Novel Kicks Writing Room: Structure and The Eight Point Arc
The structure of your novel is one of the most important things in novel writing.
It’s something I have been really trying to focus on whilst trying to write my first book.
The following is what is called the ‘eight point arc.’ I came across it in ‘Writing a Novel and Getting it Published’ by Nigel Watts. I’ve found this structure suggestion incredibly helpful and I feel it’s worth going though the following list and applying your current work in progress.
Stasis – this is the ‘every day’ in which your story is set. For example, Kat in District Twelve at the beginning of the Hunger Games or Harry Potter in Privet Drive. What is this in your book?
Trigger – this is the thing that happens that kick starts events for your character. This may be something that is beyond the control of your character.
The Quest – this could be something bad for the main character like breaking up with a spouse, loosing a job or a loved one or it could be winning the lottery.
Surprise – this is the obstacles to overcome; the conflicts and the hard choices. It could also include pleasant events but predictable should try to be avoided.
Critical Choice – This is where the character has to make a choice and we see what they are made of. These choices are often hard to make and overcome.
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NaNoWriMo Advice: Louise Dean Says Short Sentences Can Be A Powerful Tool
As we reach the final few days of National Novel Writing Month 2017, Louise Dean, author and founder of online writing course Kritikme.com joins me to share her insights into why using short sentences is a powerful tool when writing a novel. Thank you for joining me today Louise. Over to you.
Short Sentences. (BANG!)
Creating Impact.
We can’t always be poetic. We cannot always find a new way of saying things. But if we offer visual images in short sentences, we can create an effect on our readers that is an assault on their senses. Think Bob Dylan.
One short sentence hard on the heels of the last is a highly engaging way to write. It forces the reader into a world that is unfolding with immediacy, speed, possibly danger. Wham. Slam. Bang. Things are happening fast as in an emergency. The story is unfolding. The reader is alert.
Short & Sweet
The most economical short story writer of all time is probably Raymond Carver. With his precise, punchy prose, he conveys in a few words what many novelists take several pages to elucidate. In stories such as ‘Fat’ and ‘Are You a Doctor?’ he writes with understatement about suburban disenchantment in mid-century America.
I’d like to share with you the two things that made his short stories works of art.
- At the end of every short story – as in the first chapter of a novel – EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED.
- Carver’s genius was to incorporate here what happens in the last chapter of a novel which is the narrator is facing life after him or her – THE ANNIHILATION OF SELF.
These themes can be served, should be served, in staccato sentences for great power.
Make it shorter.
‘Remember that two great masters of language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. ‘To be or not to be?’ asks Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The longest word is three letters long.’ Kurt Vonnegut
Vonnegut employs a choral technique from the songbook of modern music too, with repetition of an almost biblical phrase ‘So it goes’ throughout Slaughterhouse-5.
When Kurt Vonnegut uses that sentence again and again throughout Slaughterhouse-5, setting it against the backdrop of one of the worst tragedies of WWII — the firebombing of Dresden — the fatalistic attitude of that short sentence provides a hard contrast to the horrific details of Dresden.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Over A Cliff
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…
Your character finds himself/herself at the top of a cliff.
Below, there is a waterfall that is both beautiful and very noisy.
Your character is trying to hear what a friend (who is standing nearby) is saying but nothing can be heard over the crashing of the water.
Your character is holding something valuable. It is not yet known what the object is or how your character ended up on the edge.
Continue the story.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: A Fifteen Step Plan
This time next week, many of us will be getting ready for National Novel Writing Month. It’s a big month in the world of writing and I for one can’t wait to get started.
At this point, we are all thinking about what we’re going to write. If you are planning on taking part, I have found that having a chapter plan really helps keep me going especially during week two and three where momentum can falter.
Whether you’re a pantster or not, in my experience in previous years, some sort of plan is a must.
Using the idea you’re using for NaNoWriMo (or any idea you have if you’re not planning on NaNo in November,) write a plan.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: More Free Writing
Free writing can produce many ideas for fictional stories. If you’re familiar with the concept of morning pages then you will know that this is a valuable source of inspiration.
The writing exercise for the writing group this week is to try and free write over the next seven days for a minimum of five minutes a day or three pages of A4.
I’ve included a one word prompt list below if you wish to use them. Let yourself write without judgement or editing.
When you develop something in your free writing that interests you, just make a note of it.
Most important of all…. have fun.
