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Well, it's almost the end of May, which means that the deadline for my initial submission to  the Terry Pratchett memorial anthology  is coming due.  Instead of working through the Writing Excuses Master Class, this week I'm going to be working on my submission.  It requires a brief author bio, a two-line synopsis, and a 500-word writing sample. I'm planning to use some of my edited Nano work as my writing sample, so below is the draft of my bio and synopsis.  I'd really appreciate any feedback you guys can give me on this - just remember I have to send this off by Sunday! Author bio: Stephanie Wood Franklin has been telling people she'll be an author since she was eight.  She lives in Seattle with her husband and two step-cats Synopsis: Julia needs to fill the gaps in her memory. She encounters Dr. Evans, a psychiatrist with a unique treatment for memory issues, and ends up travelling the labrynthian halls of her mind, finding out why some doors should re

This week's episode title is basically what I ask myself every time I go to write a new blog post.  The  writing prompt : Write your first thirteen lines, and see how much you can fit into that space—character attitude, point-of-view, mood, genre, conflict, setting, and more. Julia kept her head down as she walked the windy streets of Seattle. She still wasn't sure if she was doing the right thing, but the ad had been clear that no "therapy" would take place without the introductory evaluation, and she needed the cash. She hadn't expected her food costs to go up so much when she went vegan, but everything meatless was so much more expensive than she had imagined. She was starting to wonder if fitting in with the popular kids at school was truly worth it. She found the office - at least, her phone told her she was in the right place. When she looked up, all she could see was a narrow townhouse in a neighborhood filled with similar buildings. Hesitantly, Julia

Two posts in one week?  Look out - I'm on a roll!  (Of course, now that I've said that...)  The writing  prompt  this time: Start writing your story! Write 500 words, focusing on just one of the promises you've identified for your story. Then stop, and start writing another 500 words with a different promise. Aaaand then do it a third time. For the sake of brevity here, I'm going to aim for 250 words each instead of 500, and working on two promises for now.  So, looking at the promises I outlined  last time , here we go: Promise: I want the reader to be uncertain of what exactly happens in the main character's mind. Julia found herself in a dark hallway, with doors on either side.  The doors looked vaguely like the ones that had been in the house where she grew up, painted wood with silver handles, but only the doors closest to her had any kind of detail.  She decided to pick a door at random and see if she could get in - she didn't see any locks on the

Once again, I'm demonstrating just what a clever woman I am.  I apparently missed a writing prompt, so pretend this one happened before the last post, yes?  They actually tie together pretty well, and I'm hoping they'll help with the synopsis for the anthology submission I'm still working on.  The  writing prompt : Decide on the promises you want to make to your readers in your story. Then outline according to those promises. Promises, promises.  OK, here goes: I want the reader to be curious about the idea of memory monsters. I want the reader to be uncertain of what exactly happens in the main character's mind. I want the reader to root for the main character/narrator as she travels in her own memory. I want the reader to fear for the main character's sanity. Outline: Meet Julia (main character/narrator) Recently moved to a new town Finds herself flashing back to things she doesn't actively remember Decides to seek help Meet Dr. Evans

It's time to try writing some fiction again, I believe.  I came across  this  call for submissions for an anthology in honor of Sir Terry Pratchett, and I think I want to put together a submission.  My only concern at this point is that it's meant to be humorous, and being funny on the page has always been a struggle for me.  Hopefully, the master class writing prompts will help me get back into the swing of things.  The  writing prompt : Make a list of all the awesome things you want your story to accomplish. Then put them in the order in which you want them to happen. Since the theme of the anthology is memory, I want to use  something  I wrote a while back for Nanowrimo as a starting point.  (That link doesn't include the whole draft of the story - I should probably get on that.)  Of course, that story ended up turning into a horror tale, and I'd like to avoid that.  Still, there are some things I can play with: Patient gets into her own mind consciously Patie