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Writing Sparks Newsletter

March 14, 2008


Greeting



My warmest greetings to you all.

Happy writing!

Monica


Creativity
Booster


Getting Motivated

Having a hard time getting started?

Sometimes the tasks ahead of us seem so daunting, we get overwhelmed just thinking about getting started.

But forward progress often involves nothing more than taking a few tiny steps. If you're looking for some easy tips, to help you take those steps, chedk out Jason Gracia's post at his 123 Motivation Blog.

21 Absurdly Simple Motivation Tricks


This Week's
Assignment


Visualize Your Words

One of the greatest strengths of a being a writer is having the ability to see who and what you're writing about; conversely, one of the greatest weaknesses of being a writer is having the need to visualize these fictional elements. This power to imagine these scenes and people as if they were real (and one might say they are, in your head) is one of the many things that brings true life and believability to the page. In turn, these things draw out your readers' sympathy and concern, causing them to CARE about your characters.

So what to do when the mental pictures just aren't coming? One popular, and often effective, method is turning to literal pictures--photographs. Using magazines, the internet and photography collections as a tool, find a photo of someone and some place that you're not personally connected to, but envision as part of your story. You may find that the details and the feel of the place or person come more easily and, even more, take on a life of their own.


Writing
Prompt



First Line


Later, the flight attendant told us that we should have warned her.

More Free Creative Writing Prompts


Meet
Our Authors


Publishing My First Book: David Oppegaard

David OppegaardI could talk about many different aspects about my path to publication--how I got lucky and found an awesome literary agent, surviving a graduate school writing program, working a variety of jobs to pay the bills while writing at night--but I think the most important aspect of my particular story is the words I've left behind.

Or books, actually. My first published novel was actually my fifth novel, and my second published novel . . .

More David Oppegaard

Read more Publishing My First Book essays now.



Meet the Author: Deborah Prum

Deborah PrumOne evening, I was supposed to meet my husband and his colleagues at a fancy restaurant downtown. Before I could leave the house, I needed to prepare dinner for my three sons.

I answered the phone. A cultured voice said, "Hello, my name is Maxi Strauss. I'm with Parent's Home Circle." (named change, think well-known magazine.)

Oh no. Someone trying to sell a subscription. I was about to hang up, but I remembered I . . .

More Deborah Prum

Read more Meet The Author essays now.


What's New in
Our Bookstore


Relationships And Other Stuff (True Stories From Women), Natasha Brooks
Relationships And Other Stuff (True Stories From Women), Natasha Brooks This book takes a look at the secret place in a woman's heart and soul that has helped to shape her into the woman that she has become. Each section explores definitions in which each woman's stories and poems of growth explains experiences that touch on what it means to be a woman.

Read an excerpt from Relationships And Other Stuff (True Stories From Women) now.


Dereliction of Duty, Jon Renaud
Dereliction of Duty, Jon Renaud After a failed assassination attempt on the U.S. Secretary of Defense, by a radical Islamic Cleric in Baghdad, U.S. Senators demand revenge. But when things go wrong, they demand deniability at all cost. CID Special Agent Thomas Fox is torn; forced to decide between protecting the members of his former team, or save his own career.

Read an excerpt from Dereliction of Duty now.


Open House, Fran Silver
Open House, Fran Silver Attractive female Realtors sit at Sunday open-houses, excited and hopeful of prospective buyers stopping-by. Unsuspecting, the lurking danger of their stalker, planning his first vengeful kill. The nightmare in serene-small town Mendelson and surrounding communities is about to

Read an excerpt from Open House now.


Witness at Hawks Nest, Dwight Harshbarger
Witness at Hawks Nest, Dwight Harshbarger 1930 Union Carbide's construction of Hawks Nest (WV) hydroelectric tunnel. Hundreds of workers soon die from acute silicosis and are secretly buried in a cornfield. Employee Orville Orr discovers the deaths didn't have to happen and takes

Read an excerpt from Witness at Hawks Nest now.


The Zambinos of Blue Hill: The Proving, Will Azeperak
The Zambinos of Blue Hill: The Proving, Will Azeperak The Zambinos live in Blue Hill, Maine in 2063. Three brothers build a spacecraft and upon entering Earth orbit they are quickly taken away by a mysterious ship. There they will perform their

Read an excerpt from The Zambinos of Blue Hill: The Proving now.


A New Earth And A New Universe, Rodney Bartlett
A New Earth And A New Universe, Rodney Bartlett This book's based on scientific facts and theories which, woven into a philosophy using Einstein's quote that "Imagination is more important than knowledge", shows how science and religion will be united - and how every aspect of the world can be radically transformed forever.This book's based on scientific facts and theories which, woven into a

Read an excerpt from A New Earth And A New Universe now.


The Dog Men, Patricia Crandall
The Dog Men, Patricia Crandall Ten-year-old Wyatt and eleven-year-old Hannah uncover the dark world of illegal dog fights when they trespass at a Vermont farm and peep through a barn window. And when crotchety old Lester Cranshaw's dog, Paddy, turns up missing, there is no holding him back from investigating the situation and the kids join in. In the dead of night, after the

Read an excerpt from The Dog Men now.


Enduring Prophesy, Joe Vojt
Enduring Prophesy, Joe Vojt Around 1880, two diverse culture groups divided and would slide past each other. The Triskalon people cherished the night as day while the unaffected earth society lived their normal daylight. Everyone forgot about the holocaust as the landscape reclaimed its normal

Read an excerpt from Enduring Prophesy now.


Accidental Heroes, Accidental Villians, Ed Chung
Accidental Heroes, Accidental Villians, Ed Chung Accidental Heroes, Accidental Villains traces five generations of a Chinese family, from the mid-1800s to the present, and portrays the family\'s struggles with racism, riots, revolutions, world wars, and

Read an excerpt from Accidental Heroes, Accidental Villians now.


ITP: Future Hope, David Gelber
ITP: Future Hope, David Gelber ITP:Future Hope is a novel that speculates on the future of man, where science and technology dominate and God has been forgotten. It follows the events around the first Interdimensional Transport Protocol (ITP) mission and the mishaps that occur.

Read an excerpt from ITP: Future Hope now.



OnceWritten.com
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Deadlines


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Writing Contests


June 7, 2020

    Arts & Letters Prizes

 
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