kt literary » writing exercises

Final Round of Voting!

Kate — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:32:12 +0000

Thanks to all for your votes on the photo inspiration pieces. I’ve crunched the numbers (i.e. looked at the bars to see which was the longest), and the top three finalists are… …

Amy W. for Photo #1
Rachel M. for Photo #2
and Alicia for Photo #3.

So, take another look at their stories and then come back here and vote on your favorite. The winner gets a 30-minute phone consultation with me (not a pitch session) to ask any questions they want about publishing, shoes, or whatever their heart desires. I’ll leave the voting up until Thursday!

poll by twiigs.com

Time to Vote!

Kate — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:15:44 +0000

I fell down on the job yesterday, promising you the chance to vote for your favorite photo-inspiration pieces, and then not following through! I think I underestimated how wiped out I would be after my Nia Green Belt training over the weekend. Anyway, let’s see if we can’t make up for it today. Before you vote, please go back and read the entries for each photograph. I’m going to leave this poll up over the weekend, and on Monday, I’ll give you a top three (one from each picture) to vote on. Have fun!

For photo #1:

poll by twiigs.com

For Photo #2:

poll by twiigs.com

For Photo #3:

poll by twiigs.com

1000 Words, Part Three

Kate — Tue, 18 May 2010 17:29:43 +0000

Continuing our series of photographic inspiration for writers, which we started on Thursday, here’s the final image, from Flickr user Fran Pregernik. What does this say to you?

Ready? Set. Write! (Tomorrow I’ll post the polls!)

1000 Words, Part Two

Kate — Mon, 17 May 2010 17:17:10 +0000

Continuing our series of photographic inspiration for writers, which we started on Thursday, here’s the next image, from Flickr user mintyfreshflavour. What does this say to you? (And no cheating! Please don’t click on the link to the photograph on Flickr until AFTER you’ve written your piece!)

I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

1000 Words, Part One

Kate — Thu, 13 May 2010 21:17:01 +0000

We talk a lot about how to sell a book here, but little about how to write it. On my part, that’s mostly because I find the people coming to my site already have an inkling of the process of writing a novel, but also because my specialty is in the selling of your work, just as yours is in writing it. It makes sense for both of us to concentrate on what we do best, n’est-ce pas?

But today I want to break that “rule,” such as it is, and talk a little bit about inspiration. Maybe not for a whole novel, but for that germ of an idea that drives you to put fingers to keyboard or pen to paper and get down and dirty and creative. There are those authors who are famous for having dreams about their characters, and those who joke about the Idea Store. But what about photographs?

This year, I’ve been working on a photography project with the goal of taking & posting a new picture every single day. So far, it’s been going pretty well! Anyway, because of that, I’ve been looking at a lot of great pictures from some pretty amazing photographers. And some of them just BEG for a story to be told. Like this one:

Which is by Jordan Matter, as part of a collection called “Dancers Among Us.” I love it.

So, your mission for today is to write something inspired by this photograph. On Monday, I’ll post another inspirational shot, and on Tuesday, a third. Wednesday, we’ll vote for our favorite out of all the pieces inspired by all three images, and the author of the piece with the most votes will win a 30 minute phone conversation with me, to ask me anything you’d like!

Rules? There are none! Just post your piece of whatever genre in the comments of each photographic blog post, and I’ll put together a poll next week. (What about Friday, you ask? As always, that’s the day for our About My Query post.)

Have fun!

Writing Exercise

Kate — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:44:07 +0000

If I haven’t made it perfectly clear already, I’m a woman of many interests. As much as I love books (and I *love* books), I’m also a huge fan of tv and movies (note the shoes from Sofia Coppola’s production of Marie Antoinette). Not all of them, sure, but I have my favorites, and I can get a little fanatic about them. So I can’t help but love this week’s column by John Scalzi (writer and tv creative consultant for Stargate Universe) on AMCtv.com, combining a fun writing exercise with some great sci-fi movie tropes. The pitch:

Below you will find a selection of writing assignments, based on various science fiction movies and/or science fiction filmmakers. Write up one or more, and put them into the comments below (one writing assignment per comment — keep them short and punchy). Here’s the juicy part: I’ll select my favorite from the bunch and AMC will award its author a DVD set of the original The Prisoner. It’s that easy! Have fun.

There’s some fun comments already, and I have no doubt my readers would ROCK this contest. So have at it! Leave a comment on the blog post over on AMCtv.com, and then come back here and cross-post it or put a link in the comments below. I can’t compete with a DVD set, but if one of my readers wins the whole shebang, I’ll add a book of your choice from the kt literary library.

