First Comes Love, Then Comes the Subplot
For our Romance Week series, novelist Sonya Lalli offers a writing exercise on how to strengthen the romantic subplots in your work.
For our Romance Week series, novelist Sonya Lalli offers a writing exercise on how to strengthen the romantic subplots in your work.
For our Romance Week series, instructor and novelist Bryn Donovan shares an exercise that will help you explore internal conflict between your romance protagonists.
Pick one aspect of your day to expand into a short-form comic.
How can we write about language in a way that feels meaningful? Try out this prompt from instructor Jenna Tang to use language as a lens through which to tell stories.
We as people, especially those of us with anxiety disorders, spend a great deal of time playing the “what if” game. We are, in a way, already playing with fiction. Why not channel our imaginations and extend our “what ifs” to the page?
In this exercise from instructor Ariana Brown, try crafting a poem that honors the truth of what it means to be in deep relation with others, in the hope of recovering tenderness.
In this writing prompt from instructor Frances Badalamenti, take something from your own life and fictionalize from there.
As creative writers, we have the right to ask our readers to focus on what the “real story” is. Try out this writing exercise from Jenna Tang to practice avoiding cultural stereotypes.
This prompt will help you reconnect with nature and explore ways to write a poem as an extension of the natural world.
The success of a show often hangs on the writer’s ability to create a compelling sense of place. Use this prompt from classes instructor Alexander Aciman to imagine possibilities for your very own TV series.
Meaning is an abstract concept. It needs a container. Concrete details are those vessels, the building blocks, the foundation of a good essay.
Write a scene in which you’re sharing space with a ghost from your memory. It can be memoir or fiction, scary or silly, simple or complex. Just like ghosts themselves.
When you try to be “good” it doesn’t always work, but something fascinating happens when you try to be “bad.”
Take a deep dive into your obsession with this poetry prompt from Luther Hughes.
We build memories from these narratives. Classes instructor Jenessa Abrams wants you to try changing your story with this two-part writing prompt.
Speculative fiction is fueled by curiosity and questions. Try your hand at starting a new work (or building on something you’ve already started) with this exercise from classes instructor Tara Campbell.
A story changes depending on who’s doing the telling. Try a different version of a scene in your short story or novel to learn about your characters.
Choose a scene you’re working on in your novel and consider what that scene might look like from the perspective of someone else in the room.
This exercise is meant to let you use a part of your identity as a perspective, rather than just a subject that you’re putting under pressure and scrutiny.
What nuggets of life are you sharing that need poems? Write the poem about how your cat won’t leave you alone with help from this prompt by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram.