on a Tangent.
For our writing exercise today, I thought we could go back to generating ideas.
Find an A4 piece of paper and draw a box in the middle of the page.
Pick up the book that is closest to you. Open it and write down the first word you see in the box you’ve just drawn.
Use that word as a starting point. What does that word make you think of. Write an arrow out from the box and write it down. Does the first word inspire anything else? Use each word you write down as inspiration for the next.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Fictional Best Friend
Friday 24th February 2017: Fictional Best Friend
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt involves a fictional best friend.
Out of all the fictional characters you like (or don’t like,) which one would you like to hang out with for the day?
What sort of things would you get up to? Where would you go?
Build a short story around these ideas. Begin with the sentence, ‘we left at 9am.’
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Character and Dialogue
For today’s writing exercise I wanted to look again at characters and dialogue.
Turn on the TV and try to catch any programme or film that is currently ending (basically in its end credits.)
Whilst watching the end credits, try to write down as many names as you can. Names that you like, dislike or intrigue you. Maybe a name triggers an idea for story in the future?
Once you have a list, pick three names that stand out to you the most and write a short bio for each of them. Write it like you would a CV.
Now place all of them in an interview situation where you are only allowed to use dialogue. They can all be in a group interview or in separate rooms. Logistics is up to you.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Start The Next Sentence With
Friday 17th February 2017: Start The Next Sentence With….
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt: Use the last word of each sentence to begin the next one.
For example, The cat came in from outside. Outside was cold. Cold was making it’s presence known.
Start off your piece off with the following sentence; ‘I looked at the clock. I couldn’t wait.’
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Writing Prompts
In the writing room today, I thought I would keep it simple.
Pick one prompt from each of the following and use them as inspiration for a short story with a maximum word count of 1,500 words.
A)
A carpenter
A teenage boy
A cartoonist
An actress/actor
B)
In a penthouse apartment
In a dentist waiting room
In a lift
On an island in the middle of the ocean.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Develop Your Writing Habit
Today in our writing room, I wanted to talk about how important it is to develop a writing habit.
I am very guilty of not giving myself enough of a routine and being strict about it. It can be so easy for life to get in the way; that washing needs putting in, I need to tidy. It’s been a long day and i just want to have a bath and go to bed. The list can go on and on but you get the idea. A lot of my procrastination is also fear. A whole novel seems such a big task doesn’t it?
It’s time to look at it as smaller chunks of writing.
This week, look at your current writing habit. Does your current routine allow time to write? Are you finding you don’t have as much time as you’d like and the writing is the first thing to be put to one side?
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: You’re Animated
Friday 3rd February 2017: You’re Animated.
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt: you are animated.
Make a list of all your favourite animations (or as many as you can remember.)
Pull all the aspects that interest you about each one together into one world and then plonk yourself as an animated character right in the middle of it.
Write about one of the adventures that finds you whilst there.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Writing To Your Various Selves.
Wednesday 2nd February 2017: writing to your various selves.
Write a letter to you future self. What would you say? Once you’ve done that, write a letter to your sixteen year old self?
Try and make the letters at least one complete side of A4.
Is there anything different between the two letters? What advice would you give to either self?
If you want, you could then repeat this exercise but write from the perspective of one or more of your characters.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Eight Sentences and Paragraphs.
Friday 27th January 2017: Eight Sentences and Paragraphs.
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
I find the news as depressing as you’d expect, especially at the moment. That is why I try to see story ideas within it. I love looking through articles. You don’t know what is going to trigger a story.
Today, head to a news site or grab a newspaper. Pick eight different news stories and write down the eighth line from each.
Use each sentence in a story. Each one should be the start of a new paragraph. Try and figure out a way to connect all of these random sentences.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Starting in the Middle
Tuesday 24th January 2017: starting in the middle.
A lot of writers, including myself, get hung up on that first sentence. I have restarted the first paragraph so many times I have lost count. The ending can also be hard to finalise. It’s sometimes tricky to know where you’re going.
When you’re writing a first draft, it is hard to allow yourself to just write.
I have a first sentence and a last sentence. The exercise today is to fill in the bit in the middle.
First sentence: Come on. We have to go else or we are not going to survive.
Last sentence: I was now by myself. I would have to set out to find them alone.
I know that on the surface it seems like it is a scientific-fi novel but you don’t have to keep it that way if you don’t want to. Have fun with it. Also, try not to edit whilst writing.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Fiction Becomes Real Life.
Friday 20th January 2017: fiction becomes real life.
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt is about fiction becoming real life. Make a list of your favourite fictional characters. Now put them all together in a story. Somehow, they all end up in your living room. Write a scene involving them all. What happens? Who gets on and who doesn’t?
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Introduce Yourself
Tuesday 17th January 2017: Introduce Yourself.
Creating characters is one of the most important things when writing a novel. A writer needs to know their characters. They need to know their likes, dislikes, what scares them or what motivates them.
The more you know your characters, the more developed they will feel or at least that is what I am finding. Today, I thought it would be fun to introduce yourself. Write a biography with you as the character. To help, I’ve included some questions below. Then you could also pick one of your characters and complete this for them. Add more questions if you wish.
Name.
Age
Date of Birth
Education.
Favourite books, music and films.
Dislikes.
by Friday 13th January 2017: A Dangerous Adventure.
Friday 13th January 2017: It’s Time To Go On A Dangerous Adventure.