Good luck, and HAVE FUN!

A Hook for a Book!

Kate — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:01:09 +0000

Wow — you guys kept me reading all day! I’m thrilled so many of you took up the Writing Prompt challenge, but in the end, I’m afraid there can be only one winner. The winning hook:

Levi’s got the charm, the looks and the right amount of naughty to get Jess into illegal sorts of trouble when the heat is sweltering by the grill-side.

Congrats to ChristaCarol, whose full piece is on her blog here. ChristaCarol, send me an email at daphne.unfeasible@gmail.com with your mailing address and your choice of a book by one of my authors.

But let’s not make this all about me, and my thoughts. What did you guys think? Did you like the exercise? Did you enjoy reading each other’s pieces? Which ones were your favorites?

And finally, a shout out to Alyson Noel, whose eagerly anticipated novel Blue Moon, the sequel to her #1 New York Times bestseller Evermore, is in stores today!

Writing Prompts

Kate — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:37:29 +0000

Had a bit of a crazy day, and having realized as I was on my way out to a vet appointment for the office puppies that I hadn’t posted yet today, I asked on Twitter what I should talk about. One of my followers mentioned kt literary client Trish Doller’s recent tapir story (seen here), and it got me thinking about writing prompts again. I’ve mentioned Laini Taylor’s Sunday Scribblings blog before; another great one that a friend of mine uses is 100 Word Stories.

So let’s have another contest for the holiday weekend, shall we? I’m going to list three phrases below. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to pick one and write something based on it, however you want to interpret “based on.” It can be a scene, a poem, a song, a short story, whatever length you want — although I’m going to assume no one’s going to be a writing a full novel! And to make this more of a community effort, and tie it in with a more common theme on this blog, I want you to write it on YOUR BLOG or website, and comment below with the “hook” for your story, and a link to it.

The better the hook (a one line summary of your piece that entices me to read more), the more traffic you’ll drive to your site, and perhaps we’ll all find a new blogger we enjoy reading! You’ll have until ~~Sunday~~ Monday to write, post, and add a comment here with a link. On ~~Monday~~ Tuesday, I’ll read all the pieces, and pick one winner of a book from the kt literary stable of brilliantly talented authors, winner’s choice. Got it?

Without further ado, your prompts:

- I didn’t expect to actually go swimming…
- As American as apple pie…
- The heat from the grill made it seem a mirage…

Have fun!

Linkapalooza!

Kate — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:38:02 +0000

Sorry, guys, I’ve got a headache attacking my brain like Godzilla in Tokyo, so allow me to just fill this space with links, ok? Thanks.
Anokaberry includes Ellen Booraem’s The Unnameables in her list of Best Books of 2008 for Middle-Grade Readers, while Literate Lives also does a very nice write-up, arguing for its inclusion on the Newbery list.
Over on the Class of 2k9 site, which features S. Terrell French and her debut Operation Redwood, they’re giving away some ARCs of the Class members’ books. Enter for your chance to win!
Meanwhile, fellow Colorado agent and blogger Rachelle Gardner has a list of helpful ways to break out of writers block — or just be a better writer.
And Fuse Number 8 was kind enough to repost the invite for the wine reception Kristin Nelson and I are hosting during ALA Midwinter. If you’re an editor, librarian, or published author, please rsvp and come on by.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off for a dark corner of my office until anything exciting happens.

Fabulous and Fun Writing Exercise

Kate — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:35:15 +0000

A writer friend of mine forwarded this delectable link to Daily Monster, where artist Stefan G. Bucher creates a daily drawing of a monster, and invites his blog readers to contribute the creature’s backstory. What a great writing exercise! He’s up to Monster #152, whom I particularly love for the fabulous spats and shiny black shoes. Bucher has a book coming out with his first 100 monsters, including a DVD, but you can still contribute to his daily site.
Writers are often advised to “write, write, write,” so even if you’re blocked on your novel, why not set aside some time to write a backstory for a monster? If that’s not for you, how well do you work under word constraints? Try 100 Word Stories, which gives you a theme each day and invites you to contribute a short short of just 100 words. Or how about OneWord? This site gives you 30 60 seconds to write as much of a story as you can on a single word — use it as a theme, as a punchline, or any other way you like.
What other writing exercises do you know of out there? What are your favorites?
EDIT: Seems like OneWord isn’t working anymore, which makes me even more eager to hear your ideas for writing exercises!