Prompts:
Day one: Treasure
Day two: Orange
Day three: Mighty
Day four: Injury
Day five: Travel
by My Writing Ramblings: The Season of Literary Abandon Approaches
I love summer but I love when Autumn rolls around too and it’s for a few reasons. The colour of the trees, the excuse to cuddle up under a duvet as the weather gets cooler, Halloween and Christmas. I even love listening to the sound of the rain on the roof. Yeah, I am strange.
Another reason why I get so excited for this time of year is that the countdown has begun for National Novel Writing Month.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with NaNoWriMo, it is ‘thirty days of literary abandon.’
Founded by a group of writers in San Francisco in 1999, the idea is that for thirty days between 1st – 30th November, we tell the internal editor to leave us alone and just write. It’s all about getting the fifty thousand words written rather than worry about the quality. There is a whole load of advice on how to approach editing once the challenge is done.
My internal editor has a lot to answer for and I think this is why I love this chance to say goodbye to it for a while. The community surrounding NaNoWriMo is incredible and so supportive. I really feel like I am a part of something.
This will be my seventh year participating but it still hasn’t lost any of its excitement.
Your book can be in any genre and POV you like.
My routine is that I buy a new notebook in October. I know, any excuse right? I always set out to plan what I am going to write. Some years have a more detailed outline than others and more often than not I will start out with a plan and end up a pantster by the end of the month. That’s part of the fun.
The advantage of this challenge is the fact that by the end, you will have words down on paper or computer. Even if you don’t finish, you will still have more words written than you did at the beginning of the month. It’s a fun way to write.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Knowing Your Market
I am a big reader. When asking published authors for advice, I think the majority of them have said that reading is one of the most important things a writer can do.
Also, knowing your market is always advantageous when deciding what genre to write in – knowing what works and the elements you need to write the best novel that you can.
That is what I thought we could look at today; Learning what is good or bad.
Pick ten books from the genre in which you want to write.
Read the blurbs and make a small two sentence summary about what it’s about.
What is it about these books that appeal to you?
What does not appeal about them?
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: A Forced Reality
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 picked at random to take part in a reality TV show that will be shown across the whole of the nation.
If you refuse, you will be put on trial and face a possible death sentence so you don’t have much choice but to take part.
You have to get past so many rounds and be the only one standing to win. Write a scene at a point in this story – the part that has appeals to you.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Visualising Your Novel
Visualising your novel as a movie.
As I begin to put my first novel together, I am increasingly finding that sitting and visualising a scene in the book like a movie helps in describing the scene.
Pick a bit of your work in progress or a favourite passage from a book and not only tell it from someone else’s point of view within the scene but write it like a script for a film.
Visualise the setting, the weather, which characters are there. What they look like, what they are wearing. What are the characters talking about?
Try to get over as much information and detail as possible in your dialogue.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Haunted Accusations
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: Haunted Accusations.
The scene is a courthouse. The weather outside is brisk and it threatens to rain. A crowd of people have gathered outside all waiting impatiently for the result.
Inside the courtroom, the happy go lucky guy sits as he waits for his trial to begin. He’s there because of a supposedly haunted object which he says carried out the crime he is being accused of.
Write this story.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: A Character Bucket List
If your character was told they only had a small amount of time left, what would they do with the time?
The concept of the bucket list is well-known. There will be things you’ve thought about doing whilst you still have time. I have a list.
What would your character have on their bucket list? Travel to the Great Wall of China? Be the star in the circus? Want to travel to the moon?
With no financial or practical restrictions, create a bucket list for the protagonist and antagonist in a work in progress. Are they similar? Do they differ greatly? Write two short stories where each of your character picks something off their list.
by A Moment With…Charlie Laidlaw
A big welcome to Charlie Laidlaw. His book, The Things We Learn When We’re Dead was released by Accent Press on 30th June 2017.
About The Things We Learn When We’re Dead…
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy meets The Lovely Bones in this surrealist, sci-fi comedy.
When Lorna is run over, she wakes in a hospital in which her nurse looks like a young Sean Connery, she is served wine for supper, and everyone avoids her questions.
It soon transpires that she is in Heaven, or on HVN. Because HVN is a lost, dysfunctional spaceship, and God the aging hippy captain.
She seems to be there by accident …Or does God have a higher purpose after all?
He joins me today to talk about the inspiration behind his new novel. Over to you, Charlie…
All books start with a beginning.
For the reader, that beginning is page one.
For the author, the beginning comes much earlier.
For me, that came on a train from Edinburgh to London. For no reason whatsoever, the idea for the book came into my head.
It was an apt place to have that beginning because, being a civilised place, Edinburgh is the only city in the world to have named its main railway station after a book.
Part of the inspiration was a quote from the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius Antoninus who wrote that “our life is what our thoughts make it.”
