November is novelling month for all the NaNoWriMo writers out there, so for each Friday in November we’ll be posting special novel-related exercises along with the usual word and theme prompts.

Having trouble fleshing out your characters? Wanting to get to know them better, without taking time away from that frantic push towards 50k? Set up an interview with your characters. Sure, it’s a bit of a detour from the story, but it’s amazing how much more you’ll know about your characters once you’re finished. Best of all, you can write it right into the story! MC lost in space, or wandering through medieval Germany? Not a problem.  It’s NaNoWriMo, after all, where spontaneous purple elephants and other random gear shifts into ridiculous improbability abound – who says Oprah isn’t waiting around the next corner, just dying to interview our famous hero?

To help get you started, I’ve compiled a list of interview questions over the past couple of years, many of which were gleaned from a forum on that very topic over at the April Fools NaNo-spinoff site. Clicking on this link here will get you to a PDF version of the interview questions.

For those of you who are in poem or short-story mode, consider the most unlikely interview you can imagine having (think of how much success Anne Rice had running with that idea!).  For the traditionalists, the usual weekly prompts can be found below.

Theme: Complicated

Words:
curvaceous
latitude
beneath

As usual, remember comments are semi-moderated, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up right away. Newcomers can learn more about Saturday Scribes here (including how to do a permalink to your post) and read the prompt guidelines here.

Hallowe’en and NaNoWriMo are both just around the corner.  Which one are you more excited about?

In honour of All Hallow’s Eve, we’ve got another spooky prompt for this week:

Theme: The stranger by the side of the road

Words:
barefoot
pale
suspicion
promised

As usual, remember comments are semi-moderated, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up right away. Newcomers can learn more about Saturday Scribes here (including how to do a permalink to your post) and read the prompt guidelines here.

Theme: Inside-Out

Words:
beyond
mushroom
synergy
isolate

As usual, remember comments are semi-moderated, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up right away. Newcomers can learn more about Saturday Scribes here (including how to do a permalink to your post) and read the prompt guidelines here.

Only 17 days until the start of NaNoWriMo. Get your poetry and short story writing fix in now, because come November, it’ll be nothin’ but novel for 30 days.

Theme: Versatility

Words:
chameleon
fickle
trump
promise

As usual, remember comments are semi-moderated, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up right away. Newcomers can learn more about Saturday Scribes here (including how to do a permalink to your post) and read the prompt guidelines here.

On time this week!  Don’t forget to sign up for NaNoWriMo if you haven’t already. Only 23 days to go…

In November, along with the usual Saturday Scribes prompts there will be special novel-development prompts and exercises, for those working on their 50k-novel-in-30-days.  Participants are welcome to post links to their NaNo novel excerpts during the month of November.

Theme: Preparation

Words:
scramble
brag
human
factory

As usual, remember comments are semi-moderated, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up right away. Newcomers can learn more about Saturday Scribes here (including how to do a permalink to your post) and read the prompt guidelines here.

Away again over the weekend, once again finding myself without internet access. I keep thinking we’re living in a Bruner/Gibson future where everything is connected, and then finding out my computer isn’t compatible with the hotel’s “plug ‘n’ play” internet access, and that my phone has mysteriously run out of minutes when it should be topping up automatically. Sigh. So here they are, a bit later than expected. Enjoy!

The overall theme for this week’s prompts is by request, in anticipation of All Hallow’s Eve (some of our writers wanted to try their hand at writing a scary story for Oct. 31st). I’ve included more than the usual amount of words, so for this week don’t feel you need to use all of them, just pick whichever ones get your fingers twitching.

Theme: What goes bump in the night

Words:
 darkness
 razor
 whisps
 slithery
 circling
 black
 patter
 drainpipes
 dripping
 prickle
 tangled
 buried

(All of this week’s words were taken, somewhat randomly, from Neil Gaiman’s Hugo award winning novel “The Graveyard Book“)

As usual, remember comments are semi-moderated, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up right away. Newcomers can learn more about Saturday Scribes here (including how to do a permalink to your post) and read the prompt guidelines here.

Theme: Choice

Words:
boardwalk
sparks
circling

As usual, remember comments are semi-moderated, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up right away. Newcomers can learn more about Saturday Scribes here (including how to do a permalink to your post) and read the prompt guidelines here.

We’re back! Writing prompts are posted weekly, first thing on Friday, from September through June, with a break during the December holiday season. Once the prompts are up, you can feel free to post a link to your creative writing (whatever form it may take). Writers are also welcome to browse the site for earlier prompts, but if you want people to read your stuff it’s best to post your link in the most current Scribes posting. Contributions of writing quotes and links to news and articles of interest to writers are also welcome, as long as they’re not advertising anything commercial (links to writing contests and conferences are okay). Enjoy!

Theme: Precarious

Words:
guided
irresistible
sunspot
bravado

As usual, remember comments are semi-moderated, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up right away. Newcomers can learn more about Saturday Scribes here (including how to do a permalink to your post) and read the prompt guidelines here.

Just a short note to let everyone know that the Saturday Scribes Writing Prompts will be starting up again on Sept. 18th. Prompts are posted on Fridays, after which point you can feel free to post links to your creative writing contributions any time over the weekend.

Hope you all had a good summer!

Winners of the 2009 Hugo Awards are up, as of August 9th:

http://www.thehugoawards.org/2009/08/2009-hugo-award-winners/

I have to say, I think it’s totally awesome that Dr. Horrible’s SingAlong Blog won for Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form.    Way to go Joss!  And another one of my favourite guys, Neil Gaiman, won for best novel.  I’m not sure, but it might be the first time that a YA novel has won in that category. 

Now I have to start scrounging around in the local book stores and start doing some serious reading.  It’s been far too long since I bothered to check out new SF authors (I’ve been a bit of a creature of habit, genre/reading wise lately).