And Now We Write

  • 2025 Writing Challenge Day 33: Writing Exercise – Tom Swifties

    Writing can be fun — and funny. Gene Perret is a master of classic humor, and in Comedy Writing Step by Step he coaches the reader from a blank sheet of paper all the way to developing a standup routine. We’re going to adapt a few exercises from the book, and today’s exercise is one…

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  • 2025 Writing Challenge Day 32: Writing Exercise – Questionable Dialogue

    Welcome to February! To kick us off this month, we’ll write a bit of dialogue that should have us questioning everything … or, at least, have one of the characters questioning everything. For today’s ten-minute writing exercise: Write a scene entirely in dialogue — no stage directions or descriptions allowed. Dialogue tags (“he said,” “she…

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  • 2025 Writing Challenge Day 31: Writing Exercise – User Agreement

    Using a well-defined text convention that is not narrative prose can catch the eye of a casual reader and force the writer to improvise to adopt the conventions of the borrowed form. For today’s ten-minute writing exercise: Using language as bloodless and legally flavored as possible, write a mobile app user agreement that grows increasingly…

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  • 2025 Writing Challenge Day 29: Writing Exercise – Set the Plot in Motion

    This January, we’ve been working on first lines and beginnings in honor of the new year. This is our final exercise on beginnings! For now anyway! Happy 2025! Today’s ten-minute writing exercise is: In her flash fiction collection Ghosts of You, Cathy Ulrich starts every story with “The thing about being the murdered blank is you set…

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  • 2025 Writing Challenge Day 27: Writing Exercise – Who Is Right?

    Write an advice letter or Reddit post that’s seeking validation rather than advice …

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  • 2025 Writing Challenge Day 18: Writing Exercise – Opening Images

    This January, we’ll be working on first lines and beginnings in honor of the new year. Happy 2025! Today’s ten-minute writing exercise is: In a cold, quiet forest, a girl in a faded red canvas coat looks up at the midnight moon. I just told you the closing image of a story. Brainstorm opening images…

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  • 2025 Writing Challenge Day 16: Writing Exercise – Reviewing the Reviewer

    Write a negative Yelp review and the response to it. Twist: the responder has found out …

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  • 2025 Writing Challenge Day 15: Writing Exercise – Eyewitness Testimony

    For a handful of exercises this month, we’ll look to works from the long and living legacy of Japanese literature for sparks of inspiration. For today’s ten-minute writing exercise: In the Akutagawa short story “In a Grove,” which was adapted into the movie Rashomon, a series of characters give testimony on the events leading up…

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  • 2025 Writing Challenge Day 14: Writing Exercise – Wait, Let Me Start Again

    In January, we’ll be working on first lines and beginnings in honor of the new year. Happy 2025! Today’s ten-minute writing exercise is: Write a story in first person, in which the narrator keeps changing their mind about where to begin. Our themes this month are: We’ll also be writing a complete work of flash…

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  • 2025 Writing Challenge Day 12: Writing Exercise – Answer Me!

    Using a well-defined text convention that is not narrative prose can catch the eye of a casual reader and force the writer to improvise to adopt the conventions of the borrowed form. For today’s ten-minute writing exercise: Write a series of texts, including emojis, from someone who messed up to the person they hurt. As…

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