Winter is the perfect time to get comfy with your favorite hot beverage and write. For both fiction and nonfiction writers, it may be hard to get started. Here are some winter and holiday season writing prompts to warm your writing brain up!

Fiction/Character Writing

Christmas Tree Farm 

Write your characters traveling to a Christmas tree farm to pick out a tree. 

Snowman

Write your characters building a snowman. How do they make it? Do they cooperate well? What does the snowman look like?

Gifts

Describe the process a character goes through picking out a gift for their friend or significant other.

Scenery

Use sensory language to describe a snowy winter weather scene. Think about the five senses – sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. 

Grinch

Relay a short story that explains why a character doesn’t enjoy the holiday season.

Nonfiction/Personal Writing

Preserve a memory

Describe your favorite holiday of the past in detail.

Christmas in the Snow… or Sun?

What does the holiday season look like where you live? Write a paragraph about what weather you associate with the holidays.

Food

Describe your favorite holiday food.

Meaning

What do the holidays mean to you?

Pets

Describe holiday memories with your pets.

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It is time to relax under the sun, but it’s certainly not the time to stop writing. Here are some summer themed writing prompts to get the inspiration flowing.

Observe and describe  – nature, a street scene, & more

Sit outside, observe, and write down what  you see. This may sound odd, but practicing your skills with descriptive language will make you a better writer. Use your five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell) and remember to show rather than tell.

Observe and describe a street scene, a walk in the park, or anything else that comes to mind. 

Summer camp

Imagine your characters as participants at summer camp. What do they do? How do they act? Write a scene of your characters in such a situation.

Beach day

Take your characters on a trip to the beach!

Write outdoors

Continue your current writing project, but write outdoors if able. Use a laptop or even good old-fashioned pen and paper as you get out of the office and into a new environment! You will be surprised how new surroundings inspire creativity. 

Writing Streak

Have you ever used the language learning app Duolingo? Many use the app religiously, both to learn a new language and to maintain their streak on the app. Why not take this same principle to writing – start and maintain a streak of consecutive days you’ve written something! Keep track of the days with a calendar, and see if you can make it the whole summer.

(Or, see if one of these productivity apps will work for you.) 

Writing Coach

And as always – we are here to help you meet your writing goals! Get inspired by a Dorrance writing coach this summer. Learn more here.

Happy summer, and happy writing!

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With the arrival of the autumnal equinox this week, the weather will be getting colder and days will be getting shorter. But fear not – the fall season is the perfect season to sit down and write! Open your laptop or notebook and get back into writing mode with these autumnal writing prompts. 

1.) Coffee shop meeting

Your character’s usual coffee shop is closed due to some unforeseen circumstances, so they decide to go to one down the street instead. Someone is waiting for them. What happens next?

2.) Leaves change

Your character looks outside their window to discover that all the leaves in their neighborhood have changed color except for one tree, which is still green. How do they react? What do they do?

3.) Spooky secret

A character comes across a dark secret about their family or friend of theirs. What do they do?

4.) Scenery

Practice descriptions of scenery by writing about an autumn scene in your own life. Describe a chilly morning or breezy evening from your point of view. Use the five senses – show, don’t tell!

5.) Football game

Travel back to high school or college and have your character go to a football game. 

6.) Animal life

Autumn brings plenty of animals out as they forage for the winter season. Describe them – maybe even assume their point of view!

7.) Pumpkin person

Who is that person sitting on a park bench with a pumpkin on their head?

8.) A day in the leaf

What happens to a single leaf when it falls from a tree? Give a leaf a name and follow it around for a day.

9.) Haiku

Write some autumn themed haikus. A haiku is a poem consisting of 17 syllables, with three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. Haikus traditionally evoke seasonal imagery, so it’s only fitting!

10.) Camping trip

What happens when a group of characters goes on a fall camping trip?

Already have an autumn story written? Contact us!

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Vivid setting

Help your readers get into the story with strong descriptions and images of where they are. They will not feel the suspense if they can’t see the space the characters are in. Establish the geographic location of your story early. Establish what it looks like: urban or rural? What is the weather like? Imagine the places where the story takes place – the police station, the scene of the crime, the main character’s house. Sketch out these places ahead of time with words – or perhaps draw a picture!

