Creative Writing

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Leave a Comment / Creative Writing, Fiction, Short Story /

Trent looked around his computer at the battlefield of discarded action figures. A smorgasbord of characters, trucks, and colorful bricks covered most of the off-white carpet and colorful alphabet rug. Usually the sight wouldn’t bother him, but something about it struck fear into his heart.

Trent had worked so much lately that it felt like he and his son, Tyler, were almost strangers. So, when Trent’s wife needed to go to the dentist, he took a day off to spend time with the person he missed the most. However, a work phone call before breakfast brought his plans crashing down.

He hesitated as his fingers pushed the final buttons to send his finished work. His stomach churned as he thought about what to do next. He wanted to play with his son but worried his son wouldn’t want him.

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Nighty, Night, Sweet Prince

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Graham took a focused breath to steady his nerves. Recently, he saw an active shooter situation at his school, yet the challenge before him felt worse. “Come on, James. You have to take a bath,” he pleaded with his two-year-old, who ran from him again. His son was a photocopy of himself, attitude and all.

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Neighbors – A Short Story

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By Jarrett S. Smith Ruth tried to steady herself as she saw the police car enter their neighbor’s driveway. She turned to her husband. Herb’s gray hair looked as charming as ever. He sat in his usual stupor, watching the news at full volume. It never seemed to matter whether he had his hearing aids

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Someone doing pushups against a Silver back ground. The words Goals by Jarrett S. Smith on the top left and the JSwordSmith logo on the bottom right.

#Goals – A Quick Short Story

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I made it a challenge to write a short story, under a thousand words, with the prompt Goals, for the new year. While I struggled to finish it in my deadline timeframe, here it is. #Goals by Jarrett S. Smith His arms burned, but he couldn’t stop. Not this close to his goal.  His palm

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A laptop, notebook, and coffee on a wooden table, with How to Write a novel in the title card

Getting It On The Page – How to Write A Novel

1 Comment / Creative Writing, Fiction, How-To, novel /

So you want to know how to write a novel but don’t know where to start. You’ve had an idea floating around in your head that you think would make a great book, but you don’t know what to do next. Maybe you have some thoughts that you think could be the next best seller,

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Filling in the Cracks - Character Developments

Character Development Exercises – Filling In the Cracks

4 Comments / Article, Creative Writing, Fiction, How-To, NaNoWriMo, Writing /

Last week, we started to plan out our story by developing a few tentpole scenes. This week, we’re going to tackle the filling or those little moments of character development that go between these moments. The following writing exercises will help you flesh out those characters you’ve created. In this part, we get to have

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Tips to Creating a Great Story Outline – Plotting a Character Arc with 5 Scenes

2 Comments / Article, Fiction, How-To, NaNoWriMo, Writing /

We finally get to planning out the story, so where do you start? The Beginning and The End of course.

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Complete Guide to Creating a Character That Readers Will Love – A Study of Han Solo

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Last week, we came up with a few killer themes to work around. The next thing I like to tackle is creating a character that readers will love. Creating a character of your own can be tough work, but if you keep in mind what your theme is, creating a likable character can be much

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Fun and Spooky Short Story Prompt: Halloween Haunted House Story

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In the spirit of Halloween and trying to get more traffic to the site, I have decided to host a Halloween Short Story Prompt! I will post the prompt on Tuesday and try to write on the prompt myself to post on Friday if you’re interested. I encourage you to write along with me. Once

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