Over 1000 readers every month

Get paid to write for DownWrite.net

Submit a Post
Click Here

E-mail Subscription

Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:

Vimu Subscription

Downwrite - Every writer is a frustrated actor who recites his lines in the hidden auditorium of his skull; Rod Serling

Prompts - Downwrite

Previous Page (1-14) | Next Page (29-42)

Writing Competition - $40 Prize Money.

February 21st 2008 12:11

Downwrite.net are very please to be holding a writing competition. Submit your original work – short stories, poems, articles, rants – and leave at least one Email address for contact, and you could win $40 Prize Money. Deadline is March 10th, so get moving.

You can Submit your work HERE.

Conditions.
1. 1 Entry per person, original content only.
2. Prize money is in Australian Dollars.
3. Entrants retain Copyright, but Down Write reserves the right to keep a copy of the work on the site. (I’m not incredibly mean, so if you want it taken down after a while, that should be fine.)
4. If you do go mad and start posting crazy inappropriate stuff I'll delete it.

Vote

Comments (3)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Brenton - Category: Prompts

Email this Post to a Friend

Opportunities for Writers

February 20th 2008 01:43

A QUICK REMINDER: FOR OPPORTUNITIES FOR WRITERS TO GET NOTICED AND (GASP) PAID, HAVE A LOOK AT THE LATEST VIGNETTE PRESS OPPORTUNITIES PAGE HERE.

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Brenton - Category: Prompts

Email this Post to a Friend

Things to know about Life to help you avoid staleness in writing.

December 13th 2007 12:57

1 Bad People are Pretty Cool. I don’t mean to defend the whole pimp, serial killer, drug dealer, pornographer scene. What I do mean is that when a Heroin dealer is hanging out at the pub with his mates, he isn’t wearing a scowl and a trench-coat and a scowl. He’s just an average everyday bloke enjoying a laugh and a cold one – and he just so happens to deal Heroin. I’m not telling you your bad guys can’t be bastards – just that they can’t be comic book cut outs. Don’t write about ‘Killers’ and ‘Dealers’. Write about interesting character who also ‘Kill’ or ‘Deal’.

2. Things that end up OK aren’t always complexly resolved. It really makes me cringe when you read about someone really badly offending their friend or relative, and never apologising or making amends. However, this is a good cringe – it means someone has captured the reality of unresolved-ness.

As writers we are always working towards resolution. It’s our job to make a wordy mess and clean it up. However it takes a great deal of restraint to permit ourselves to leave a few ends untied just enough to make our readers uncomfortable.

3. Heroes are flawed. We all thought Harry Potter was a whiny little bitch in number six, but that’s what makes him enduring – that he has fought his darker nature to become truly heroic. A perfect hero being heroic is like an able man walking across the room. A flawed hero is that man with no legs.

4 Good people do die. I know you feel bad about killing off your characters unless they deserve it. But unless your one of those authors who tries to express an omnipresent sense of Karma in your work, it’s well worth it to harden up, grit your teeth, and let the innocent blood flow. It’s emotional impact, and it’s deadly.

5 FUNNY STUFF HAPPENS! Yes little Mr Joseph Conrad of Adelaide you ARE a serious writer. But let’s face it – things happen that are funny in real life – it doesn’t have to be a comedy – but if you don’t give us the highs we don’t feel bad with the lows.

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Brenton - Category: Prompts

Email this Post to a Friend

Bus Stop

December 9th 2007 10:55

PROMPT: Depict an interaction between three characters.

The man reaches into his pocket, pulling out a cigarette, shifting uncomfortably on the bus stop seat. He stuffs it between his lips and tries unsuccessfully to light it

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Brenton - Category: Prompts

Email this Post to a Friend

Stories on Blogs

December 3rd 2007 12:38

We need to stop thinking of stories on the Internet as Adaptations of this kind and instead consider them as a NEW art form.

Stories have been around for many, many years. Before literacy skills were widespread, they were often spread by word of mouth. After the invention of the Gutenberg press though things changed. Stories when written would emphasise words with large text – when spoken, would have important bits spoken with emphasis. Complex places and creatures could even be drawn rather than described

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Brenton - Category: Prompts

Email this Post to a Friend

Eternal

November 27th 2007 09:25

A Prompt for Writing - Try to write a short story where one or more characters are able to live forever.