Research and plan

Mystery and crime is not a type of story to write off the top of your head. Research the crime you plan to put at the center of the story ahead of time. By knowing the ins and outs, you can write it in a way that is believable and serves your plot. If something is completely unrealistic or off the wall, readers will disengage. Study real life examples of the crime and other novels with similar crimes or happenings at the center. Have details mapped out as to what weapons, motives, timelines, etc. are involved. Go ahead – link everything with a red string on a corkboard!

High stakes

No one will care about the mystery without a reason to. The stakes of the story must be high, and must be raised often in the story. For example, what is different about this murder that makes it so important to solve? What is going on in the main character’s life that makes the mystery important to them? Once the story develops, keep raising the stakes to keep the reader in suspense. Add new revelations, twists, and surprises until you arrive at the climax of the plot. 

Believable suspects

The best way to keep a reader guessing in a mystery novel is to have multiple suspects for a crime, or multiple answers to the mystery. Not only must there be many possibilities, but they all must be believable. Believable suspects for a crime will naturally occur if you develop well-rounded characters and stakes for them. Think about what each suspect might stand to gain or lose from committing the crime or being at the center of the conspiracy.

Avoid cliches

Avoid cliches in both your characters and plot. Sometimes cliches are good, but sometimes they might work against separating your book from others in the genre. If there is an opportunity to do something different, do it. Not every detective has to be a depressed alcoholic, for example. 

Overall, a mystery/crime novel today must not be afraid to be bold and new. Loyal fans of the genre will keep reading if you offer something unique. There are many ways to take a classic murder mystery and make it your own. 

Have a mystery or crime novel you want to publish? Contact us!

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Name: Joy Winkie Viola

Hometown: Wayland, Massachusetts

Book Title: From Schnitzel to Nockerln And Everything That Happened In Between

Describe your book in 10 words or less.

Travel adventures, often humorous, about nature on all seven continents.

What made you want to write your book?

Before my husband died of COVID, I had been reading my old travel diaries to him. I realized there were many good stories within them that I thought others would enjoy.

What do you do when you have writer’s block?

Edit! I can always edit existing copy when the muse isn’t with me!

What was your favorite chapter to write and why?

Face to Face with a Polar Bear –  because it was such an unusual experience living in the tundra buggies, dealing with difficult weather conditions and being with the great bears. I really wanted to share that multi-faceted adventure.

If you were stuck on an island had to choose who to be with of the following, who would you choose?

-One friend or family member: Shane Dore, my great nephew. He’s an Eagle Scout!

-One fictional character: Shadow, he Golden retriever in the movie Homeward Bound

-One famous person: Betty White

Besides Writing, what are your other interests? Travel, birding, gardening, Golden Retriever Rescue, reading mysteries and spy novels.

Do you keep a journal?

Always when traveling – those journals were the basis for my book.

How did you celebrate the publishing of your book?

I had a great book launch at our local country club with hors d’oeuvres and a string trio from our local symphony playing classical music. 90 people attended.

If your book was made into a movie, who would play the characters?

That’s a tough question because the book spans so many decades of our lives.  Maybe Jessica Chastain could play me and Channing Tatum my husband. They are both in their 40’s so that’s midstream – not that this would ever happen!

What did you enjoy most about working with Dorrance Publishing? The editing process as I had so many unusual terms, names of bird species etc. for which we had to develop style that wasn’t in the Chicago Manual.

What are your 5 favorite books?

1) The Unlikely Spy (because it was Daniel Silva’s first book – and he’s now one of my favorites

2) All Creatures Great and Small (Because I love animals)

3) Cry of the Kalahari ( Because it was a wonderful story about African wildlife)

4) The Last Train to London (because it parallel’s my husband’s childhood experience in World War 11)

5) The Little Engine That Could (childhood book, but inspiring theme)

One sentence of advice for other writers:

Be consistent. Once you decide to write a book, stay with it daily.

Thank you, Joy!

Do you have a memoir you are itching to publish? Contact us!

