Writing Prompts – Aral Bereux

There are several common mistakes to avoid in your writing to ensure clarity, coherence, and overall quality. Check these out for some of them:

Spelling and grammar errors: Proofread your work carefully to eliminate spelling mistakes, typos, and grammatical errors. Incorrect punctuation, subject-verb agreement, and tense usage can weaken your writing.

Lack of clarity: Ensure your writing is clear and easy to understand. Avoid using ambiguous or vague language that can confuse your readers. Lose the verbosity and ambiguity. Be specific and precise in conveying your ideas.

Weak or repetitive words: Avoid using weak or overused words that can make your writing sound bland. Look for opportunities to use stronger verbs and descriptive language to engage your readers.

Lack of structure and organization: A well-structured piece of writing is easier to follow and understand. Ensure your writing has a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. Use paragraphs and headings to organize your thoughts effectively during drafting.

Lack of focus: Stay focused on your main topic or argument. Avoid going off on tangents or including irrelevant information that distracts readers from your main point.

Inconsistent tone or style: Maintain consistency in the tone and style of your writing. Ensure that your writing matches the intended audience and purpose. Switching between formal and informal language or varying the tone too much can disrupt the flow of your writing.

Lack of proofreading: Neglecting to proofread your work can result in overlooked errors and inconsistencies. Always take the time to review your writing before finalizing it.

Poor sentence structure: Pay attention to sentence structure to ensure readability. Avoid run-on sentences or overly complex sentence structures that can confuse readers. Vary the length and structure of your sentences to create a more engaging flow.

Ignoring feedback: Feedback from peers, editors, or readers is valuable for improving your writing. Be open to constructive criticism and use it to enhance your work.

Lack of revision: Writing is a process that requires revision. Avoid the mistake of thinking your first draft is perfect. Take the time to revise and edit your work to refine your ideas and enhance the overall quality of your writing.

By being mindful of these common mistakes, you can strengthen your writing and create a more compelling and polished piece of work. Good luck!

Make a List

Making a List is essential to your writing. As tedious as it may be for the impatient writer, organising your thoughts can open the floodgates into characterisation, world building, plot, setting, arc building, and goal building.

Without the last two in particular, your story will fall flat and lack ambition.

Move

When I talk with writers and their problems with ‘writers block’, I often encounter two things. The first is the writer sitting hour after hour at their desk. The second is the characters in the WIP are also sitting stagnate.

The writer needs physical exercise. MOVE! Explore your neighbourhood. Find the hidden paths. Find the scars in your city. In turn, these discoveries will feed your writing, and your characters should start talking to you.

Make sure you listen.

Find the Need

What needs does your character have? What are their intentions, their ambitions and their hurt?

What needs does your story hold and project to readers? What’s the end goal? Why is the end goal important? What are the ramifications?

Find the Need and you’ll find the story.

Find the hidden paths. Find the scars in your city. In turn, these discoveries will feed your writing, and your characters should start talking to you.

Raise the Stakes

You’ve finally fleshed out and written your first character hurdle and incorporated the struggle into your plot arc, but something is invariably missing . . .

When this happens, be cruel to your fantasy friends. Raise the Stakes. Find that darkness. Place your characters in a position you yourself would dread. Force them to survive.

Study a Photograph

Depending on your genre, the photographs you study will vary.
Historical images can present contemporary problems in a new light; landscapes can open the author to new lands and adventures.

Let your mind run free. Follow your instincts and look for the fine details. You never know, someone or something might be looking right back.

Find the Music

Many successful authors have a theme to their book – and we’re not talking about plot and character.

Music has been around for as long as storytelling, and it makes sense to find your story’s beat. Create a list of songs fitting for your WIP and let the lyrics and mood help set the tone as you write.

Place your characters in a position you yourself would dread. Force them to survive.

Set Limits

Establishing a daily word count is essential for your writing career. Hold yourself accountable but be kind to yourself. A daily limit of 5000 words IS NOT a realistic option for most.

Start small. Focus on the end goal. Even 250 words a day will get you a manuscript in 12 months’ time.

Get Specific

A reader expects details. Details of smell, sight, touch, emotion and ambition. Details without being overwhelmed with three pages of description.

Verbosity is just plain showing off and will derail you from this goal. Write in simple, accessible everyday language, edit out unnecessary words, and most importantly, don’t assume your reader ‘gets’ it in the same way you do.

Zooming In and Out

Zooming in and out from the details used when being specific is a great tool in presenting the bigger picture.

Think of your writing as a photographer. Zoom that lens in to capture those creases around the eyes frowning; zoom out when you’re done to show why they’re so upset.

Start small. 250 words a day will get you a manuscript in 12 months time.

Study Opening Lines

By studying the opening lines of writing greats, you’re tackling writer’s block head on. (You may also stumble across another great book to read).
Opening lines prompt your brain to think like a published author. Study the structure, the language and use of description. How is the story established quickly? Where’s the hook to hold the reader? How is it inviting you to stay? Study the ‘voice.’

If you’re feeling adventurous, take the opening paragraph and craft your own story in a writing exercise.
It might kick start a new manuscript.

Create a Conflict

Creating a conflict goes hand in hand with the book’s story arcs. Without a conflict driving your story, the book will fall flat.

Conflict makes your characters relatable. Your protagonist/antagonist needs a goal to move them forward, and without the conflict to stand in their way, there’s no connection with the reader’s own memories. Conflict dramatizes ambition and the character’s personality and places the characters and plot into a familiar world.

This writing prompt relates to #1 Raise the Stakes.

Make your characters suffer, people!

Write a Letter

The act of writing a letter doesn’t have to be tedious or boring. It should be insightful.

Write a letter from your antagonist’s point of view. What would they say? Who would they address? What are their goals, their concerns, their secrets?

Do this for your main characters. Have them address each other or even the reader. Get inside their minds.

Conflict dramatizes ambition and the character’s personality.