Author: Stephanie Orges

The End of the World: Tuesday

  By ,

Voice deux! Read Monday.

Voice Week 2014 Tuesday

This is not the way I imagined it would end. I imagined howling throngs, and vast clouds of flame, and mere moments of intense pain before it was all over. Instead, Earth succumbs to a slow fading. But the delay did not buy mankind time to save itself, at least not time enough. We tried, oh, we debated and strategized, but the sky darkened and the frost bit while we talked and scribbled. We donned thicker coats and stuffed furniture in the stove and watched the stars reborn. The stars. I had forgotten how many there were. Or perhaps we never really knew. How perfectly ironic that in our final days, we should see so many wonders for the first time.

–

What does this voice tell you about the character? How does it compare with the first voice?

The End of the World: Monday’s Voice

  By ,

 

Day One of Voice Week! Remember, InMon is postponed till next week.

Meanwhile, here’s my first voice. I’m going with the prompt “the end of the world,” and experimenting a little more with perspectives (not just tone and word choice) this year.

Lemme know whatcha think!

Voice Week 2014 Monday

Didn’t think it would end this way. No panic. No screaming. Just a kind of fizzling out. They tried coming up with a plan for awhile, but I mean, what could we do? Move to another sun? Find another two nonillion killograms of gas to burn? So we sit, shiver, look at the stars up there, mocking us. Zillions of ‘em, we never even saw before, coming out, waving just to show us what we’re missing. All that light, but no heat. Kind of a metaphor for human history, right? Always wishing for what we never could reach. Like the universe just saying, Whatever.

—

What does this voice tell you about the character?

Inspiration Monday: Dark on Your Feet

  By

Voice Week starts one week from today! If you’re participating, please check the Voice Writer list yonder to make sure your name is on it, and let me know if I missed you. We’re up to 20, including me, but there’s still time to join if you haven’t!

Have questions? Leave them in the comments!

Need inspiration? Look no further:

Tara

Imaginator

Chris

LLD

Lucy

–

–

Inspiration Monday logo

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

DARK ON YOUR FEET

THIN AS THIEVES

ASTRAL PROJECTION

LAST MEAL ON EARTH

ANTI MERIDIAN

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and then give me the link in the comments below (I’ll also love you more if you link back to me); I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at stephanie (at) bekindrewrite (dot) com. (I do reserve the right to NOT link to a piece as stated in my Link Discretion Policy.)

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

–

Inspiration Monday: Cosmic Lighthouse

  By

So I get only about three hours of sleep Friday night, but still manage to make significant progress in the old WIP on Saturday. And then I seriously consider purposefully sleep-depriving myself next week in an attempt to repeat the effect.

Next thing you know I’ll be throwing salt over my shoulder and tugging on the same pair of stinky socks every time I sit down at the computer.

Hey, 16 folks signed up for Voice Week so far, not including myself. Still time! It starts on the 22nd.

Need inspiration? Here are some fun things to read – from some new faces, too!

Illsa

Tara

ACElliot

Adan

Kate

Lucy

–

–

Inspiration Monday logo

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

COSMIC LIGHTHOUSE

INTANGIBLE PROOF

BOOK SHED

BUCKET OF TEA

DETECTIVE WARS

Want to share your Inspiration Monday piece? Post it on your blog and then give me the link in the comments below (I’ll also love you more if you link back to me); I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at stephanie (at) bekindrewrite (dot) com. (I do reserve the right to NOT link to a piece as stated in my Link Discretion Policy.)

Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.

Happy writing!

–

Voice Week: Tips and a Prize!

  By

Announcing the Voice Week 2014 Prize!

The Hobbit book

 

And here it is. A lovely, miniaturized copy of The Hobbit. Fitting well in Hobbit hands, it’s the perfect size to take there and back again.

 

 

 

 

The Hobbit

 

Also small enough to sneak into a showing of The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies, so as to shout corrections at the screen.

 

 

illustration from The Hobbit

 

 

Featuring gold-tipped edges and black and white illustrations by Tolkien himself. Isn’t it precious?

It will be awarded to a randomly-chosen Voice Writer–so this isn’t a competition, but you do have to participate to win. Hint hint.

 

 

Speaking of Voice Week, it’s less than three weeks hence; I hope you’ve started writing. In case it helps, here’s the process I use for creating my own Voice Week pieces.

  1. Pick a prompt. I like to choose something that has a lot of emotional potential, but that isn’t too complicated. The first year, I picked “alcoholic mother” – a good opportunity to express character without having to flesh out a whole story. It’s more like a glimpse of some feelings than a story.
  2. Outline the week. I jot down ideas for which voices I want to try. For alcoholic mother, I tried versions that were educated (complete sentences, better vocabulary), uneducated (incomplete sentences, aint’s), teenagery (contractions, slang), fudging the truth (like educated, but with lies!), medieval (ye olde) and childlike (simplistic).
  3. Rough draft two or three pieces. I start with the ones I feel would be easy to write, voices I already have a good handle on. I tweak to make the differences as striking as possible, and may swap a few sentences.
  4. Look for themes. At this point I look to see if I have subconsciously included some kind of deeper message. If I have, I’ll shape the other pieces to flesh out that message more clearly.
  5. Read some stuff similar to the voices I’m trying to create. This helps me get an “ear” for what the writing should sound like. I tend to be a chameleon writer who conforms my own work to whatever I’m reading at the time. That may also be why I slip into a (very bad) English accent after watching too much Doctor Who.
  6. Write the remaining pieces. Finishing up, again based on outline and themes.
  7. Trim. Cutting down till they’re all close to 100 words, allowing wiggle room for wordier voices.
  8. Decide on the order I think they should appear. It might be chronological. Or the order might serve to tell a bigger story.
  9. Make my brother read them. Critique partners are so important—of course all your fellow Voice Writers will serve as critique partners during Voice Week itself, so this is a step that can be skipped.

Want more guidance? Here are some links!

How to write like someone you’re not

How to write in an other-worldly voice

Stay tuned for more.