Hi Sisay,

Congrats on finishing your screenplay! We aren’t film agents, so you’ll have to look into that whole process of sunbitting. We recommend checking out Bang 2 Write – it’s an excellent site for screenwriters.

OMG, I totally hear you on the “those who can’t, teach” stuff. That mental gremlin gets me all the time. Prompts are definitely a way for me to get back in the swing when I haven’t done “real writing” for a while. It’s funny how easily we can beat ourselves up about our writing. 🙂

Prompts aren’t just great for fiction, though. I use them all the time as ways to kickstart story ideas I share in my newsletters, or when I’m drafting up a script for keynote or presentation I’m giving. I keep a box by my desk (I call it my ORACLE) filled with materials for writing exercises. Whenever I’m stuck, I just pull something at random and see what happens from there.

Great question, Glynis. I think it depends on the writer. I like writing by hand because it feels “messier” and I can allow myself to be more spontaneous. Also, I tend to type on the fast side and I often skip or mistype words, which can lead to a garbled mess. When I write by hand, it forces me to slow down a little more and I’m able to process my ideas a bit better.

But in the end, it’s about what works well for each individual writer. This is why I’m such a big fan of testing out different methods. I would try writing longhand for a few writing sessions and then typing for a few others and see what works for you!

I totally hear you, Donna. It’s all about finding the right balance, one that works for you. 🙂

Hi Walter—That’s so cool that you write fanfiction! I cut my teeth writing online RPGs and fanfiction and it was such a great way to learn the craft. Writing fanfiction takes the pressure off in terms of the characters and world building (since those elements are already established) so we can turn our focus to scene-related elements like bringing our characters to life or working on dialogue and description.

And what you said about taking fanfiction and making it into something original totally rings true. In fact, 50 Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fanfiction before E.L. James changed it to the current incarnation. (It’s not my favorite thing to read per se, but it certainly was successful.) In the end, you never know when something that starts as fanfiction might turn into a bigger project… 🙂

Hi Joy! I love your approach to using prompts, and I totally agree that prompts can be a great way to find new angles into a WIP. Also, I am so glad you’re enjoying the book. You should totally do the Book Club, because you’ll be able to apply the exercises to blog posts. Two birds with one stone, right? 🙂

Also, if you like photo prompts, you should check out the Writer Igniter app (WriterIgniter.com) It’s like a slot machine for writers.

Hi Gabriela! This is a fun coincidence, because I’m reading your DIY MFA book (and loving it) and just this morning I was reading the chapter where you cover the same material as this post. Great stuff, in both formats!

I’ve always been awful at writing exercises, at least the ones they have in workshops. As soon as someone points to me and says “Write, NOW,” my brain totally freezes and I can’t put one sentence after another to save my life. However, in the past few years I have been totally converted to the ways of the photo writing prompt. I subscribe to several weekly online photo prompt challenges, and they have been so much fun to participate in. For one, I find it’s a great way to generate fresh ideas, whether for longer stories or to flesh out characters in my WIP, or for world-building my secondary world fantasy setting. For another thing, it’s great writing practice: when you only have 200 or 150 words — or 100! — you have to make every single word count! As a bonus, I post the flash fiction stories on my blog, so I already have a head start with the third part of the DIY MFA triangle: community building. It’s win-win-win!