10/14/14

10/9/14

10/4/14

9/26/14

9/17/14

9/16/14

9/13/14

9/12/14

Notebooking Daily Writing Exercise September 12, 2014

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September 12: Narrative day. Today work with one of the following story fragments, whether you want the prompt to be the end of the story, the prelude to it, somewhere in the middle, or even just the inspiration for a story, it's up to you. 1) Picking cans out of a park's garbage can to recycle, a...

9/4/14

9/3/14

Notebooking Daily Writing Exercise September 3, 2014

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September 3: Wordbank day! I hope everyone's Labor Day was productive and fulfilling. I had a little bit of this and it was delicious. Today we'll return to the wordbank for our inspiration. From the following links to word sources, pick ten or more individual words that strike your fancy and write...

8/25/14

Dean Young's "Romanticism 101" Partially-Explicated and Meditated Upon

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This was intended to be an "Inspired by" day but life's tumultuous and it was pushed back, and now I've already posted today. So instead, read this and then my explication/one-sided conversation with it and maybe use it as a writing exercise sometime. First: twice read the fantastic poem "Romanticism...

8/19/14

Daily Notebooking Writing Exercise August 19, 2014

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August 19: The Macguffin! Watch this video animation from an interview with Alfred Hitchcock about the MacGuffin. Write a short piece where the macguffin object is specifically addressed as being so important that it's not important why. This can be just a scene where many things like back story and...

8/18/14

Notebooking Daily Writing Exercise August 18, 2014

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August 18: Narrative day! Today work with one of the following possible scenarios. 1) A man's suit coat is hanging over your mailbox one morning. In the pocket is an envelope. In the envelope is... 2) A time traveler who had quickly become a king in the past by using his technology and knowledge has...

8/17/14

8/12/14

8/11/14

8/10/14

8/9/14

Daily Notebooking Writing Exercise August 9, 2014

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August 9: Fallen for animation. OK, first, watch this animated short film. It's called "Fallen" by Sascha Geddart and Wolfram Kampffmeyer about, as Geddart says in the Vimeo page "A little meteor learns the biggest lesson of life on its way down to earth." It's under four minutes, so don't worry, it...

8/8/14

8/7/14

Be Wary Citizens! Arcadia's August 15th chapbook contest deadlines (Fiction, Poetry) approach!

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Arcadia Magazine's two chapbook contests are only eight days away! The skinny: What's the deadline? August 15, 2014. What's it cost? $20. How long should my chapbook be? For the Fiction Chapbook contest:...

Know Your Literary Journals: Lumina

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Lumina is the literary magazine from the master's writing program Sarah Lawrence College. They've published a very eclectic group of authors including Brenda Hillman, Amy Hempel, Denise Duhamel, D. Nurske, Bill Knott,...

Notebooking Daily Writing Exercise August 7, 2014

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August 7: Rhymebank Poem Writing! Today it'll be similar to a regular wordbank day, but instead, pick five or so words from previous wordbank entries (if you are new to notebooking, browse past wordbank exercises and pick a few words from the links. Then use the wonderful resource Rhymezone and pick...

8/6/14

8/5/14

Notebooking Daily Writing Exercise August 5, 2014

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August 5: Wordbank day! Everyone's favorite is back! Spend a few minutes browsing the following links and write down ten or more words that stick out to you as being interesting or unique. Research each word briefly: check for interesting facts about its history, if there's a place, or a town with...

8/4/14

Notebooking Daily Writing Exercise August 4, 2014

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August 4: "A Summer's Day" Today's narrative exercises will be focused on something of a summer theme, and include music for those daring enough. Pick one of the following narrative prompts (or multiple of them if you feel you can) and write a short piece somehow including or even just inspired by...

8/2/14

8/1/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise August 1, 2014

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August 1: Wordbank day. I know everybody loves wordbank day, where we find a list of ten interesting and slightly unusual/not-everyday words, do a little research around the internet for any odd coincidences/fun facts about the words, and then do a short series of writing exercises which force you...

7/31/14

7/27/14

Daily Notebooking Exercise July 27, 2014

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July 27: Wordbank Day! Everyone loves wordbank day! Like finding the marble in the kiddie pool of oatmeal, we're all lucky today. If you're new to wordbank day, there will be a few sources provided and you just pick ten of your favorite somewhat out of the ordinary options, write them down in your...

