Take the February 750word challenge. The website 750words.com challenges writers every month to write every day that month and make it at least 750 words.

Now, think about it. February only has 28 days; except this is a leap year, sorry. Still, that’s one day less to win this challenge. You can write 750 words for 29 days straight, right? Take the challenge!

And here’s the Table of Contents from January’s writing challenge, in case you skipped any or want to repeat one.

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Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

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We’re done! But I thought you might like a re-cap and a table of contents.

The 31-day Think Like a Writer series challenges writers to write at least 750 words each and every day for a month. I used the website 750words.org, but you can do it with pencil and paper or on your computer. These creative writing prompts are meant to be “morning pages” or practice in Thinking Like a Writer.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Observe the world around you
2. Observe Sensory Details
3. Noses: Observe Characters
4. Make Your Characters Move
5. How to Create a Mood with Sensory Details
6. Discover Your Passions
7. Be Mean to Your Character
8. How Old is Your Character?
9. Subtext: What is this story really about?
10. Write in Scenes
11. Give Your Character Something to Hold
12. Emotion from a Photo
13. 3 Ways to Handle Time in a Novel
14. Titles that Readers will Love
15. Make an Image become a Symbol
16. What what you are SCARED to write
17. Everything is Worse and Worse
18. Writers Need to Whine Sometimes
19. Found Object Stories
20. Set the Scene: Panorama
21. Set the Scene: Zoom
22. Set the Scene: Scan
23. Omniscient POV
24. 1st Person POV
25. 3rd Person POV
26. Different Perspectives for Different Audiences
27. Before and After: Reveal Character
28. Secrets and Letters
29. The Other Side of the Story
30. Unlovable Characters

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Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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This is the last day of our 750 words per day challenge! Have you written every day? What have you learned from your writing this month?

Today, write a reflection about your writing for the last month. What have you learned? What was hard? What was easy?

In light of what you have learned, where do you need to focus efforts to improve your writing?

Please share with me, post a comment! I always like to hear your good news!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

In our continuing quest to write 750 words per day for a month, today we will look at unlikeable main characters.

Which One is Unlovable? The Eye of the Beholder

Donald Maass, in How to Write the Breakout Novel, says to make this type character self-aware. They know what they are doing is wrong, they acknowledge it. They take the sting out of the behavior by telling the reader they understand it is unacceptable. Nevertheless, they must do it. And of course, you’ll then add in the reasons why this behavior is reasonable.

The date jerk was dumped when he was 13 and has never gotten over it.
The guy in anguish is grieving over the loss of his family to a drunk driver. The guy who hurts puppies–oh, that’s a hard one! How WOULD you justify that? Oh, isn’t that the story, OF MICE AND MEN?

A second way to turn a jerk into a lovable character is to have someone demonstrate that they do indeed love him or her. Scarlett O’Hara is jealous, conniving and a drama queen. But the family’s nanny still loves her. Because the nanny loves her, we feel more tender toward Scarlett.

Today, write about an unlovable character.

• They must say, do and think awful things.
• Then, soften the character by having someone do a loving act toward them.
• Soften the character farther by having him or her acknowledge the errors of his or her ways.

Think like a writer: make me want to read about that unlovable character.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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In our continuing quest to write 750 words a day, today, we will think like our opposites. Our enemies.

Drawing of the TinTin Villain

Today, write a scene from a character who represents the opposite side, the opposite take on things, the opposite point of view. Generally, this will mean your villain or your antagonist.

Read this three part series about villains:

• Villains Don’t Always Wear Black
• Strengthen Your Villain
• Villains to Imitate

Now, write 750 words explaining your villain’s point of view, exploring their backstory, understanding the whys and wherefors of this fella.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

We’ve come a long way in this 31 Days of Thinking Like a Writer, a challenge to write at least 750 words each day.

Secrets and Letters

Letters written in the 1860s

Letters can be inform about facts or events; they carry emotional baggage that can be negative or positive.

Today, write a letter from your character to another character in the story.

It’s an exercise in drawing out the tension in a short piece of writing, as you Think Like a Writer

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Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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IN the on-going series of Thinking Like a Writer, everyone can recite the plot diagram of rising action which ends in a climax and denouement. But writers can’t just recite the particulars of a diagram; instead, we must create a plot that changes a character in some way.

One way to get at that change is to start by writing the Before and After character sections. Where is the character at the beginning of the story and how have they changed by the end.

For example, in the Before section of “A Christmas Carol,” Scrooge is miserable and miserly in three ways: toward the poor, toward his nephew, toward his employee and his family. He meets three ghosts, which leads to the After section, where he is kind and generous in three ways: toward the poor, toward his nephew, toward his employee and his family.

You may have a character moving from shy to bold.
What scene, description, and/or character set-up will Show-Don’t-Tell that this character is shy? How can you contrast that with the After scene?

First, identify the character arc for your character.
Then write a Before and an After.

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Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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Some visual artists like to use Found Objects to make Found Art. It’s an idea that works for writers today. As you walk through your day, notice things: bits of dialogue, interesting faces, odd objects (a bird, a hairbrush, a Chinese fan, the tallest tree you’ve ever seen). Today, collect about a dozen of these. Please try not to censor or audition the things, just collect.

Tomorrow, in our continuing challenge to write 750words every day, use every single one of them. Make it work. I don’t know how you’ll make it work, but you can do it.

For example, one story I wrote started with overhearing someone say they called their brother Bubba; at the same time, I was eating BBQ sauce. My characters became Saucy and Bubba. We also had strawberries for dessert, so the story included a special quart of strawberries. And I had been traveling that day and saw lots of 18-wheelers on the road: Dad had to drive a truck, of course.

The Found Object Story will surprise you. And that’s very good, it gets you out of your comfort zone, your cliches and forces you to be creative. And that’s Thinking Like a Writer.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Is 750 words per day getting easier or harder? January 2012 is a month when I am making a commitment to write at least 750 words each day.

For me, it’s hard to get started, but goes easily once I actually go to 750words.com and log in. Just knowing that it is timed makes me work hard for the 15 minutes or so it takes.

One of the typical creative writing prompts is to think of an embarrassing moment and describe that. I agree that’s a good prompt and here’s why. When you Think Like a Writer, you know that fiction must put your characters into a bad situation and make it even worse.

Without conflict, there is no fiction. But we love our characters and hate to make things worse for them. This time, you must make things as difficult as possible for your character. Put your character into a difficult situation; then make it worse; then make it worse.

Then, make it even worse. No let up.
It can be an embarrassing thing, or stressful, or painful. Just create a scene where the situation gets worse and worse and worse, without relief.

Now that, is thinking like a writer.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Here’s another creative writing prompt for your 750 words, a challenge to write 750 words each day in January to better Think Like a Writer.

What are you afraid to write about?
Write about it.
Grit your teeth.
Take a stiff drink (of sweet iced tea) and write.

Do it now.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win