Month: May 2016

4 Ways to Write Powerful Emotional Scenes

~ The Spinning Pen ~ 2 Comments

The barista stared at me a moment then felt the need to explain. “It’s black tea.”

I could see as much.

What I wanted to know was why in the middle of Texas there were tea wrapped in rice paper with Chinese characters scrawled on them. They looked like they had gotten lost en-root some Chinese farmer’s market trip. I could picture him walking down the road in dusty sandals towing one of those big carts behind him filled with produce. A bag of tea falls from his cart and into a nearby rice field.

4 Ways to Write Powerful Emotional Scenes

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Prompt Reply: The Ruins

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Pen Friends~Thanks to Sarah Snyder, Noah Dingman, Sabrina Carvalho, Ruby Ma, and Hilary Bowen for replying to the Prompt! Five talented writers and five different perspectives…Enjoy!

Prompt - camping in ruins

Prompt #1 by: Noah Dingman, 16 years old, Washington State

I wake in the middle of the night camped in more ruins. The sky is sprinkled with a host of stars. A fire burns next to me. I’m not scared. I should be, but on the contrary, I wish I could stay. But after last night…

The only thing to fear is fear itself, a voice says in my head. I can’t remember who said that but it’s not important. What’s important is how to survive another night. I can’t fail again.

The fire sputters out, I sit upright and look around. The stars slowly blink out, one by one. It’s happening again.

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The Secret to Writing Great Sci-Fi

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telescope-science-discover-world-mediumWhen someone says “science fiction,” what comes to mind? Space exploration? Futuristic technology? Aliens life forms? We tend to think of science fiction in those terms, but the best sci-fi stories don’t just spark our imaginations. They find a way to bring the story back home to the beautifully flawed humans who inhabit planet Earth. The brilliance of science fiction is that—no matter where or when it takes place—it creates a backdrop against which we can examine human nature and ask the question “What does it mean to be human?”

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Prompt: The Ruins

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Prompt - camping in ruins

I wake in the middle of the night camped in more ruins. The sky is sprinkled with a host of stars. A fire burns next to me. I’m not scared. I should be, but on the contrary, I wish I could stay. But after last night…

 What happens next?

Finish this prompt in 500 words or less. Send us your story at thespinningpen@gmail.com to be shared with our readers.

Author Interview: Mary Weber

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Pen Friends: Welcome Mary Weber, author of the wildly popular Storm Siren Trilogy, as she shares her writing journey with us. Talk about encouraging, charming, and instructive!

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SP: Can you tell us a bit of who you are and when you started writing?

Hi! Yes, let’s see…I was born and raised in California by parents who’ve been pastoring the same church for 40+ years (and are legitimately the coolest people I know). My husband and I have been married for 18 of those years and have three kids (ages 16, 14, & 10). I write books (obviously). I like homemade honey lattes, Sherlock, The Last Airbender, laughter, rain, and sushi, and I work part time as a youth pastor. Annnnd now I feel like I just filled out a dating profile. Nice. 😉 Continue reading →

The Map to Finding your Voice

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Voice is like a hidden treasure. Once you discover it and open its lid, riches abound. For some writers, voice is something they have sailed many seas to find. So, we’ve made a map to make it easier.

I’ve talked before about how VOICE comes from living life and experiencing new things, and that can be true. It can also come from within, knowing yourself, but what makes readers love the Voice of a book? Authenticity comes to mind. There is a voice inside of us all. Once we find it, we genuinely make friends through our characters with our readers. Continue reading →

Prompt Replies: Balloon Fair

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Pen Friends ~ Thanks to Allison Voltaire, Noah Dingman, Hilary Bowen, and David Pinkerton, who responded to the Prompt Challenge!  Here are four unique and entertaining prompt stories. Enjoy them below!

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Prompt 1: Hilary Bowen, “Sanctuary”

It was all so innocent–at least, we’d hoped it appear as such. With the Balloon Fair in town, nobody would know it was us. It was the perfect cover. The dim light of dawn, the waking crowds who were not yet caffeinated, and those balls of fire just itching to be lit.

I looked down at the fingers on my left hand there was a faint glow and as always, they were tingling. I imagined the faint curl of smoke that would herald me as one of the flaming ones, or Carriers as they were more often called. I smiled. It was such a delicious secret. All my friends except Cara wanted me to reveal. Not that many of them knew, but it was getting harder to hide. Continue reading →

Prompt: Balloon Fair

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It was all so innocent–at least, we’d hoped it appear as such. With the Balloon Fair in town, nobody would know it was us. It was the perfect cover. The dim light of dawn, the waking crowds who were not yet caffeinated, and those balls of fire just itching to be lit…

What happens next?

Finish this prompt in 500 words or less. Send us your story at thespinningpen@gmail.com to be shared with our readers.

 

The Best Writing Advice I Ever Recieved

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I once spent a year learning the art of chopping in China.

Why you ask? Why not! Actually it was a cultural misunderstanding as I was under the impression I’d be learning to make Chinese food. You can imagine my disappointment and horror when my teacher brought in a live duck and slit its throat it in front of us the first week of school. This was not what I signed up for.

Life experiences

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Fight Scenes: A Break in Action

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fight-scene

How long does a movie’s intense action scene last? It’s not just “Bang, pow; kick, punch, roll, jump,” without pause; movies throw in little “breathers” of comedy or surprise so that the audience can take a breath or laugh to relieve the build-up of tension. Then they go back to building it up again. This way the audience’s excitement doesn’t peak and then fall, but rather is built up in smaller increments, like an up-hill hike. You might want to run the whole distance, but you’d end up burning out without breaks. However, if you time your breaks strategically, you can build up your momentum and finish with a feeling of accomplishment, rather than collapsing in relief that you’re done. So how do you do this in fiction?

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