I’d always thought that life is what happens to you – all things good or bad: the people you meet, the things you do.
But, from a different perspective, everything about life is also about memory. We can’t do our jobs if we can’t remember how to do them; we can’t love people if we’ve forgotten who they are. It is our thoughts that shape us.
It’s the only train journey I’ve ever been on where I hoped for signal failure, or for spontaneous industrial action. I could have sat on that train for another five hours.
When I got home, I wrote the first chapter and the last chapter. The first chapter has changed out of all recognition, but the last chapter is still pretty much the same.
The story I’d come up was the story of Lorna Love, and the book follows her as she grows up. She’s feisty and funny, but also damaged and conflicted. More than anything, she’s someone fairly ordinary who you could meet on any street.
The story is about the small decisions that she makes, and of their unintended consequences. It’s also how, apparently killed in a road accident on her way back from a dinner party, she comes to look back at her life and rearrange her memories in a different pattern.
By the end of the book, when her memorises have come back to her, she can see herself in a new light. Her old memories, rearranged in a new way, make her a different person. (She’s not dead, by the way…and hence the book’s title).
It’s about being given a second chance and that is, perhaps, one of the most universal and recurring theme in literature.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: An Icy Reunion
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 an icy reunion.
Four people arrive at an isolated beach house. They all seem surprised that the others are there as each couple thought they would be alone.
They have all met before. There are two women and two men. However, they have not always seen eye to eye.
They’ve not seen one another in a long time. Write about the day/evening they have. What kept them apart and why for so long?
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Using Photos For Inspiration
This week, we are going to look again at characters you could potentially include in a novel.
Find a photo (an old family one or if it’s easier, one from the internet. There needs to be at least three people in it.)
Look at each individual person, list the following about them;
Ten characteristics.
Five hobbies.
Five likes and dislikes.
Ten things that they would own.
Do any of these people have similarities with any of the characters you are trying to develop?
Add anything to your notes that might be relevant.
by A Moment With… Audrey Davis
I’m saying a big hello today to Audrey Davis. Her debut novel, A Clean Sweep has just recently been released via eBook.
Love comes around when you least expect it. Fifty-something widow Emily isn’t expecting romance. Nor is she expecting a hunky twenty-something chimney sweep on her doorstep.
Daughter Tabitha knows something isn’t quite right with her relationship, while her boss – Abba-loving Meryl – thinks she’s found the real deal. Are they both right, or pursuing Mr Wrong?
Emily’s sister, Celeste, has the perfect marriage … or does she? Can a fitness tracker lead her down the path to happiness or heartbreak?
Susan is single, overweight and resigned to a life of loneliness. There was the one who got away but you don’t get another try, do you?
Sharing her route to publication, it’s over to you, Audrey.
It’s been five weeks since my first novel – A Clean Sweep – was published on Amazon but I am still giddy with excitement. I am an author! An actual, people-are-buying-my book author (or otter, as my lovely Dutch friend pronounces it). OK, I’m a very long way from topping the best seller list but that’s probably because I’m clueless about the marketing side. More of that in a little while …
My writing journey began several decades ago – yes, I am old – when I trained as a journalist and worked for many years in provincial newspapers and various magazines. My relationship with my now-husband Bill took me to Singapore, Australia and the south of England before we moved to Switzerland in 2002. Along the way we raised two boys, now all grown up and living in the UK, but we remained in the land of cheese and chocolate. Any dreams of writing were put aside as I focused on never-ending house renovations which still challenge my French-speaking abilities but at least I provide entertainment for the local workers.
It was in February 2016 that I signed up for a Start Writing Fiction course run by Future Learn, an offshoot of Open University. Within a few weeks I was totally hooked, exchanging ideas and reviews with fellow students from all over the world. It was one short exercise that gave me the idea for a longer story which then grew … and grew. With no firm plot in mind I found characters popping into my head, along with vague notions of what might happen to them. Five thousand words became twenty thousand and on it went. I ran sample chapters by friends who were effusive in their praise (probably because they are very nice and polite people.)
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Secondary Character Development
In today’s Writing Room, the focus is on character.
Pick a secondary character from your work in progress
Write down five things that have happened in their lives that have been significant. Be as specific as you can. Once you’re done, expand on the event that you are most drawn to. You can use a character in your favourite book if you’d prefer. When expanding on this event, also note down how this has impacted on your plot.
For example, in my work in progress, there is a character named Maggie. She’s the mother of my main character, Carrie.
Significant event – husband left her with two children.
by Writing Room: Write Every Day For a Week.
This week in the Writing Room, I wanted to focus on getting into the habit of writing every day.
