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Monday Morning #CharacterStory Writing Prompts 2011/06/13

1. A photo: see the top of this post. (Click for a larger view.)
2. A personality type: ESFJ.
3. A need: the need for security.
4. A quirk: Names his many tropical fish all after characters from his favorite novel.

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

Keep writing!
-TimK

On Plagiarists and “Real Writers”

Holly Lisle in her writing tips newsletter today wrote about plagiarism and being a “real writer.”

I put “real writer” in quotes not for sarcastic effect. I put those words in quotes because those are the words Holly herself used, and I agree with them completely. She talks about some would-be aspiring authors, as it were, looking for an easy way to rip off 100,000 words of others’ work, run it through an automated computer program, and come out with a supposedly original story. These are not “real writers.”

Then Holly said, “People who live their lives always looking for ways to get their hands on things they have not earned never do anything worthwhile. Never create anything worthwhile.”
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Carnival of Storytelling – June 9, 2011

Welcome to the June 9, 2011 edition of Carnival of Storytelling.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a link at BlogCarnival.com. Please browse their blog posts, and share your own favorite posts from your own writing blog for next week’s carnival.

Enjoy!
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How to Write: Show and Tell

“Show; don’t tell.” Writers take great pride in passing on this standard advice. But what does it mean to “show” instead of “tell”? What does “show don’t tell” look like? And is that a hard-and-fast rule or just a rule of thumb? Are there any situations in which you should “tell,” not “show”?

If you’ve asked writers these questions, they may have left you more confused than when you started. But I don’t think the topic needs to be couched in secret knowledge and disclaimers of “It depends.” Here is my attempt to demystify the topic.
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Monday Morning #CharacterStory Writing Prompts 2011/06/06

1. A photo: top of this post, which the artist has entitled, “Please Don’t Go.” (Click for a larger view.) Of the photo he says, “This was a shot I took during Alyssa Barajas’ production of a music video for the song ‘Please Don’t Go’ by Barcelona. It was an amazing night, so many emotions and a ton of inspiration in the air. Cali Lowdermilk was the model for the shoot.”
2. A personality type: ESTP.
3. A need: the need for alone time.
4. A quirk: Sleeps on a polyphasic schedule.

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

Keep writing!
-TimK

Carnival of Storytelling – June 2, 2011

Welcome to the June 2, 2011 edition of Carnival of Storytelling.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a link at BlogCarnival.com. Please browse their blog posts, and share your own favorite posts from your own writing blog for next week’s carnival.

Enjoy!
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The Novelist’s New Clothes?

They say that novelists write millions of manuscripts each year. I’m not sure what the exact number is. But I might believe any number between 1,000,000 and 25,000,000. Of these millions, less than 100,000 will make it to print.

That’s when the real fun starts. Of those, only a fraction will end up on the shelves of the local book superstore. And out of those, only a portion will sell enough copies to make any money. And out of those, only a handful of authors will be able to sustain a writing career. And those who do, they spend years working to push their books, for the privilege of handing over their copyrights to the publisher.

Given the odds, you are more likely to die from a lightning strike than to “make it” as a published author.

Why, then, does just about every writing book, resource, author, and coach out there promise to help you “get published”?

That’s like promising to help me “get naked, drenched in honey, and sit my bare butt down on an anthill.”
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Monday Morning #CharacterStory Writing Prompts 2011/05/30

It’s Memorial Day (here in the US). That’s not a story prompt, just a note. Here are today’s story prompts. Use one or all of them to inspire a story.

1. A photo: top of this post, part of a group of photos the artist has entitled, “Mis 25: Pasando la franja etaria.” (Click for a larger view.)
2. A personality type: INFP.
3. A need: the need for community.
4. A quirk: no matter how different she is, perceives commonality with everyone around her.

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

Keep writing!
-TimK

Carnival of Storytelling – May 26, 2011

Welcome to the May 19… uh… May 26, 2011 edition of Carnival of Storytelling.

There was no carnival last week, because there weren’t enough links submitted.

In unrelated news, I’m now publicizing this Carnival more. My plan is to solicit bloggers for submissions, put together an email list for bloggers who want to submit regularly, and post a weekly call for submissions. You can help, too. Share the Carnival of Storytelling submit link with your writer-blogger friends, and ask them to submit their favorite writing posts.

And if you’ve had trouble with the submission form at BlogCarnival.com (or just would like an alternative), I’ve added instructions on how to submit via email. (Actually, via my contact form.) See the paragraphs at the bottom of this post for details.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a link at BlogCarnival.com.

Enjoy!
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Character Needs: The Need for Autonomy

Finishing out these posts on character needs, extracted from Character Fiction 101: How to Write Fictional Characters and Character Stories. Today, a basic need that provides motivation for many powerful stories, the need for autonomy.

Each of us needs to feel in control over his own life and his own choices, a measure of independence and freedom, a corner of the world that is “mine, all mine, to do with as I wish.”
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