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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 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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thequillandpint
Sep 1, 20193 min read
Getting Past The Blank Page
We all know the feeling ... you sit down at your desk, a cup of coffee or tea (or something stronger) in hand, and a fresh page in front...
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