Day 1 DAILY WRITING PROMPT Title: Adventure When thinking of an adventurous story, themes of extremity and elaboration come

to mind. Settings are often foreign and obscure, characters struggle with life and death, etc. In a short written work, try to evoke intensity in the mundane by creating an adventure (whatever that may mean to you) in normally dull or monotonous aspects of life. Your piece may be set in a coffee shop or in the car ride to work, the characters may struggle with a spilled drink on their shirt or engage in a quarrel with a coworker, etc. Play around with the standard limitations and themes of an adventure. DAILY READING-WRITING EXERCISE Title: Excerpted Letter by Albert Camus (http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/63960-should-i-kill-myself-or-have-a-cup-of-coffee) Body: My dear, I dont know what to do today, help me decide. Should I cut myself open and pour my heart on these pages? Or should I sit here and do nothing, nobodys asking anything of me after all. Should I jump off the cliff that has my heart beating so and develop my wings on the way down? Or should I step back from the edge, and let others deal with this thing called courage. Should I stare back at the existential abyss that haunts me so and try desperately to grab from it a sense of self? Or should I keep walking half-asleep, only half-looking at it every now and then in times in which I cant help doing anything but? Should I kill myself or have a cup of coffee? Falsely yours, Albert Camus Prompt: Using questions in writing can be a creative way to communicate. Camus successfully uses questions in this excerpt to both communicate his thoughts and to express his apprehensiveness and confliction. Write a short written work that is entirely made up of questions. RIFF WORD: coarse LITERARY QUOTATION: He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. Albert Einstein

Day 2 DAILY WRITING PROMPT Title: Social Anxiety Fiction allows for the contemplation of social situations. But what happens when someone has extreme social anxiety? How does that affect the setting? The other characters? Write a short written work in which a character with social anxiety (from his or her first-person perspective) becomes severely embarrassed. Show readers your characters every thought and worry. DAILY READING-WRITING EXERCISE: Title: Excerpt from The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (http://books.google.com/books/about/The_God_of_Small_Things.html?id=4LZ2guxa1E IC) Body: Twenty-three years later, Rahel, dark woman in a yellow T-shirt, turns to Estha in the dark. Esthapappychachen Kuttappen Peter Mon, she says. She whispers. She moves her mouth. Their beautiful mothers mouth. Estha, sitting very straight, waiting to be arrested, takes his fingers to it. To touch the words it makes. To keep the whisper. His fingers follow the shape of it. The touch of teeth. His hand is held and kissed. Pressed against the coldness of a cheek, wet with shattered rain. Then she sat up and put her arms around him. Drew him down beside her. They lay like that for a long time. Awake in the dark. Quietness and Emptiness. Not old. Not young. But a viable die-able age. They were strangers who had met in a chance encounter. They had known each other before Life began. There is very little that anyone could say to clarify what happened next. Nothing that (in Mammachis book) would separate Sex from Love. Or Needs from Feelings. Except perhaps that no Watcher watched through Rahels eyes. No one stared out of a window at the sea. Or a boat in the river. Or a passerby in the mist in a hat. Except perhaps that it was a little cold. A little wet. But very quiet. The Air. But what was there to say? Only that there were tears. Only that Quietness and Emptiness fitted together like stacked spoons. Only that there was a snuffling in the hollows at the base of a lovely throat. Only that a hard honeycolored shoulder had a semicircle of teethmarks on it. Only that they held each other close, long after it was over. Only that what they shared that night was not happiness, but hideous grief. Only that once again they broke the Love Laws. That lay down who should be loved. And how. And how much.

Prompt: Arundhati Roy writes this incest scene with exquisite subtly. She shows that graphic and explicit actions do not have to be written bluntly but can rather be conveyed uncompromisingly with eloquent implication. Try to write a short scene of a normally intense, provocative, or graphic event in an understated, calculated, and inconspicuous manner. Make the explicit implicit. RIFF WORD: scent LITERARY QUOTATION: I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth and truth rewarded me. Simone de Beauvoir Day 3

DAILY WRITING PROMPT Title: Human Emotion There exists no written work that does not in some way present, express, or evoke human emotion. Writers, therefore, must be able to accurately communicate the intended emotions of their characters so as to better convey what they want to their readers. As is known, human emotions overlap and are often fleeting, messy, and indistinct, so conveying one emotion precisely is not enough. For this exercise, write a fictional piece in which four different emotions are conveyed from one major character. Show your character to be puzzled, overwhelmed, euphoric, and discouraged at four separate instances. Emotions may build upon each other, as they do in real life. The intention is for you to gain experience conveying human emotion and all its complexity as best as possible. DAILY READING-WRITING EXERCISE Title: A Better Resurrection by Sylvia Plath (http://www.artvilla.com/a-better-resurrection-poem-by-sylvia-plath/) Body: I have no wit, I have no words, no tears; My heart within me like a stone Is numbed too much for hopes or fears; Look right, look left, I dwell alone; A lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief No everlasting hills I see; My life is like the falling leaf; O Jesus, quicken me.

