Developing your world by examining adulthood

Learning the craft, Writing
Every culture throughout history has had some sort of tradition that marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. These traditions vary widely, ranging from wild parties to vision quests to marriage--which often involved a massive party anyway. Now that pretty much everybody lives to adulthood and a great many people aren't religious, the vast majority of us don't celebrate adulthood with some ancient cultural tradition, but we do celebrate. Oh, and adulthood starts much later now than it did a couple hundred years ago, when fourteen year old girls were commonly married and fourteen year old boys were working. Today's challenge is to write a story about one of your main characters making the transition from childhood to adulthood.  Pay particular attention to these things: What age does adulthood begin at in…
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Journal Prompt

Journalling, Prompts, Writing
Today's prompt is designed to be a journal entry. Sometimes fascinating things come out when we focus on ourselves. Whether it be inspiration for another story, a story in itself, or just the chance to examine ourselves on a deeper level, journalling is good for us. It doesn't have to be constant. My notebook doubles as an occasional journal, but I've never been able to sit down each day and write something about my life. Instead, I use simple prompts and questions to bring the focus back to myself. I use a place where I've been, a year, a question, an emotion--and I free write. This is the most cathartic writing, and sometimes, it even turns out to be entertaining. So, without further ado, I will send you to your…
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A Prompt for the New Year

Inspirational, Prompts, Short Fiction, Writing
The new year has just begun. This first week is a great time to set the tone for the rest of 2012. We all have our own goals, both writing related goals and completely separate goals, for the new year. If we take the first steps towards those goals now, we're ahead. Don't tell yourself you can wait to start working on something because you have the whole year. Start working on it now. Right now I'm finishing up Birth of a Vampire, a short-ish story that will probably end up a little less than 10K. I'm also formulating a plan to edit my novel. As part of my plan to write and submit twelve pieces of fiction this year, I'm going to be writing an actually short story that…
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A Prompt with a Story

Prompts, Short Fiction, Writing
Sometimes, life throws a curve ball at you. Sometimes it hurts the head, sometimes it hurts the brain, and sometimes it hurts the soul. On occasion, it hurts all three. When life is feeling particularly nasty, two or three of these curve balls are lobbed at you, and you're expected somehow to figure everything out. I've had a couple of those curve balls to deal with this week. Some strange confessions from some very old friends have rocked my world, and I'm still recovering. My mind doesn't slow down at times like these and sleeping becomes difficult. I'm putting pieces of a new world together in my mind because the old one is apparently broken. And it's uncomfortable. It's a painful sensation. In a way it's a mixed blessing. What…
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