Writing Journal—Friday writing prompt

Your character can hear something scratching beneath her bed, but she’s too old to believe in the Boogeyman. She pulls up the bed skirt, expecting to scare away a mouse that found its way into her room but instead discovers fresh claw marks on the floorboards. Write what happens next.

One Stop for Writers

 Guidance & tips

Write the scene of discovery (i.e., tell a story), or brainstorm and create a list of related ideas.

Here’s five story elements to consider:

  • Character
  • Setting
  • Plot
  • Conflict
  • Resolution

Never forget, writing is a process. The first draft is always a mess.

The first draft of anything is shit.

Ernest Hemingway
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Author: Richard L. Fricks

Richard L. Fricks is a novelist and Fictionary Certified StoryCoach Editor living near Boaz, Alabama. His fiction explores ordinary people caught in difficult human questions, and he works with a small number of beginning novelists through a year-long, in-person writing program.

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