It can be hard to get into the routine of writing and usually if there is a lot going on, for me, the writing time is the first thing to get pushed to one side (which is not good.)
So, this is the best excuse to buy a new notebook and pen (if you’ve not already got one.)
Using the five prompts below, write for ten minutes every day. Don’t stop, don’t edit, just write. At the end of the week, do you have anything that could be developed further? Are there two days or more days that could be combined to make a better idea?
Tuesday: You are led into a room where a person sits behind a desk with their back to you.
Wednesday – You are on a game show where the stakes are more than just winning money.
Thursday – You run into your first love on the day you are getting married.
by NK Chats to… Penny Parkes
Penny Parkes has joined me today to talk about her new book, Practice Makes Perfect (released by Simon & Schuster on 29th June 2017.) Thank you for joining me today and congratulations for your new book. Can you tell me a little about Practice Makes Perfect?
Well, Practice Makes Perfect takes us to the fictional Cotswold market town of Larkford, where we sneak behind the scenes of the medical centre there – The Larkford Practice. There’s a whole new management structure in place. In fact, the four senior doctors are not only entwined professionally, but also personally: 4 partners, 2 couples. So, I’m sure you can imagine how the boundaries between personal and professional become ever more blurry.
On the surface it might seem like the perfect situation and the powers-that-be certainly think so, because they’ve nominated Larkford as a Model Practice. But, as is often the case, if you shine a spotlight on things, it does rather tend to emphasise the flaws…
And, as always in Larkford, we get to see the doctors as a crucial part of their community – in good times and in bad. For Dr Holly Graham, in particular, that relationship works in both directions, as resident celebrity Elsie Townsend makes it her mission to help Holly find balance and fulfilment.
I’m hoping it will be like visiting old friends for those returning to the series after Out Of Practice and also stand alone as a wonderfully rural escapade for those new to the Larkford Valley.
What’s your writing day and routine like? Any rituals?
I have to be fairly flexible, to be honest, to fit around family life, but that doesn’t stop me having an ‘ideal day’ that I try to work towards. I normally see the kids off to school and then have my breakfast – an excellent excuse to muck about on social media while I top up my caffeine levels. Then, The Ginger Ninja and I like to have a little stroll, and this mainly serves not only to wear her out, but also to give me time to think about what I want to write that day. I have found (to my cost) that I am much more efficient if I sit down to type with an idea of where I want the story to go… Even if my characters don’t always behave themselves accordingly once I get started!
What type of writer are you in terms of planning and editing?
I’d have to say that I’m a little of both – I like to sketch out a loose framework and then just let the plotlines develop on their own with a first draft. Only then will I start looking at the balance of points of view and more specific character arcs etc. and of course that’s where my incredibly insightful and lovely Editor, Jo, comes in with some much needed objectivity!
Do you have any advice for anyone experiencing writer’s block?
I think the only thing to be aware of is that, creatively, you can’t drink from an empty cup – if you’re exhausted or ill or hammering out the words simply to up the word count, I think it shows in the quality of those words. Half the time, the days when I’ve pushed through writing with the flu, for example, all those pages have ended up on the cutting room floor anyway! Sometimes better to step away – rest, recover, see a friend – and then suddenly a chance comment in the queue at the supermarket will set my enquiring mind off on a roll… Inspiration is everywhere really, except possibly staring at a blank screen!
by 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 Chats To: Emma Henderson, Author of The Valentine House
Hello Emma, thank you for joining me today. Firstly, What’s your writing day like?
It varies, depending on a lot of things – other commitments, my mood, the weather (yes, really). However, if possible, I do the bulk of my actual writing first thing in the morning. I’m an early riser, so this means no later than 6am in the winter and, often, as early as 4am in the summer. I love that time of day for its peace and quiet. No interruptions. And my brain seems to function best then. Later, if I can, I will go back to my writing and redraft or I’ll research things. There’s usually an energy dip in the afternoon, so that’s when I try to make myself do mundane but important tasks like tidying my desk (I’m a very messy writer), sorting, labelling.
Your new book is called The Valentine House. Can you tell me a bit about it?
The Valentine House is about an English family who go, every year, to their summer home, high up in the French alps and about someone from the village nearby called Mathilde. At the start of the story, Mathilde is employed to work as a servant for the family. She becomes involved with them in all sorts of ways, discovering a secret that affects them all. The novel explores the relationship between the two cultures and also the relationship between identity and place.
If you could have a chalet anywhere in the world, where would you have it and why?