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One way to improve your action writing is by writing a scene with a simple premise: two characters get into a fight. This may sound overly simplistic, but that’s why it works as a perfect tool to practice action scene writing. An engaging action scene in manuscript format can’t be solely about the action taking place because simply reading about punching and kicking doesn’t translate the same way in a book that it does on screen. Instead, the focus should be on what is at stake on a character level.

By writing a scene based on this simple, you’re able to focus on the why behind the fight, rather than making the action exciting as we’re often feeling pressured to do. For example, let’s say we have two characters: Matt and David. Matt and David get into a fight, why? Are they two friends who had a falling out based on some dishonest behavior, only to wind up running into each other at a bar one night and having it out? If that’s the case, what was the lie and what did it cost each of them?

Or are they two strangers out at a club who bump into each other, a few harsh words are exchanged, and suddenly punches are being thrown? If that’s the case, what put them each in a bad mood? Maybe one of them just has anger issues, what has his anger cost him in his life? What could this moment cost him, should it get too out of hand? There is so much going on behind a fight and, in a manuscript format, focusing on these aspects is how you’ll be able to keep readers engaged and excited about the action.

Writing Prompt: Write a scene where two characters get into a fight. You can choose two already-made characters or create two new ones for the purposes of the scene. What is the relationship between the two characters? What caused the fight vs. why are they fighting (sometimes these are two different answers)? What are the stakes of their fight, both internally and externally? Put your dukes up, writers.

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A good villain intro scene should include two elements. First, they should cement the villain as someone formidable and memorable for the audience. Second, they should tell us as much about the type of villain they will become. Let’s first look at the example of Darth Vader, who is first introduced to the audience in the Star Wars film A New Hope. An epic fight scene ensues between the stormtroopers and the rebels onboard an all-white spaceship interior. Then, at the tail end of the fight, this masked figure cloaked entirely in black struts onto the ship, theme music playing beneath him. After a brief scene with R2D2 and C3PO, Darth chokes and kills a rebel trooper. This introduction not only uses color very strategically to make this villain immediately stand out, but the audience immediately sees him senselessly kill someone so they already know he is a formidable opponent.

Another great example of a villain introduction is The Joker’s introduction from The Dark Knight. Going into creating this scene, the writer and director know that their audience knows this character and it’s just about introducing this iteration of him in a fun and memorable way. The introduction scene involves a bank heist with men all wearing clown masks. As they expertly begin the process of robbing the bank, they speak about how they were hired by the Joker and what he’s like. As the scene unfolds, the heist becomes less and less seamless as the clowns begin to take each other out as they complete the steps for the robbery, citing that the Joker had asked them to kill each other so there would be fewer shares to divide amongst themselves. By the end of the robbery, there is only one clown left: The Joker.

This scene works well to get the audience excited for this villain for a few reasons. One, the bank robbery element establishes the Joker as the Gotham-style Batman villain that he always is in every iteration. Two, the fact that he turns his own men against each other establishes him as someone who isn’t just interested in a certain goal. If he wanted to assure that he got the money, he would’ve made it as easy for his men as possible. But instead, he made sure they all died in the process which means that he was more interested in creating chaos than the bank’s money. Finally, the quick pace, the sheer amount of death, and the callousness he displays shows that he is not only the type of person who likes to create chaos but that the violence we just saw wasn’t even a big deal to him. This fact makes him even more frightening.

Writing Prompt: Create a villain, this could be the antagonist in a story you’ve already created or one you make up for this exercise. Once you have a clear picture of them in your head, write a scene that introduces them into a story. This could be a scene from the POV of your protagonist, from an innocent bystander, from a victim, or even from the villain themselves (though the last would be the trickiest). Use the scene to tell the reader as much as possible about your villain and their motives up front. Also utilize the scene as a means of cementing your villain in the reader’s mind, making them both memorable and frightening to the reader.

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You also know your characters’ pet peeves, the hobbies that they hate, the people that would annoy them the most, and their least favorite activities. Getting even more specific, you know how the things that they like and dislike blend together. How there are certain hobbies or people that your character thinks they dislike but, should they give them a fair chance, they may actually enjoy themselves. The opposite can be true as well, having a character who loves a certain hobby but then, due to overindulgence or other factors, it can become something they despise.

