Pandemic Reading: What Are You Reaching For?
Posted by David Duhr in 
Discussion question: What are you reading during this pandemic? read more
Pandemic Writing: What Are You Working On?
Discussion question: What are you writing during this pandemic? read more
Pandemic: General Discussion
Discussion question: No question. Just talk about whatever you want to talk about. read more
Pandemic Writing 2: HOW Are You Writing?
Discussion questions: How is this pandemic affecting your writing life? If you’re under a shelter-in-place order, is the extra time at home translating to an increase in writing output? How is it affecting your mental approach to writing? Your physical approach? Your schedule? If you’re not yet under lockdown, how are you planning to handle it when it does come? read more
Micro Fiction Contest: They Lived and Laughed and Loved and Left
Discussion questions: In fifty (50) words or fewer, write a scene or story that includes the phrase “They lived and laughed and loved and left.” Write or paste your story into the comments. The winner will get his/her choice of books from the WriteByNight library. read more
Writing & Reading Goals 2020: Quarter-Pole Check-In
Discussion questions: One-quarter of the way through 2020, are you one-quarter of the way toward achieving your 2020 writing and reading goals? If you left yours in the comments of this New Year’s post, take a minute to revisit and assess. If you didn’t, feel free to talk more generally. Are you happy with your writing so far this year, quantity and/or quality? Have you changed your approach in any way? Should you? Let’s talk about it in the comments. read more
Opening Your Fiction With Dialogue
Discussion questions: As a reader, do you like when the first line of a novel or short story is dialogue? Why or why not? Do any particularly good examples jump out at you? Have you ever used that tactic in your own fiction? Feel free to copy/paste examples in the comments. read more
Micro Fiction Contest: I Wrote Till My Heart Broke
Discussion questions: In fifty (50) words or fewer, write a scene or story that includes the phrase “I wrote till my heart broke.” Write or paste your story into the comments. The winner will get his/her choice of books from the WriteByNight library. read more
Writing Is Rewriting Is Rewriting Is Rewriting
Discussion questions: What is your approach to rewriting and revision? Do you buy into the whole “Ninety percent of writing is rewriting” thing? Why or why not? Do you have a good example of a passage from your own work that you’ve changed so much, it barely resembles the original? If so, copy/paste the various versions in the comments below, and detail, if you’d like, its evolution. read more
Multiple Books & Writing Projects
Discussion questions: Do you ever work on multiple writing projects at once? What are your strategies for keeping them separate, from letting one affect the other? How often do you read multiple books at once, and same question: How are you able to keep them separate? read more
Try to Be Funny, Don’t Suck
Discussion questions: George Saunders’ recent Paris Review interview left me with a lot to think about, and maybe it can do the same for you. I’ve stolen from it and listed them below. Do any of them speak to you and make you think about your own writing? In what ways? Let’s talk about it in the comments. read more
The Furniture of Your Mind
Discussion questions: Who are some writers that shape your life, shape how you move through the world and “the particular angles of [your] seeing”? What books have “become part of the furniture” of your mind? read more
- RT @shannonrwatts: Remember this when @realDonaldTrump and @GovRonDeSantis try to blame blue states for the inevitable deaths that will be…