I would have it in the French Alps. I can’t say where, precisely – there are so many beautiful spots to choose from. But somewhere that is accessible, yet feels remote, and, above all, somewhere with a view – of the mountains, a valley, a village, a river, a blue, blue sky. Why? Because I’ve seen chalets in places like that. They exist. It’s not a fantasy. People live in them. I’d like to be one of those people.
What’s your writing process like – edit as you go? Much planning?
My writing process is a mixture of editing as I go and planning. I’m not very good at planning in advance. I try to do it. I make myself do it. But I tend to write first and just see what happens. Usually, this results in a mess of words, which I then have to sort and turn into a novel. So the planning happens during and after, not before the writing, usually.
Do you have any writing rituals? Coffee, silence, tea?
No rituals, although I like silence and solitude. The only quirky thing is my use of 2B pencils. I have a big stock of them. I like to have them within arms’ reach wherever I am in the house. When things are going well, that means 2B pencils all over the place – on the floor, in my bed, next to the bath. They are used mostly for jotting, but sometimes for longer bits of writing, but my handwriting is terrible and, when I write quickly, even I find it difficult to read later. I have to type up my 2B jottings quickly, therefore.
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 My Writing Ramblings: Every Word Counts
Howdy all.
We are now on that last stretch before the weekend with all the hope that the weather will decide to give us glorious, warm sunshine (I know but it’s good to be optimistic.)
I don’t know about you but April for me has just flown by. Life away from reading books and writing has kept me a little busy (there were also a couple of personal events that happened this month which meant some quiet days with a want to not do a lot.)
I have not done that much writing over the last month. I think I managed to do 2,000 words give or take. Those words still count and it’s still a decent word count to reach. It is easy to play down small words counts as only this and only that. It’s not easy to convince yourself that slow and steady is OK if it works for you to build your novel.
I go through this horrible habitual process when I begin something new. I will write, then I will stop, I will immediately read what I have written and then I will have this urge to begin again. I fight every time to break this habit.
A first draft is not going to be publication ready to begin with so every word you write does matter.
As a new writer, I tend to play down the whole thing; my brain won’t let me call myself a writer. Sitting in a room full of writers, I will feel like the impostor.
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 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 Matthew Redford Talks About His Approach To Writing Short Stories
I’m pleased to welcome Matthew Redford to Novel Kicks today. His festive food related crime investigation short story is due for release by Clink Street Publishing in paperback and electronically own 6th December.
Tenacious carrot, detective inspector Willie Wortell is back to reveal the deviously delicious mind behind the crime of the festive season in this hugely entertaining, and utterly unconventional, short story.
When Mitchell the Mince Spy is horrifically murdered by being over baked in a fan oven, it falls to the Food Related Crime team to investigate this heinous act. Why was Mitchell killed? Who is the mysterious man with a long white beard and why does he carry a syringe? Why is it that the death of a mince spy smells so good?
Detective Inspector Willie Wortel, the best food sapiens police officer, once again leads his team into a series of crazy escapades. Supported by his able homo sapiens sergeant Dorothy Knox and his less able fruit officers Oranges and Lemons, they encounter
Snow White and the seven dwarf cabbages as well as having a run in with the food sapiens secret service, MI GasMark5.
With a thigh slap here, and a thigh slap there, the team know Christmas is coming as the upper classes are acting strangely – why else would there be lords a leaping, ladies dancing and maids a milking?
And if that wasn’t enough, the Government Minister for the Department of Fisheries, Agriculture and Rural Trade (DAFaRT) has only gone and given the turkeys a vote on whether they are for or against Christmas.
Let the madness begin!
Matthew has joined me today to talk about his approach to writing short stories…
When I was asked to draft an article on my approach to writing a short story, I thought this would be a doddle. I mean, after all, I have written a short story – Who Killed the Mince Spy? – which is coming out in December 2016. Well, how wrong I was.
How do I approach writing a short story? Well, that is a really interesting question and it is not one which I have thought about before and I don’t recall having been asked the question before either. And when I sat down with the iPad in front of me ready to write my answer, I realised I didn’t know where to start!
So let’s go back to basics. How do I come up with my ideas? Well, I write about food sapiens, those walking, talking food items which live and work along us all. There are some famous food sapiens such as the musicians Polenta Faith and Fizzy Pop Gillespie. And with that in mind, I think about all of the different food items and try to come up with story titles which I think are either topical, interesting or, hopefully, both.
Let’s take Christmas. Mince pies are a staple Christmas food item. Simply switch the word, pie to spy and you’ve a living, breathing food sapiens creature which you can take on a creative journey. Or in my case, straight into a fan oven where the poor little blighter is horrifically murdered.
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
