And Now We Write

  • 2025 Writing Challenge Day 30: Writing Exercise – Unnamed Characters

    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 Tale of Genji, most of the characters are unnamed — they’re referred to by honorifics or by their role, like Heir Apparent. Recount the…

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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 28: Writing Exercise – Letters from Inside the Story

    This month, we’ve tried a handful of prompts from The 3am Epiphany by Brian Kitely, a book of over 200 writing exercises. This is the last one we’ll be doing together this month. If you’ve been having a good time with these, or if they’ve been hard but constructive, I encourage you to grab a…

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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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  • Flash Week Challenge Day 7: Writing Act Four

    It’s the last day of Flash Week! Today, we write “The End.” If you’ve gotten this far, you have a four-act outline ready, you’ve drafted the first three acts, and you are ready to write Act Four of this story. If you missed the first six days, I recommend you go back and start from…

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  • Flash Week Challenge Day 6: Writing Act Three

    Welcome back to Flash Week! Today is Day 6. If you’ve gotten this far, you have a four-act outline ready, you’ve drafted the first two acts, and you are ready to write Act Three of this story. If you missed the first five days, I recommend you go back and start from Day 1. We’ll…

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  • Flash Week Challenge Day 5: Writing Act Two

    Welcome back to Flash Week! Today is Day 5. If you’ve gotten this far, you have a four-act outline ready, you’ve drafted Act One, and you are ready to write Act Two of this story. If you missed the first four days, I recommend you go back and start from Day 1. We’ll be here…

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  • Flash Week Challenge Day 4: Writing Act One

    Welcome back to Flash Week! Today is Day 4. If you’ve gotten this far, you have a four-act outline ready, and you are ready to start writing the prose of this story. If you missed the first three days, I recommend you go back and start from Day 1. We’ll be here when you get…

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  • Flash Week Challenge Day 3: The Outline

    Welcome back to Flash Week! Today is Day 3. So far we have picked out our story ideas and fleshed out some thoughts on what we might want to include. If you missed the first two days, I recommend you go back and start from Day 1. We’ll be here when you get back. Well,…

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  • Flash Week Challenge Day 2: Images, Lines, and Notions

    Welcome back to Flash Week! Today is Day 2. Yesterday you brainstormed “story seeds” — the core of a flash fiction story you want to develop and write this week. For today, you have to pick ONE of those ideas to work on. Got it? Good. (And if you missed Day 1 of Flash Week,…

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