Prompt: Much of art is an outlet for feelings of despair and loneliness. Sylvia Plaths poetry exemplifies the soul-wrenching comfort that appears in art forms. Many people go to literature and poetry in search of assuaging the deep solace they feel in this world. Write a poem or short written work that discusses or touches on loneliness and sorrow. Think of your own experiences and how readers may have gone through similar ones. RIFF WORD: vibrate LITERARY QUOTATION: Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible. Carl Gustav Jung Day 4 DAILY WRITING PROMPT Title: Sentence Style Discovering ones own individual writing style is a critical step in the process towards becoming a successful writer. Experimenting with sentence structure and format will help bring you closer to finding your own writing voice, as this exercise hopes to accomplish. First, write approximately a 1 paragraph-long fictional story about anything you would like. Other than it having to be a fictional work (an objective basic plot is needed) its content is unimportant for the purpose of this exercise. Secondly, write the same story (same basic plot) using only simple sentences. Thirdly, write again the same story using only compound sentences. Lastly, write again the same story using only complex sentences. Each time around the story will naturally change slightly, but the same skeletal plot should be conveyed. DAILY READING-WRITING EXERCISE Title: Excerpt from A Clean Well Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway (http://www.mrbauld.com/hemclean.html) Body: Good night, said the younger waiter. Good night, the other said. Turning off the electric light he continued the conversation with himself. It was the light of course but it is necessary that the place be clean and pleasant. You do not want music. Certainly you do not want music. Nor can you stand before a bar with dignity although that is all that is provided for these hours. What did he fear? It was not a fear or dread, it was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order. Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada. Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not

into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee. He smiled and stood before a bar with a shining steam pressure coffee machine. Prompt: Hemingway succeeded in conveying a large concept through playful and unconventional writing. Write a short written work or poem that expresses an idea in an atypical way. Play around with standard language structures and push limits. RIFF WORD: stain LITERARY QUOTATION: "I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction by skipping the parts that bored me." Jonathan Lethem Day 5 DAILY WRITING PROMPT Title: Character History People are complex and have a rich history of people they know and things they have done. Fictional characters should be no different. Create a character and write an indepth biography of their life. Include as many details as you can. What kind of traits do they possess? Who was their first love? Do they hate jellybeans? Why? What was the most important moment of their life? What parts of their past define them? Dive into your character and develop an entire persona through their history. DAILY READING-WRITING EXERCISE Title: Excerpt from A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (http://books.google.com/books/about/A_Clockwork_Orange.html?id=SKp0BqzoaP8C) Body: 'What's it going to be then, eh?' There were three devotchkas sitting at the counter all together, but there were four of us malchicks and it was usually like one for all and all for one. These sharps were dressed in the heighth of fashion too, with purple and green and orange wigs on their gullivers, each one not costing less than three or four weeks of those sharps' wages, I should reckon, and make-up to match (rainbows round the glazzies, that is, and the rot painted very wide). Then they had long black very straight dresses, and on the groody part of them they had little badges of like silver with different malchicks' names on them Joe and Mike and suchlike. These were supposed to be the names of the different malchicks they'd spatted with before they were fourteen. They kept looking our way and I nearly felt like saying the three of us (out of the corner of my rot, that is) should go off for a bit of pol and leave poor old Dim behind, because it would be just a matter of kupetting Dim a demi-litre of white but this time with a dollop of synthemesc in it, but that wouldn't really have been

