Writing Unleashed with Laura M. Harkins

Source Earlier this week, my sister visited from Pittsburgh. While I recovered from an eventful evening out with her and a few friends, I paged through Writer's Digest magazine. The article "Poetic Asides" challenged readers to experiment with the lune poem. A tercet (three-line) poem with a 5-3-5 syllable format. We collaborated on the following collection of lune poems to immortalize the craziest moments of the evening. A Night Out with My Sister Jeff Moonstruck guy stripped down, stole kisses while he felt the beat. Crazy Broad A scuffle lead to a bottle across the temple. WAWA Drunkin' giggles cause impulsive midnight fatty feast. Give the lune poem a try, and share it in the comments below. 

bvallc.com The first draft of my novel has carefully climbed out of my filing cabinet, breathing fresh air from atop my writing desk. Reading through the story, it’s become painfully apparent my novel-writing skills are lacking. As a novice writer, I’m faced with an opening without an inciting incident and a contrived ending. I’m tossing around the idea of telling the story from a different POV, and the villain is changing.  I should invest in a wig now while all my hair is still attached to my head.   What’s known at this point is that the novel is crap. My job, now, is to turn this steaming pile into a coherent and suspenseful mystery novel. I just hope I have to strength to see this to the end.  I’m lost on where to start or what to do, so I’m turning to some inspirational words of wisdom.      The following quotes are taken from the article "Rev Up Your Revision With 4 Simple Strategies" in the January 2010 issue of Writer's Digest . I...

Yes, I’ve cleverly disguised my desire for world domination with this writing blog.  Dream big or go home.  I heard this mantra once and I’ve been living it ever since.  My tireless research and undying effort is starting to pay off.  I’m proud to announce my first article “ 10 All-Time Great Family DVDs ” has officially been published in MetroKids magazine.  Score!   It’s all very exciting.  But as I’m a newbie to the publishing world, I am a bit confused by the changes in my introduction.  The editor polished my original sentences, but I wasn’t made aware of the changes.   Is this typical editor behavior? Well, now it’s time to start writing more articles and receiving money for my hard work.  I’m not too sure how to generate topics or how to pitch an idea to a magazine.  So, I’ve enrolled in Writer’s Digest’s Sell Freelance Articles Webinar on Thursday, February 10, 2011.  Score!  The class is $89....

This is a rough first draft of my short short story.  Tell me what YOU think.  Your constructive feedback in appreciated.   Disclaimer: all written material is my intellectual property and cannot be reproduced.    It was on a bright, starry night that the traveling circus rolled through town.  Bobby stood in front of his window with his silver linking rings.  The light from the lamp next to his bed turned the window into a makeshift mirror. He’d been practicing this magic trick for weeks, making sure he could find the place to link them perfectly without anyone noticing.  He struggled to hold on to the rings, as they slipped in his sweaty hands.  Perfection was his ticket out, so he rubbed his hands off on his jeans and tried again.  He felt a low vibration, assuming it was heat-induced hallucinations until his wand started to vibrate on his dresser.  He watched the wand fall landing with a soft thud against the rug.   ...

Take 10: A Date Derailed Here is my response to Writer's Digest's "Exercise Your Pen" prompt from the January 2010 issue.  The guidelines required me to write for ten minutes about a person being abandoned by their date.  I had to start with "No matter what I do..." and choose a number from 1-10 corresponding to an idiom.  I revised my original response.  Enjoy! No matter what I do, I can’t get a date to pay for dinner. She smiled, cutting a piece of chicken with her fork. Charlie’s face turned so red I thought he would explode.  Her hand reached up to cover her mouth as she hiccuped before swallowing the bite.   I can’t believe he threw his napkin at me then stomped off.   Giggles shook her shoulders  as she picked up her wine glass.  Bewildered faces stared back as she eyed the other tables.  I’m sure his little tantrum gave them plenty to gossip about.  The goblet slipped out of her hand, hitting her plate of sweet an...

i-likethings.blogspot.com Man, having your momentum rip away feels like someone is sucking the life out of you with a vacuum.  I submitted a short story for my writer’s group, showed up and endured the critique torture, finished my novel and put a blog post up all in a few days.  The progress had me skipping around and humming tunes.  Unfortunately, the expiration date on my happiness came sooner than expected.  My stretches of concentration are short.  I spend most of my time distracted by an endless amount of things.  As a newbie to the writing life, I battle daily with my ability to maintain focus.  But I fear if I don’t get myself under control soon, I will never see lucrative success. So, at the moment I’m learning to clear some hurdles. TV To put it mildly, I have an addiction to televsion. Whether I’m streaming live from Netflix or catching up on shows piling up on the DVR, it’s embarrassing.  I see a support group in my future....

I receive emails from the Writer's Digest blog, Promptly , every couple of days. Using music lyrics to produce a few hundred words was yesterday's prompt. It hoped to inspire the writer by asking them to choose two favorite songs. Pick a line from the chorus of one song, and a line from the chorus of the other song and integrate into their scene. I was really excited by the prompt because I love music lyrics. The song writers always seem to say exactly what I'm feeling when I've gone mute. The words evoke strong emotional responses from me. So, why not take advantage of the writing exercise and put the strong emotional responses down in a short scene, giving my thoughts a voice. Alexi Murdoch's "Wait" and Florence and The Machine's "Heavy in Your Arms" and "You've Got the Love" are the three songs I chose (two songs weren't enough). I started the scene with " If I can’t be, all that I could be ", used ...