February 2012
11 posts
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Graphic Novels for the Literary Minded →
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“Fiction, imaginative work that is, is not dropped like a pebble upon the ground,...”
– Virginia Woolf
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Writing Tips →
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Common Grammar Mistakes →
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Writing Challenge: Six-Word Stories
When asked to write a full story in six words, Ernest Hemingway once responded with “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” This story in a sentence has become somewhat of a trend now. So why not try it yourself? Try to write a story in six words. Here are some links for inspiration:
Smith Magazine Six-Word Memoirs
NPR Six-Word Memoirs
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Writing Tips →
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Must Reads for February →
January 2012
9 posts
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“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
– T. S. Eliot
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Writing Challenge: Blurb
Have you ever watched a trailer for a movie and wondered What is this movie about?
Well here’s a challenge that will not only exercise your writing skills, but your visual talents as well. Rather simple, but may be a bit time-consuming. Have fun!
1. Imagine one of your stories or poems has been turned into a movie.
2. Imagine the trailer for that movie. Don’t be afraid to let...
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“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your...”
– E.L. Doctorow
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“Every book has an intrinsic impossibility, which its writer discovers as soon as...”
– Annie Dillard
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Writing Challenge: A New Year
Welcome to 2012! While it’s a great time to dive into the new year and think about the future, it’s also a nice time to reflect. For this week’s writing challenge, we’ll dabble in memoir and self-exploration. So here is your first writing challenge of the year:
It’s pretty simple. Write about each month of 2011 — it doesn’t have to mean anything to anyone...
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“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next...”
– T.S. Eliot
Happy New Year from Chester College!
December 2011
6 posts
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Writing Challenge: Your Holiday
The holiday season is in full swing here in New Hampshire, decorations everywhere, holiday events every weekend, people waiting anxiously for snow. Some people love the season and some people can’t stand it, but it is undeniably part of our culture.
British author Katharine Whitehorn one said, “From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent...
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“The world is so great and rich, and life so full of variety, that you can never...”
– J W Goethe
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For those of you interested in applying
We’ve had some interest from our Tumblr followers about applying to Chester College for Fall 2012. It’s certainly a crazy time of year for all us — good luck to those of you who are in the midst of college applications!
For those of you who expressed interest in Chester, the good news is we are still accepting applications and might be able to extend our Priority Merit...
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Writing Challenge: The People You Know
This is an exercise in character description, but in this case you won’t be describing your characters, you will be describing people you know.
Think of ten people you know. They can be your parents, your best friends, your enemies, or even the lady who works at the 7-Eleven down the street. Just make a list of ten people.
Now here’s the hard part: write one brief sentence describing...
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Top Ten Happiest Jobs →
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“I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human...”
– James Michener
November 2011
10 posts
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Congratulations!
Congratulations to one of our TurnStyle 2011 students, Naomi Day, for winning 3rd place in PANK magazine’s 1001 Words Contest with a story she wrote this summer at TurnStyle! Her story “A List of My Shortcomings” is a beautiful piece that everyone should keep an eye out for!
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Writing Challenge: Thanksgiving Conversations
Now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s time to reflect about the holiday. Whether you had a big meal surrounded by family members, or didn’t celebrate at all, chances are you have something to think about. So why not try this little challenge?
Write a one scene conversation taking place entirely at the dinner table. You choose the characters and their circumstances, but the day is...
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TV Characters and Their Literary Counterparts →
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“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes...”
– Robert Frost
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Writing Challenge: If the World Was Crazy
If the world was crazy, you know what I’d eat?
A big slice of soup and a whole quart of meat,
A lemonade sandwich, and then I might try
Some roasted ice cream or a bicycle pie,
A nice notebook salad, an underwear roast,
An omelet of hats and some crisp cardboard toast,
A thick malted milk made from pencils and daisies,
And that’s what I’d eat if the world was crazy.
- Shel...
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“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
– Benjamin Franklin
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Writing Challenge: A Mystery is Afoot
Do you read mystery novels? Or as a kid did you read Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys or Sherlock Holmes or even Goosebumps? Mysteries are often times a fun read for us, and if they’re written well, they keep us on the edge of our seats. So why not have some fun with this challenge:
Write a story (or poem or response) to one of these prompts:
1. A beloved teacher from the local middle...
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Writing Habits of Amazing Writers →
Did you know that Vladimir Nabokov wrote only standing up? That Stephen King writes ten pages a day, even on holidays? This is a cool link about some of the writing habits of great writers.
What are your writing habits?
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Writing Challenge: Words
Here’s a quick challenge for this week:
1. Open the dictionary to a random page and pick a random word. Now use this word as the subject of a free write exercise. Dedicate ten minutes to writing about this word.
2. Now crack open that dictionary again. Blindly pick a second word. Now continue writing the piece you started, but find a way to (as seamlessly as possible) incorporate this new...
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Absurd Vintage VHS Covers →
So it’s not exactly writing related… but it is entertaining. Maybe more of a “what not to do” when considering cover art for your future novels. :P
October 2011
10 posts
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“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
– George Eliot
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Writing Challenge: Scary Stories
Halloween is right around the corner, so it seems appropriate to assign a horror-themed challenge!
You know the traditional scary stories that you heard around the campfire when you were a kid. (Remember the dog licking the girl’s hand? The tapping on the car roof? The hitchhiking ghost?) Take one of those traditional horror stories and re-write the ending. You can choose to make it...
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Writing Challenge: Seasons
Fall is in the air and is in full-force here in New England: scarecrows and pumpkins all over town, harvest festivals, apple picking, and of course, beautiful trees exploding with color.
This has got us thinking about seasons. We are all familiar with the four seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter. Write a story or poem about a place that experiences another season entirely. Make it up,...
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Creative Writing at Chester College →
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“When a good writer is having fun, the audience is almost always having fun too.”
– Stephen King
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Scary Stories for the Season →
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Writing Challenge Wednesday - Letters (part II)
To stick with the theme of letters (because they’re endlessly interesting), here’s a quick new challenge for you.
Think of a story you’ve written recently (or a poem that has characters.) Take two of your favorite characters from that piece and comprise a series of letters from one to the other, back and forth. Try to mix it up a little, have these letters occur outside the...
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“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.”
– George S. Patton
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Writing Challenge Wednesday - Letters
Letter writing may be evolving, but it is still a vital part of the way we communicate today. Whether it is a birthday card, text message, e-mail, or hand-written letter, it is a way to convey thoughts to someone you might not see on a regular basis.
But what if you were to write a letter to yourself? Here’s your challenge:
Write yourself three letters: to your past self, present self, and...
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Destined for Greatness: Baby Pictures of Famous... →
Would you guess that this is Ernest Hemingway?
September 2011
11 posts
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“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Writing Challenge Wednesday - Bittersweet
Good news on a gloomy day, bad news during a celebration. These bittersweet moments we experience every day create tension and are often great stories. How do we, as writers, utilize this? Here’s your challenge:
Write a story with some major contrast in it. It can be a dark setting (scary house with no lights) with a bright character (Penny the 8-year-old movie star); a sad event (a...
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“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.”
– Joseph Chilton Pearce
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