playing like the game. Dim was very very ugly and like his name, but he was a horrorshow filthy fighter and very handy with the boot. 'What's it going to be then, eh?' Prompt: A Clockwork Orange is famous, among other things, for Burgesss invention of words. However, Burgesss writing makes it so that the reader learns what these made up words mean by their contextual use. Burgess expanded the limits of language in fictional writing and proved to be successful in communicating what he intended. For this exercise, write a poem or short story that relies on context to be understood. Specifically focus on words, phrases, or strange format. This is a manner of exploring new ways of communicating through writing, and it can be taken in any direction you prefer. Trust that your readers will pick up your implicit meaning. Have fun with it. RIFF WORD: birth LITERARY QUOTATION: Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. -Scott Adams Day 6 DAILY WRITING PROMPT Title: Write What You Dont Know Many writers believe that you should write what you know. Challenge that. Write a short written work with characters that are completely different from yourself. Write characters with completely different traits and beliefs and that come from different nationalities and economic circles. This may call for some research into people or characters you are different from. Get inside the head of someone youre not and see what you come up with. Daily Reading-Writing Exercise: Title: Various examples of proverbs (http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/proverbs.html) Body: Let go, or be dragged. Zen proverb Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still. Chinese Proverb Everyone thinks his own burden heavy. French Proverb Prompt: Concise writing is powerful and effective. Proverbs may be considered even further condensed forms of poetry. They attempt to grasp at universal truths, and some

cultures firmly hold them in their belief system for long periods of time. Think about what you believe to be universal truths or maxims to live by and create a few of your own proverbs. RIFF WORD: Twitch LITERARY QUOTATION: And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anais Nin Day 7 DAILY WRITING PROMPT Title: Meta-Writing Write a short piece about a writer trying to write. You can use your personal experience and struggles, or you can invent new ones. What part of the writing process is the most difficult? The easiest? The most exciting? The most boring? Think about these questions and write a narrative with a fictional writer where they are answered or touched upon. Taking an objective stance to your own act of writing will help you understand what works for you best and what doesnt. DAILY READING-WRITING EXERCISE Title: The Great Sex Letter by Neal Cassady written to Jack Kerouac (http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/08/the-great-sex-letter.html) Body: March 7, 1947 Dear Jack: I am sitting in a bar on Market St. I'm drunk, well, not quite, but I soon will be. I am here for 2 reasons; I must wait 5 hours for the bus to Denver & lastly but, most importantly, I'm here (drinking) because, of course, because of a woman & what a woman! To be chronological about it: I was sitting on the bus when it took on more passengers at Indianapolis, Indiana a perfectly proportioned beautiful, intellectual, passionate, personification of Venus De Milo asked me if the seat beside me was taken!!! I gulped, (I'm drunk) gargled & stammered NO! (Paradox of expression, after all, how can one stammer No!!?) She sat I sweated She started to speak, I knew it would be generalities, so to tempt her I remained silent.

She (her name Patricia) got on the bus at 8 PM (Dark!) I didn't speak until 10 PM in the intervening 2 hours I not only of course, determined to make her, but, how to DO IT. [] In complete (try & share my feeling) dejection, I sat, as the bus progressed toward Kansas City. At Columbia, Mo. a young (19) completely passive (my meat) virgin got on & shared my seat ... In my dejection over losing Pat, the perfect, I decided to sit on the bus (behind the driver) in broad daylight & seduce her, from 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM I talked. When I was done, she (confused, her entire life upset, metaphysically amazed at me, passionate in her immaturity) called her folks in Kansas City, & went with me to a park (it was just getting dark) & I banged her; I screwed her as never before; all my pent up emotion finding release in this young virgin (& she was) who is, by the way, a school teacher! Imagine, she's had 2 years of Mo. St. Teacher's College & now teaches Jr. High School. (I'm beyond thinking straightly). I'm going to stop writing. Oh, yes, to free myself for a moment from my emotions, you must read "Dead Souls" parts of it (in which Gogol shows his insight) are quite like you. I'll elaborate further later (probably?) but at the moment I'm drunk and happy (after all, I'm free of Patricia already, due to the young virgin. I have no name for her. At the happy note of Les Young's "jumping at Mesners" (which I'm hearing) I close till later. To my Brother Carry On! N.L. Cassady Prompt: Cassadys letter to Kerouac, while revealing much of Cassadys character, also illustrates to its readers an image of Kerouac and Cassadys friendship by offering a glimpse into how they interact with each other. Cassadys familiar, uninhibited writing style accomplishes this. Letters can be forms of relationship development, for readers learn not only the literal content of the letter but also the nature of the relationship between the two characters. For this exercise, write a letter composed by a fictional character writing to another fictional character. To develop a relationship, two separate identities must also be developed. Think about what these two characters would choose to share with each other. Are they strained acquaintances? Are they lovers? What kind of writing style develops between two friends? Which memories or mutual experiences do they speak of? Explore as thoroughly as you can the development of a relationship. RIFF WORD: fracture LITERARY QUOTATION: It has long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. -- Leonardo Da Vinci

