Writing Exercise
Reworking A Story That Was Submitted To A Challenge
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise - Take a story you have completed and go through it and intensify the conflict, magnifying the tension and shrillness at every turn, even to the point of absurdity or hyperbole. Add stress wherever possible, both between characters and within them as individuals. Exaggerate the obstacles they face. Be extreme. The Objective - To create an awareness of the need for a high level of tension while encouraging a healthy regard for how easily it can become excessive. This exercise is not meant to "improve" the story, although it often provokes new and more dynamic descriptions and dialogue. It raises the writer's consciousness about the need for conflict in fiction.
By Denise E Lindquist5 months ago in Writers
Lost Between Mirrors and Time
Here Luccian Layth is reflecting on what the self may be re-refracted in its mirror, between trial and betrayal, between inner death and inner light, the existential question takes place towards eternity, nothingness, and the Creator. It is a poetic excursion, between suspicion and definite affirmation, between obscurity and radiance, in which the way itself is the creature and the creature is the way.
By LUCCIAN LAYTH5 months ago in Writers
The Voice Refined Through Another Medium
For centuries, words have been the vessels of human thought, the means by which understanding passes from one heart to another. From quills and typewriters to keyboards and screens, the tools have changed, but the mind behind the message has not. Now, in the age of artificial intelligence, some claim that words refined through its assistance cannot be fully human. They say that if an essay or reflection has been shaped, polished, or expanded by an AI tool, then its authenticity is somehow diminished. Yet that belief mistakes process for purpose. The truth of writing does not depend on how the words are arranged, but on who the words come from.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast5 months ago in Writers
Here Comes Judge!
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise - Look in your files for a story that seems stuck, a story that has a story block. Next, write at the top of a separate sheet of paper the two words. What If. Now write five ways of continuing the story, not ending the story, but continuing the story to up your thinking about the events in the story. Your what if's can be as diverse as your imagination can make them. More than likely, and this has proved true through years of teaching and writing, one of the what if's will feel right, organic to your story and that is the direction in which you should go. Sometimes you will have to do several groups of what if's per story, but that's okay as long as they keep you moving forward. The Objective - To illustrate that most story beginnings and situations have within them the seeds of the middle and end. You just have to allow your imagination enough range to discover what works.
By Denise E Lindquist5 months ago in Writers
No More National Novel Writing Month. Top Story - November 2025.
For many years now, in November, I would write 50,000 plus words for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Each day, I would write. It wasn't important to edit as I wrote, because I knew in a month or two it would be time to edit.
By Denise E Lindquist5 months ago in Writers
He Always Wants to Go Home!. Top Story - November 2025.
The challenge ended and I am sending the tips out to the stories I liked, which is every one of them. I was completely blown away by this collective creativity and the different takes the authors provided on the prompt.
By Lana V Lynx5 months ago in Writers
“Dear Writer, You’re Allowed to Rest”
You’re Allowed to Rest By[Ali Rehman] Dear Writer, I know you. I know the way your mind races faster than your hands can type. I know how you stare at the blinking cursor like it’s taunting you, whispering that you’re falling behind. I know that quiet panic in your chest when you haven’t written anything “worthwhile” for days — or weeks.
By Ali Rehman5 months ago in Writers
A Business Woman, And Her Fiance
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise - In a few sentences, create a specific character in a specific situation. Complicate his life with opposing forces and alternatives within that situation. Ask, Given the situation, what would my character want? What would my character do? How would he act or react? How will those actions propel the story toward a point of crisis and a final resolution? Practice creating characters involved with specific situations. Then outline miniplots for how you would complicate their situations and move them toward an ending. Keep this outline brief. The Objective - To understand how the most effective plots are those driven by character. To see how a character within the given of any situation creates his own destiny.
By Denise E Lindquist5 months ago in Writers
No name story..
I would say my name, but it’s unnecessary. I’ve written poems, short stories, my feelings and it’s something that’s never left my notebook. What can you do when your mind races from the moment you awaken until darkness quiets the world? Does your mental health take a toll on you like it does with me? I lie there wondering what I’m doing to cause the problems everyone seems to see come from me. Do they think like I do? I guess not, huh? Is me wondering what I’m doing wrong mean I have some good left in me? No matter how many times I bottle up my thoughts and feelings, nothing that strong can be held without a consequence. Im not sure I understand the purpose behind being so judgmental. Aren’t we family? Aren’t we all from the same origin? We all come from common grounds and to hear that one doesn’t see or doesn't help another is killing the foundation of where this all started. How can we build and grow— even maintain a life that is now considered “sustainable” if we don’t come together. One must understand another, to grow itself.
By Mariah Ciera5 months ago in Writers