This is where our writing prompt of the day comes in: opposite day. This exercise involves putting your character in situations where they would never normally find themselves in of their own choice. So if your character hates carnivals, write a scene where they’re forced to go to a local carnival. It doesn’t even have to be something that they hate either, it can simply be something they’d never normally do. If you’ve never thought your character would ever be inclined to try pottery, for example, write a scene where they’re taking a pottery class.

Brainstorming the scene or scenes you write for the exercise will allow you to chart out the different habits and nuances of your character. In addition, writing the scene itself will allow you to not only practice showing (rather than telling) the reader about the specifics of character-building, but may also allow you to learn new things about your characters.

Putting your character in scenes they’d never normally find themselves in will allow you to gain new insights about them. As any writer will know, you can plot and outline all you want but often the characters will run away with the plot themselves. So, oftentimes, we won’t truly know how a certain character will react in a situation until they’re actually in it.

Writing Prompt: Pick a specific character from your manuscript (or a character you’re working on) and put them in a scene or scenes in which they’d never normally find themselves. This could mean a setting or circumstance that they would dislike or one that is simply very unlike them normally. How do they react to being in this situation? Why do they react this way? Is their reaction different or the same as what they’d expect of themselves? If it is different, why is that?

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Putting one of your characters through a spring cleaning writing exercise is an excellent way to practice showing rather than telling your readers character details through scene-work. For example, let’s say your character is spring cleaning and decides to get rid of an old exercise bike. Have they stopped exercising and don’t plan to begin again anytime soon? If this is the case, is your character depressed or simply not a fan of exercise. Or did they instead get a gym membership and that is preferable to them? One item and the choices they make surrounding that item can say so much about who they are and/or their current state.

Let’s say your character is cleaning out their closet. What types of clothes do they hold onto and why? Do they donate some clothes as they go through their wardrobe? What sorts of clothes do they decide to get rid of and why? Perhaps some of their clothes have holes or stains in them, where did that wear and tear come from?

Is this person’s home already fairly organized or are they finding old pieces of gum in various drawers? If it’s the latter, that could perhaps indicate that the character is going through a hard time as of late. Or maybe it can show the reader that this person is just generally messy, their home and life mimicking one another.

What does your character have that is sentimental in their home? An old note their Mom left in their lunchbox back in their Middle School days? Ticket stubs from a movie they saw with their partner years back? Half of a ‘best friends’ locket? Anything sentimental will have a story behind it and, when the character sees the object in real-time, it provides you with the opportunity to tell those stories. And, whether the character decides to hold on or let go to these items, says a lot about their level of sentimentality and/or the state of their relationship with the person about whom the memory shows.

Writing Prompt: Take a character from your manuscript or create a character for this exercise. Write about a spring cleaning day for your character. If you choose to use a character from your manuscript, choose a spring cleaning day from a significant year in your character’s life. Presume your readers know nothing about this character and give them character details solely by using the action of spring cleaning. Highlight important items and details around their home, tell the stories behind them, and use action to show how they feel about these objects.

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Setting a scene amidst the pouring rain can create an extra layer of drama. Your protagonist is cold and soaked and uncomfortable, but they’re still out there because what is happening in the scene is so important that they don’t care. Because of both this character motivation layer combined with an audience’s previous experience with these scenes, setting a scene in the rain can give it some extra drama combined with a truly stunning visual for your readers.

What would the protagonist of your novel be doing out in the rain? Did they undergo an insurmountable loss, run out into the rain, kneel down, and let out an earth-shattering scream? Did they get caught in the rain on their way home from a party, walking home in the darkened wet streets, the sound of rain pounding loud against their ears, and they have the eerie feeling that they’re being watched… being followed… are they?

A ‘getting caught in the rain’ scene can be molded to fit any genre and to match virtually any character or situation.

Writing Prompt: Either make up a new character or choose a character from your manuscript. Write a scene where the character gets caught in the rain. What important event happens to them while they’re caught in the rain? Make sure the event matches both the genre and character about whom you’re writing. Finally, how does the character change or grow based on what happens in this scene?

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