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thequillandpint
May 12, 20211 min read
A Quirky Title Prompt Exercise
For our April 10th workshop, we embarked on creating a story from three lists - a title, a character description, and a story...
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thequillandpint
Dec 19, 20203 min read
The Countdown to New Years
As 2020 comes to a close, the Quill and Pint wants you to picture the final moments of the year and turn that into a scene. A little like...
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thequillandpint
Nov 22, 20202 min read
Character History: The Pivotal Moment
This is a deep dive into character construction. Written as a stand-alone exercise, and conducted as the 11/14/2020 writers' workshop,...
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thequillandpint
Nov 22, 20205 min read
Building a Worthy Opponent
This is another deep dive into character construction, with an emphasis on the story's antagonist. Written as a stand-alone exercise, it...
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thequillandpint
Nov 22, 20203 min read
Humor II: The Tension Breaker
This exercise is based on a request to explore how a writer can use incidental humor in the course of a narrative. For part one, check...
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thequillandpint
Sep 13, 20201 min read
Absurdity. (Or how to infuse humor into otherwise humor-light times)
For an absurd amount of time, we left the word Absurdity up on the screen at this week's writers' group. Perhaps we were making a...
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thequillandpint
Aug 28, 20202 min read
Food fight
This week's writing prompt is inspired by group member Laura M., who suggested we try writing about food. Describing a meal can open a...
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thequillandpint
Jul 25, 20201 min read
A Sporting Chance
Sports stadium Pandemic Now Is The Time Interpret those however they hit you. Is this the here-and-now; live sports in the time of a...
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thequillandpint
May 8, 20202 min read
Variations on a Theme
We know a worn-out story when we see one: tropes become narrative traps and archetypes become stereotypes. But is the story itself worn...
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thequillandpint
Apr 24, 20201 min read
Follow the Map!
Thanks everyone who joined today's online writers group! We had a lot of fun with this one! During quarantine we'll continue to host...
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thequillandpint
Apr 10, 20201 min read
Locked down no more...
Workshop Exercise: April 11, 2020 Journal Entry 43,297: Lockdown, day 907. All of my pens have run out of ink. All my paper is now the...
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thequillandpint
Feb 15, 20202 min read
Break the Pattern
Establishing a Cycle – and Blowing It Up Real life, or at least most of it, is a series of patterns. Those patterns define our reality,...
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thequillandpint
Jan 18, 20201 min read
Focused on a Dream
What does it mean to dream? Unconscious journeys, waking escapes or a grand vision for the future, a "dream" has a different meaning to...
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thequillandpint
Jan 4, 20202 min read
Against Their Better Judgment
We've recently touched on what happens when a character makes a decision that surprises the author. Usually, this inconvenient moment is...
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thequillandpint
Dec 28, 20192 min read
Showing the Feelings
Holiday Emotion Exercise Ah. the Winter Solstice. The shortest day of the year, closing on the end of the calendar, and the time the...
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thequillandpint
Dec 14, 20191 min read
Getting The Story Going
Story Generation was our topic for discussion at The Quill & Pint's November Monthly Creative Writing Workshop at the Burbank Public...
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thequillandpint
Oct 18, 20193 min read
Building the Scene
In our run-up to this year's NaNo, we've touched on some of the fundamentals of story telling. The three chief components are character,...
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thequillandpint
Oct 10, 20192 min read
Prepping for National Novel Writing Month
Last weekend (October 5th) The Quill & Pint held a workshop at the Buena Vista branch of the Burbank Public Library on how to prepare for...
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thequillandpint
Oct 1, 20192 min read
The Compelling Exercise
A 2-part exercise. Whether a character is good or bad; Batman or the Joker, Clarice or Hannibal, to keep the audience in the story, the...
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thequillandpint
Sep 19, 20193 min read
Reverse Logline Exercise
A 2-part exercise. Here are 20 actual loglines from well-known movies, minus the names. You probably know them all, but you're going to...
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