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
There is a group of five. Three boys and two girls. They find a map that claims to lead them to a vast fortune. They begin to follow it blindly. It leads them deeper underground and far away from the small town they live in.
Things are not as they seem though. One by one, something begins to happen to each of them.
Write this story. How does it end?
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Poetry into Prose
Tuesday 10th January 2016: Poetry into Prose.
Today, I thought it would be fun to look at changing poetry into a short story.
Pick a favourite poem (although it might also be interesting to pick one you don’t like.) The theme and the content can be up to you.
Convert the poem into a short story. Write up to 2,000 words. You can change the plot around as well as the characters.
Have fun with it.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Resolutions
Friday 6th January 2016: Resolutions
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt: The new year has rolled around but it is not the usual happy event people have got to know. After the war ended, a law was made that every new year, people should make a list of things they have done wrong throughout the year and for each one, a punishment is administered.
Write about one person who goes against the law and what the consequences are.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Christmas Carol
Friday 23rd December 2016: Christmas Carol.
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt: As there are only two days to go, I couldn’t resist making the Fiction Friday Christmas themed.
We all know the story of The Christmas Carol. Scrooge, Jacob Marley, The ghost of past, present and future and the eventual redemption.
This week, update the Christmas Carol to make it modern.
Your character is not liked. He’s not a nice person. He/she shuns their family, friends and the Christmas season. Your character is greedy and uncharitable. They are visited by four ghosts. However, what if he is forced to become one of the ghosts for a while? What if he somehow gets the power to transport someone else?
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Writing Achievements and Goals
Thursday 22nd December 2016: Writing Achievements of 2016 and Goals for 2017.
As this is the last writing group exercise of 2016, I thought it would be good to look back at your year of writing and achievements and then look ahead to the new year.
Divide the page into two. In the first column, write down all the things you’ve achieved this year. It can be anything. For example, that you managed to write every day for a week.
Once you’ve done that, in the other column, write down all of your writing goals for the coming year. Do you finally want to start your book? Write more short stories?
Write everything down. Keep it somewhere safe where you can go back and look at it when you need a boost.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Someone Is Keeping A Secret
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt: Someone is keeping a secret.
It is time for the family to get together before Christmas arrives. It doesn’t usually take long for tensions to run high as Mum and Dad and five siblings come back under one roof.
Something someone wants to keep secret is quickly revealed but who’s secret is it?
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Beginning and The End
Tuesday 13th December 2016: Beginning and the End.
Today, think about an idea for a story. It could be one you’ve only been inspired to write today or an idea you’ve been thinking about for a while.
Make a few notes about the beginning and the end. Write a couple of hundred words each – how you want it to begin and how you want it to end.
Now set a timer for thirty minutes and make as many notes as you can about the middle. You know how it is going to end but how is the middle going to go?
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Both Sides
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt: Both Sides.
Your story is going to be told from the perspective of a couple in a relationship. Write five hundred words minimum for each person. When writing from the man’s point of view, he was paid to go out with the woman in the relationship for a bet.
When writing from the woman’s perspective, she has just found out.
Tell it from both sides.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: A Different Way
Tuesday 6th December 2016: A Different Way…
Today’s exercise requires you to think of an event/memory from your childhood. This should be one where you made a decision that affected the outcome of the event.
Write a story using this memory but you made a different decision. It ended a different way.
Did you decide to stand up to a bully? Did you not take a part in a play at school because you were scared?
How does making a different decision change it?
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: The Call
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt: The Call.
You are trying to get to sleep. Your phone rings. It’s from an unknown number but because you’re half asleep, you answer it when you normally wouldn’t.
You answer and say ‘hello.’
There is a pause.
‘We need you,’ is the response before the caller hangs up and you are left with a dial tone.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Interrogation Room
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt: Interrogation.
You are in a police interrogation room. You can decide whether you want to write from the point of view of the accused or the accuser.
Decide what the crime has been. Serious or petty?
Write a conversation between the accused and accuser but try not to disclose what crime has been committed.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Space Race
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt is about a space race.
In the eleventh hour before a big race across space, you are fired from the team. On the morning of the race, you’re hired by the rival team. Your presence does not go down well with your former teammates. The stakes are high and the prize is life changing. The race is about to begin. On your marks, get set….
What happens in this race? Does anything underhand happen?
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Sitting and Listening
Tuesday 25th October 2016: Sitting and Listening.
For today’s prompt, it’s about getting out and about and listening.
When you have a few spare moments, go and take a bus journey or sit in a coffee shop. In fact, any busy area will do.
Try to make notes of what people are talking about. How are they speaking? How do they say things? Try to take as many notes of conversation snippets as you can (but not making obvious you are spying on people.)
Once you’ve done that, make up a story based around some of the dialogue you’ve picked up.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Very Short Story
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt is not a long story.
Write a short story in a hundred words or less. Subject, characters and setting is your choice but it has to be told in a hundred words or less. If you need some inspiration, there are some prompts below.
Two members of the public are stuck in a lift with a celebrity.
The door at the end of a very dark corridor suddenly opens.
For one hour, you find you can suddenly see and talk to that one person you miss.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Observation
Tuesday 18th October 2016: Observation.
Choose any colour. You can pick your favourite but it could be interesting to pick one you don’t like so much?
Now, either walk around your home, outside or take a break around your place of work for up to fifteen minutes. How many times have you seen that colour? Takes notes as you go around if you like.
Once you’re done, write about what you saw in as much detail as you can.
by Book Club