Day 8 DAILY WRITING PROMPT Title: Transform Endings Possibility is the essence of creativity. There are an infinite amount of directions an idea can take, giving ultimate freedom and control to the creator. The creative process is ultimately deciding what directions to take. For this exercise, think of three of your favorite novels or stories. Then write alternative endings to each of those stories. This will practice your creative decision-making ability. Changes you make may be subtle yet conceptually transformative, or they may be extremely drastic. Think about how changes you make will affect the story as a whole. DAILY READING-WRITING EXERCISE Title: Excerpt from the McSweeneys short story Do Not Disturb by A.M Homes (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15590.The_Better_of_McSweeney_s_Vol_1) Body: I have never been so unhappy in my life, my wife says when were near the top. Its not just the cancer, I was unhappy before the cancer. We were having a very hard time. We dont get along, were a bad match. Do you believe me? Yes, I say, Were a really bad match. Were such a good bad match it seems impossible to let it go. Were stuck, she says. You bet, I say. No, I mean the ride, the ride isnt moving. Its not stuck, its just stopped. It stops along the way. She begins to cry. Its all your fault, I hate you. And I still have to deal with you. Every day I have to look at you. No, you dont. You dont have to deal with me if you dont want to. She stops crying and looks at me. What are you going to do, jump? The rest of your life, or my life, however long or short, should not be miserable. It cant go on this way. We could both kill ourselves, she says. How about we separate? I am being more grown up than I am capable of being. I am terrified of being without her but either way, its death. The ride lurches forward. I came to Paris wanting to pull things together and suddenly I am desperate to be away from her, to never have this conversation again. She will be dying and we will still be fighting. I begin to panic, to feel I cant breathe. I have to get away. Where does it end? How about we say goodbye. And then what? We have opera tickets.

I cant tell her Im going. I have to sneak away, to tip toe out backward. I have to make my own arrangements. We stop talking. Were hanging in mid-air, suspended. We have run out of things to say. When the ride circles down, the silence becomes more definitive. I begin to make my plan. In truth, I have no idea what I am doing. All afternoon, everywhere we go, I cash travelers checks, I get cash advances, I have about five thousand dollars worth of francs stuffed in my pocket. I want to be able to leave without a trace, I want to be able to buy myself out of whatever trouble I get into. I am hysterical and giddy all at once. Prompt: In this short story, the husband expresses conflicting feelings. He is torn between wanting to leave an unhappy marriage and wanting to stay with his cancerstricken wife. Peoples opinions and feelings are often never black and white, but are rather antagonistic and complex. For this exercise, write a short written work in which a character is torn between opposing feelings or decisions. Show the inclination for both opposing sides and the struggle that difficult decision-making yields. RIFF WORD: humid LITERARY QUOTATION: "My father used to say, 'Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument.'" -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu Day 9 DAILY WRITING PROMPT Title: Difficult Argument Many life-changing moments are ones in which people have necessary yet difficult conversations or arguments. Write a short written work in which two characters are discussing a substantial, impassioned issue in-depth. It can be a couple arguing over ones desire to get a divorce, a creationist arguing with an atheist, a friends confession of murder to another friend, parents discussing whether to take their child off of life support, etc. Show both sides of the argument in detail. Delineate each characters opinions and logic. Scenes like these are often cut short or simplified in most writing, so for the purpose of this exercise make sure to go in-depth with the conversation and entire scene. Make sure to not just focus on the dialogue but as well on each characters body language, looks, and movements-- paint the picture. Involve your readers and have them understand the gravity of the situation. Dive in.

DAILY READING-WRITING EXERCISE Title: Excerpt from A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J.D Salinger