My attempt

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Comments (8)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Brenton - Category: Prompts

Email this Post to a Friend

Labrador

November 25th 2007 11:15

Write a story based on two random words.

Mine were Peace and Lab.
[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Brenton - Category: Prompts

Email this Post to a Friend

Finish This Story in Three Sentences or Less (or more if it takes your fancy)

November 13th 2007 10:58

I was out at the market when I found the most adorable looking plush monkey. Without a moments hesitation I bought it and took it to my love interests apartment. After knocking on the door (and waiting for what felt like forever) she opened the door, I held the plushy monkey up and said 'when I saw this monkey I instantly thought of you'.

Vote

Comments (7)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Ahmed - Category: Prompts, Writer's Block

Email this Post to a Friend

10 Fatal Character Mistakes

November 9th 2007 13:00

1. Stereotype
It sounds obvious but it's a hard one to avoid. Especially when certain character subversions (like the good which, the 60 year old homeboy) are always becoming popularized to the point of becoming new stereotypes. The literary world does not need another subversive female dame or world weary cynical detective with family problems. Usually if you flesh out your characters enough you'll be able to shy away from stereotype. otherwise just make sure you give each one something special. Eg, your killer lies sci-fi movies and is writing a screenplay, or your detective is an ex-raver.

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Comments (3)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Brenton - Category: Prompts

Email this Post to a Friend

Brain Damage

November 3rd 2007 12:11

At Caboolture Station an Aboriginal fellow comes up to me, half stumbling. His T-Shirt says FRIENDLY WHEN DRUNK. He's mumbling something, speech so slurred I'm not even sure if he's speaking English. Every so often, as he approaches me he yells out some call ' kookukukookukukoookukukooo'. Something is messing with his head, and it doesn't seem to be alcohol. He's talking to me asking or telling me something and I'm trying to work it out. His top lip is furled up, like it's been partially burnt away. He is unsteady, unfocused, wobbly. Every so o

Somehow he's managed to grab my hand, and begins to do that handshake thing - the one that's like grab, slide, hit hands etc, that the only other Aboriginal - a girl from a competing school - I've ever met once taught me, in passing, at a school performance thing. He's messed it up though, and instead of a handshake he ends up just making it up as he goes along, starting and restarting and looking terribly confused the whole time. At one point I accidentally pull his hand slightly, and have to prevent him from falling over on top of me

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Comments (7)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Brenton - Category: Prompts

Email this Post to a Friend

10 Words I love

September 13th 2007 02:43

Flibbertigibbet
Kitsunetsuki
Hobbledehoy
[ Click here to read more ]

105

Vote

Comments (12)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Brenton - Category: Prompts

Email this Post to a Friend

Pineapples.

August 27th 2007 09:47

I wake, with a sore head, and vague memories of falling tins of pineapple juice. I remember crawling under a shelf to avoid the light, which hurt my brain.

Groggily I crawl out. My eyes adapt to the darkness. I frown. Why darkness? Where did daytime go?
[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Brenton - Category: Prompts

Email this Post to a Friend

Swallows and Amazons

August 21st 2007 03:49

This is the First Chapter of the Classic Children's Adventure 'Swallows and Amazons' updated for modern times.

_____________________________ _____________________________ __________

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Brenton - Category: Prompts

Email this Post to a Friend

How to write good Microfiction.

July 23rd 2007 07:01

The rules of a good piece of Microfiction.

1. Be short. I know this seems obvious, but people tend to miss the obvious sometimes. Everything about Microfiction is short, not just the overall word count. If 'her breath was lucid with the deep musky tang of strawberry, wafting feintly though the air barely in front of my face, like a lost memory, cloaked in ambiguity,' then your're using too many words. You can be thrifty with words and creative at the same time

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Comments (1)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Brenton - Category: Prompts

Email this Post to a Friend

Previous Page (1-14) | Next Page (29-42)

[ Downwrite Home ] [ Create A New Post ]

Moderated by Brenton

Orble

Orble Homepage

Start an Orble Blog

Subscribe to DailyOrble

Receive a daily e-mail of Orble's most popular posts