And now, from Jo Hawk, the 2020 Daily Writing Challenge, for August 8!

For my writing challenge, I am going to be working with daily prompts from the book “The Daily Writer: 365 Meditations to Cultivate a Productive and Meaningful Writing Life.”

So, today is:  Magic in the Details – “Imagine being inside a scary place, such as the unlit cellar of a haunted house or an abandoned graveyard late at night.  Use specific sensory descriptions – of smells, sounds, images, and physical sensations.”

Now, why would one be in an unlit cellar of a house one knew to be haunted? I’ve watched enough scary movies to know that when in a haunted house, you don’t go into the cellar. Now, an abandoned graveyard? That sounds much cooler. If I out aside my feeling that the only really potentially harmful thing in a cemetery late at night would be other people, not ghosts, I will put my sensible shoes aside and imagine.

Not a whisper of breeze disturbed the trees, and a mist creeps through the cold headstones popping up at all angles, some crumbled in piles of stone. A faint glow in the sky tells me the moon is full, but the clouds are determined to keep the light at bay. Wet grass squelches beneath my feet, and a faint smell of moss hands in the night air. I can see shadows moving out of the corners of my eyes, but when I turn all is still, dare I say, as death.

And now, from Jo Hawk, the 2020 Daily Writing Challenge, for August 7!

For my writing challenge, I am going to be working with daily prompts from the book “The Daily Writer: 365 Meditations to Cultivate a Productive and Meaningful Writing Life.”

So, today is:  Creating Realistic Characters – “Prepare a bio-sheet of a character to include in a memoir or novel.  Write a scene consisting of narration, dialogues, and action in which your character interacts with another.”

You know, one thing about the end of the day on a Friday, at the end of a first week back at work after a five week break from the madness that is my work life, is that I tend to really appreciate the theme free Friday ideal that my 365 photo project gives me each week. So, why not subscribe to that same theme here? Otherwise I have to push myself far out of my writing comfort zone which admittedly is narrow to begin with. I don’t have a lot of experience or practice with writing characters, given that my writing tends to centre around one character, that character being me…and quite a character I am, they say.

And now, from Jo Hawk, the 2020 Daily Writing Challenge, for August 6!

For my writing challenge, I am going to be working with daily prompts from the book “The Daily Writer: 365 Meditations to Cultivate a Productive and Meaningful Writing Life.”

So, today is: Brainstorming for Effective Titles – “Brainstorm for the title of a short story or magazine article you’ve recently begun.  Be inventive!  Come up with several possible titles.”

Brainstorming, eh?  Well, I am currently working on editing a draft of a commentary piece for a writing course, which I could perhaps title “Wear a Mask, dammit”.  Or maybe “You like the Lone Ranger?  Try being a Lone Maskman!”  Or how about “Holy People Who Don’t Care about Anyone Else, Batman!”  Don’t like these?  How about “Learn a New Skill:  Learn to Read Lips without Lips” or “A Mask for All Seasons”.

Well, I’m about done with my brainstorming.  I know the perfect title for this piece is out there (and I’m sure you’ve figured out the subject of my rant, I mean Commentary.)  I will take any and all additional suggestions, and if yours is the “winning” title, I’ll make sure to credit you, on my mask 🙂