(http://www.dibache.com/text.asp?cat=51&id=184) Body: "They lead a very tragic life," he said. "You know what they do, Sybil?" She shook her head. "Well, they swim into a hole where there's a lot of bananas. They're very ordinarylooking fish when they swim in. But once they get in, they behave like pigs. Why, I've known some bananafish to swim into a banana hole and eat as many as seventy-eight bananas." He edged the float and its passenger a foot closer to the horizon. "Naturally, after that they're so fat they can't get out of the hole again. Can't fit through the door." "Not too far out," Sybil said. "What happens to them?" "What happens to who?" "The bananafish." "Oh, you mean after they eat so many bananas they can't get out of the banana hole?" "Yes," said Sybil. "Well, I hate to tell you, Sybil. They die." "Why?" asked Sybil. "Well, they get banana fever. It's a terrible disease." "Here comes a wave," Sybil said nervously. "We'll ignore it. We'll snub it," said the young man. "Two snobs." He took Sybil's ankles in his hands and pressed down and forward. The float nosed over the top of the wave. The water soaked Sybil's blond hair, but her scream was full of pleasure. With her hand, when the float was level again, she wiped away a flat, wet band of hair from her eyes, and reported, "I just saw one." "Saw what, my love?" "A bananafish." "My God, no!" said the young man. "Did he have any bananas in his mouth?" "Yes," said Sybil. "Six." The young man suddenly picked up one of Sybil's wet feet, which were drooping over the end of the float, and kissed the arch. "Hey!" said the owner of the foot, turning around. "Hey, yourself We're going in now. You had enough?" "No!" "Sorry," he said, and pushed the float toward shore until Sybil got off it. He carried it the rest of the way. "Goodbye," said Sybil, and ran without regret in the direction of the hotel. The young man put on his robe, closed the lapels tight, and jammed his towel into his pocket. He picked up the slimy wet, cumbersome float and put it under his arm. He plodded alone through the soft, hot sand toward the hotel. On the sub-main floor of the hotel, which the management directed bathers to use, a woman with zinc salve on her nose got into the elevator with the young man. "I see you're looking at my feet," he said to her when the car was in motion. "I beg your pardon?" said the woman. "I said I see you're looking at my feet." "I beg your pardon. I happened to be looking at the floor," said the woman, and faced the doors of the car.

"If you want to look at my feet, say so," said the young man. "But don't be a God-damned sneak about it." "Let me out here, please," the woman said quickly to the girl operating the car. The car doors opened and the woman got out without looking back. "I have two normal feet and I can't see the slightest God-damned reason why anybody should stare at them," said the young man. "Five, please." He took his room key out of his robe pocket. He got off at the fifth floor, walked down the hall, and let himself into 507. The room smelled of new calfskin luggage and nail-lacquer remover. He glanced at the girl lying asleep on one of the twin beds. Then he went over to one of the pieces of luggage, opened it, and from under a pile of shorts and undershirts he took out an Ortgies calibre 7.65 automatic. He released the magazine, looked at it, then reinserted it. He cocked the piece. Then he went over and sat down on the unoccupied twin bed, looked at the girl, aimed the pistol, and fired a bullet through his right temple. Prompt: Salingers writing and writing style in this excerpt hones in on seemingly ordinary aspects of daily life-- yet, at the end, he delivers the shock of suicide. The element of surprise in literary works is executed in various ways, but they are always remembered and often suggest a larger theme or concept, causing the work to be reread and further studied. Create a story or poem with an element of surprise or shock. This can be executed in whichever way or form you choose. Alarm your readers. Make their brows furrow. Jolt them enough that they want to reread and reread your work. RIFF WORD: chapped LITERARY QUOTATION: The unfed mind devours itself." Gore Vidal Day 10 DAILY WRITING PROMPT Title: Unknown Location Attempt to describe a real-life place youve never been before in a poem or a short story. Pick an iconic landmark or a popular city, a place most people are aware of. Create details of the setting, of the people you meet, of troubles you come across, of what you feel there, etc. Convince the reader that that is how this locale really is. Convince yourself. DAILY READING-WRITING EXERCISE Title: Excerpt from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (http://web.archive.org/web/20080906173618/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/pu blic/Twa2Huc.html)

He was most fifty, and he looked it. His hair was long and tangled and greasy, and hung down, and you could see his eyes shining through like he was behind vines. It was all black, no gray; so was his long, mixed-up whiskers. There warnt no color in his face, where his face showed; it was white; not like another mans white, but a white to make a body sick, a white to make a bodys flesh crawl a tree-toad white, a fish-belly white. As for his clothes just rags, that was all. He had one ankle resting on tother knee; the boot on that foot was busted, and two of his toes stuck through, and he worked them now and then. His hat was laying on the floor an old black slouch with the top caved in, like a lid. Prompt: Description is a substantial part of written works. Readers rely on vivid, thorough descriptions for the image that develops in their head. The fish-belly white that Twain describes on his character plants the exact image he wanted in your mind. For this exercise, choose three people you know well and describe them physically in precise detail. Include facial structure, posture, that scar on their arm, the tone of their voice, clothing, mannerisms, etc. Leave nothing out. Try out creative forms of description like Twains and start developing your own descriptive style. RIFF WORD: pulp LITERARY QUOTATION: "Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self." -- Jean-Luc Godard