Writing Prompt: What's Their Story

Writing Prompt:  Find a picture of an interesting person or notice someone, while you are out-and-about shopping, and take a "mental picture" of them, or if these two options don't work for you, use our image for this post.

Now, here is the prompt.  Think back to when you played "I SPY" as a child.  Using this premise, create a character based on your person.  Answer the question: What is their story?  Create as much detail for your character as you can as you embellish on their "LIFE STORY"!

Having trouble getting started?  Take a gander at these questions, in order, to get your creative writing juices flowing!

What is their full name?
What is their occupation?
What is their age?

What is their height?

What is their weight?

What is their body type?

What is the shape of their face?

What is their complexion?

What is the shape, size, and color of their eyes?

What is the length and color of their hair?

What is their style of dress?

What is their voice like?  

What is their style of speaking?

What is their demeanor?

What is their best quality?

What is their worst quality or weakness?

What is their talent?

What is their hobby?

What is their family life like?

Having trouble?  Watch the video:

More explanation: Click HERE

Now, that you have created your character, let your character jump into a story of your own creation!

Start Scribbling!

Happy Writing!

The Writing Whisperer

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of the Written Word!

Note: The Writing Whisperer has to offer a big Thank You to Always A Lesson for the genesis of this writing prompt. 

NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program

Excerpt from NaNoWriMo Site:

What is NaNoWriMo? 

National Novel Writing Month happens every November! It's a fun, seat-of-your-pants writing event where the challenge is to complete an entire novel in just 30 days. For one month, you get to lock away your inner editor, let your imagination take over, and just create!That means participants begin writing November 1 and must finish by midnight, November 30. The word-count goal for our adult program is 50,000 words, but the Young Writers Program (YWP) allows 17-and-under participants to set reasonable, yet challenging, individual word-count goals.
In 2011, 250,000 adults participated through our main site, and 50,000 young writers participated through the YWP.

Pep Talk for NaNoWriMo:  

Five Easy Steps for NaNoWriMo

If you would like to start scribbling with NaNoWriMo sign-up today, it's not too late!  The National Novel Writing Month starts November 1 and ends November 30!  Good Luck!

Start Scribbling!

Happy National Novel Writing Month!

The Writing Whisperer

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of the Written Word!

Happy Halloween! From, The Writing Whisperer!

Happy Halloween!  

From, 

The Writing Whisperer!

Writing Prompt:  Take a peek at Open Culture's link to the quintessential vampire film, Nosferatu, which Open Culture describe as follows: "F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent feature adapts Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but just loosely enough so that it could put its own stamp on the myth and not actually have to pay for rights to the novel. Jonathan and Mina Harker? Now Thomas and Ellen Hutter. Jonathan’s boss Renfield? Now a fellow named Knock. Count Dracula, to whose vast and crumbling estate Renfield sends the hapless Jonathan? Now Count Orlok — and unforgettably so. We can post no more relevant endorsement ofNosferatu‘s enduring value than to say that it remains scary, or at least eerie, to this day. I defy any sophisticated modern viewer to spend All Hallows’ eve with this picture and not come away feeling faintly unsettled."

After viewing the film, write your own review or your reaction to the film.  Better yet, write your short story inspired by this classic silent film. Nosferatu Start Scribbling! Happy Halloween! The Writing Whisperer Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of the Written Word!

What is the Office of Letters and Light?

View the video to discover just what the Office of Letters and Light is all about!

Join forces with the Office of Letters and Light to again participate in NaNoWriMo, November 1-30, 2013!  Start Scribbling your novel, today or should we say tomorrow!

Happy NaNoWritMo!

The Writing Whisperer

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of the Written Word!

Writing Prompt: Inspired by Neil Gaiman and Edgar Allan Poe-The Unreliable Narrator!

Happy Halloween, One Day Early!

Image Credit: The Library of Congress

Writing Prompt: The Unreliable Narrator

Listen to the interview with Neil Gaiman:

Neil Gaiman on Poe, Parrots, Unreliable Narrators, and the magic of reading aloud:

Now, create your own scenario or full fledged story with your very own unreliable narrator!

Now, Start Scribbling!

Have a Spooky Writing Day!

The Writing Whisperer

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of the Written Word!

Writing Prompt: Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"-Updated December 15, 2013

Writing Prompt: Listen to Christopher Walken reading Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." 

Now, see if you can create a repeating line which you would then use in your own poem or short story to create the same type of SPOOKY, CHILLING effect that Poe has created in his poem, "The Raven."

Image Credit: The Library of Congress

Other Raven Interpretations:

"The Raven: Lou Reed’s Adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe, Illustrated by Italian Artist Lorenzo Mattotti" by Maria Popova:  Click Here

A graphic novel "meant to be heard in the mind."



Now, Start Scribbling!

Have a Spooky Writing Day!

The Writing Whisperer

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of the Written Word!

Writing Prompt: Happy Birthday, Sylvia Plath!

Writing Prompt: Today's Prompt is inspired by, what would have been, Sylvia Plath's 80th birthday!  Read the quote or listen to Sylvia Plath read "A Birthday Present" and respond.  What do you think of the quote?  The poem? Both?  

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath Reads "A Birthday Present"

Read the excerpt below from Open Culture's tribute to Sylvia Plath on, what would have been, her 80th Birthday:

[Joyce Carol] Oates called Plath 'our acknowledged Queen of Sorrows, the spokeswoman for our most private, most helpless nightmares.' The poem above, “A Birthday Present,” is one of the private and nightmarish poems collected in Ariel. Plath wrote it just over half a century ago as she was contemplating the approach of her 30th birthday, and something darker. The recording is from a BBC broadcast in December of 1962, only two months before Plath’s death. (You can read the text as you listen.) In his 1966 forward to the first U.S. edition of Ariel, the poet Robert Lowell made the following assessment of Plath: 'Suicide, father-hatred, self-loathing–nothing is too much for the macabre gaiety of her control. Yet it is too much; her art’s immortality is life’s disintegration. The surprise, the shimmering, unwrapped birthday present, the transcendence “into the red eye, the cauldron of morning,” and the lover, who are always waiting for her, are Death, her own abrupt and defiant death.'"

Start Scribbling!

Have a Creative Weekend!

The Writing Whisperer

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of the Written Word!