Kansas Writers Association

To give you more choices, here are some more challenging writing prompts.

• It’s time for you and Writer’s Block to part ways. Write a letter breaking up with Writer’s Block, starting with, “Dear Writer’s Block, It’s not you, it’s me…”
• Start your story with: “My father gave me three life rules to live by. 1. (fill in the blank), 2. (fill in the blank), and 3. (fill in the blank). The first two were easy, but the third one proved difficult all because of a cheeseburger. Let me explain.”
• Imagine yourself as a teacher. What type of student would you like to teach and why?
• As I approached the deserted house at the end of the road, I saw…

Time to get your muse working, to challenge yourself with your writing. As always there are writing prompts to choose from and words to figure out how to use together. Or come up with your own writing challenge. Be sure to bring whatever you come up with to the next meeting to share with everyone.

If you want to try using one or all of the words in a sentence, paragraph, short piece, these are the words for September: gondola – monkey – sun – man – watch

Here are some writing prompt ideas. All but the first one are borrowed from https://www.writersdigest.com/prompts

• Finish the thought: There was a strange wailing sound coming from the next room…
• Write a scene or story that includes food. What type of food is it? How does it taste? Why is the character eating it? Was it prepared a special way or only eaten on special occasions?
• Write a story, scene, or poem that uses the abecedarian format. Start with the letter A, or get creative and start anywhere in the alphabet you wish.
• Re-write a scene or story from the point of view of someone or something that none of the characters knew was watching. It could be a ghost, animal, the furniture come to life, etc.
• Imagine that a character did the old spin the globe and see where to take your next vacation trick. Write a story or scene describing where they went and how their trip panned out.

It’s time again for writing challenges. Even if you don’t bring yours to share with the group, try one of them just for yourself.

If you want to try using one or all of the words in a sentence, paragraph, short piece, these are the words for August: hope – train – flute – computer – castle

Writing Prompts:

1. Write a detailed description of one of the characters in your recent work or a story you have recently read. Have a secondary character describe her or him.
2. If you attended July’s meeting and received a wanted postcard from our speaker, Jim Potter, write a story about the person and the crime they committed.
3. What is the best book you have ever read? Why did you like it? Did reading the book change you in any way? What way?
4. Think about an incident that happened to you and exaggerate in the telling. Make it into a tall tale.

If you would rather use your own prompt, please do so. Looking forward to seeing everyone on August 17th –usual place, usual time. Happy writing, Louse.

It is time again for the membership to discuss future meeting programs. The board discusses them, but ideas really need to be considered by everyone. The following are some suggestions that I came up with. Hopefully many of you will look at the ideas, mull them over, and then talk about them at an upcoming meeting. Come up with ideas of your own. This group is for YOU. Your opinions and needs count.

Program Suggestions (based on Starla’s writing classes)

• Basics: Formatting, word count, pre-writing strategies, preparing to write (where, when, what), project organization
• Basic Development: title, ideas, character profile, names, settings, brainstorming
• Digging Deeper: GMC (Goal, Motivation, Conflict), plotting basics, scenes, turning points, subplots
• Beginning to Write: dialogue, internalization, narration, POV (Point of View), hooks
• The Middle: sagging middles, review structuring
• Drafts: goals of first, second, third and final drafts
• Editing: from plot to characters, punctuation, names, numbers
• Finalizing: blurb, synopsis, proposal, query letters, pitch
• Publishing: contracts, traditional publishers, small presses, subsidy presses, vanity presses, self-publishing options
• Marketing: websites/blogs, social media, author bio, Amazon author page, media kit, press kit, speaking engagements

Other Suggestions

• Conferences: discussion of various types and the pros and cons
• Contests: discussion of types and value to the writer
• Marketing Ideas: selling in book festivals, local venues (museums, etc.), book signings, libraries
• Useful websites: discussion on sites used by members such as Grammarly, ProWritingAid.com, etc.
• Writing Program Tips: mini workshops on using Word tips, Excel spreadsheets tips
• Self-Publishing Tips: steps to prepare for submission to publisher (like IngramSpark or KDP/CreateSpace)

Jim Potter will present the July 20th program involving postcards. He will provide a PowerPoint presentation on “Postcards as Props and Prompts: How I Use Postcards in My Writing.”

You won’t want to miss this program.