7/26/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 26, 2014

   
July 26: The Wayback Machine. Today we'll look at the ghost of internet past. I have a feeling this one will be recurring. Using the internet archive visit a website from your early internet browsing days. Whether you're browsing the IMDB or the CERN websites, or YTMND or DListed. Using material...

7/25/14

7/24/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise: July 24, 2014

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July 24: Narrative Day! Today work with one of the following narrative threads and form a story or poem around it. 1) In the deep shadows where the trees grew close an evil lurked... 2) King of the hill for a plastic tiara 3) Begin with opening your eyes, and reveal (only very slowly) that you are...

7/23/14

Daily Notebooking Exercise: July 23,2014

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July 23: From A to Zagajewski Today we'll look at the structure that Adam Zagajewski, an excellent Polish poet, used in his poem "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" and use that as a jumping off point for a piece of your own. Begin the poem or flash fiction piece with the phrase "Try to praise _________"....

7/22/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 22, 2014

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July 22: A Look Back. If you've been notebooking along, today look back through your wordbanks and pick five words you hadn't earlier explored. If you're new to notebooking writing exercises, look through posts with the tag Wordbank and find five interesting words from the posts. 1) Write two sentences...

7/21/14

7/20/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 20, 2014

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July 20: Narrative day! Today we'll work with short narrative pieces based on one of the following prompts: 1) Walking to your car you notice something peculiar on the ground which is vastly more important than you first realize 2) Picking up recycling at a local park (good Samaritan that you are--or...

7/19/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 19, 2014

   
July 19: Calque day! What's a calque you say? Essentially it's a linguistic term for a loan phrase from another language that is directly translated. Some of them sound a little off when you really look at the individual words, for instance, Flea Market come from the french term for "Market with fleas"...

7/18/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 18, 2014

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July 18: Wordbank day! Everyone loves wordbank day. Today we'll use a mix of synonyms and antonyms for: Pivot, Escalate, Progress, Betray, Harm. Pick ten words from the links for today's wordbank. As always, follow the rabbithole of internet researching for any unique choices so you fully know their...

7/17/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 17, 2014

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July 17: Picture yourself. Today do a google search (not bing, we're looking for results here) for your first name followed by the word painting. Click to view all the images and look for an interesting picture. For more unusual names it may be a little easier to find an interesting painting. If you...

7/16/14

Be Wary Citizens: Cincinnati Review contest deadline extended until July 22

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There's really not too much to say other than that. Here is a link to the details about the contest, every $20 entry entitles you to a year subscription to The Cincinnati Review. Give it a whirl and get some great reading material delivered to your door for your troubl...

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 16, 2014

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July 16: You've got a little Ekphrasis on your lip there. Today we're going to look at a selection of photographs of unusual architecture by artist Filip Dujardin and imagine what it would be like to live or work in one of these buildings. For added fun, live in one and work in another. Bonus...

7/15/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 15, 2014

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July 15: Word Bank Day! Everyone's favorite. Look through the links for the following words and build a list of ten not-quite-everyday sort of words. Definitely look up the words, do a google search for them, find any alternate meanings, histories, whatever might be an interesting rabbit hole. To use...

7/14/14

7/13/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 13, 2014

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July 13: Wordbank day! Today we'll look at synonyms for some commonplace words that we might use to spice up everyday situations (which sounds like a cover story on Cosmo). 1) Find ten or more words that are interesting or that stick out to you from these links: Suggest Think Attend Sticky  Dark As...

7/12/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 12, 2014

   
July 12: Trivia day! Today we'll look at a short list of interesting facts posted around Thanksgiving time last year on The Huffington Post. Things like "The word 'time' is the most commonly used noun in English" or "An 'earworm' is a song that gets stuck in your head." Also check out this list from...

7/11/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 11, 2014

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July 11: Narrative exercise day! Today we'll deal with one of three scenarios in some way. 1) You're printing something important and your printer's ink has just started going out. 2) Lighting off fireworks on the Fourth of July, one begins wobbling when the person lighting it runs away, and it tips...

7/10/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 10, 2014

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July 10: Narrative day! Pick one of the following narrative threads and expand on it as you like, whether you end at the prompt, begin there, mesh more than one together, stick to a lyric interpretation, write a series of  tweet-length rhyming rants about the valuelessness of said prompts, whatever...

7/9/14

Know Your Literary Journals: Chaffin Journal

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The Chaffin Journal is the literary review of Eastern Kentucky University. Perfect bound with a glossy cover (not like, crazy slick, but not super matte or desktop printed). Here is an example of poetry they've chosen...