Writer's Block Workbook 4

by Morgen Bailey

Writer's Block Workbook 4 features over a thousand component prompts, three per day, with writing tips at the end of each
week to motivate and inspire, providing kick-starts to avoid the dreaded ‘writer’s block’.

Each week is formatted with three prompts per day each
• there are two characters, usually a job, description or name*.
• this can be how one or both of the characters act or are feeling.
• where your story could be set. They might be a generic location (hospital) or somewhere more specific (Funafuti, Tuvalu, in the Pacific Ocean, north east of Australia).
• often unrelated to location or characters – how can this feature in your story?
• this is your problem. It may relate to the characters, location or object, and again you don’t have to use it if it doesn’t fit with the story you have in mind. Some may not be obvious problems, e.g. ‘feeling particularly sunny’ but every story has to have conflict so this could be the start then things go wrong, although the conflict has to come early for the starting ‘hook’.
At the end of each week there is a tip, either inspired by one or more of the prompts or another that may help you independently.

The Weekly Tips Topics
Week 1 – conflict
Week 2 – ghost stories and plots
Week 3 – families
Week 4 – the fear of the known
Week 5 – celebrities
Week 6 – events
Week 7 – things change
Week 8 – writing what you don’t know
Week 9 – misunderstandings
Week 10 – onomatopoeic words
Week 11 – unfamiliar locations
Week 12 – writing what you know
Week 13 – colour charts
Week 14 – people watching
Week 15 – addictions
Week 16 – stay one step ahead of your reader
Week 17 – coincidences
Week 18 – funny ha ha or peculiar
Week 19 – exposition
Week 20 – blond or blonde
Week 21 – clichés, its vs it’s, losing the up or down
Week 22 – mind your language
Week 23 – split infinitives
Week 24 – decades and numbers
Week 25 – when to set your story
Week 26 – when life gets in the way
Week 27 – wrapping up your threads
Week 28 – something to be scared of
Week 29 – hyphens and commas in adjectives
Week 30 – learning something new every read
Week 31 – who we think we know
Week 32 – home not so sweet home
Week 33 – fan fiction
Week 34 – characters’ names
Week 35 – something to look up to
Week 36 – not so daunting
Week 37 – it was all a dream
Week 38 – bored with characters who are bored
Week 39 – don’t follow a trend
Week 40 – subconscious or unconscious
Week 41 – contentious subjects
Week 42 – love it or hate it
Week 43 – what’s missing
Week 44 – character interaction
Week 45 – as the night gives way to morning
Week 46 – too dark and too cold
Week 47 – on a deadline
Week 48 – directions and seasons
Week 49 – forgetfulness
Week 50 – inverted dialogue tags
Week 51 – fine-tuning dialogue
Week 52 – overuse of certain words

Useful for any writer at any level, whether they have 10 minutes or 10 hours, to start a new project. Also an ideal tool for writing groups.

140 pages, Paperback

Published August 8, 2020

About the author

Morgen Bailey – Morgen with an E – is a freelance editor, writing tutor (in person and online), blogger (helping other authors, sharing tips etc.), Writers’ Forum magazine ‘Competitive Edge’ columnist, speaker, author of several novels (at various stages), 400+ short stories, a series of writer’s block workbooks, an editing guide, articles, and has dabbled with poetry. She is an avid supporter of all things creative writing.

Former Chair of three writing groups, she has judged the H.E. Bates Short Story Competition, RONE, as well as the Althorp Literary Festival children’s short story, BBC Radio 2, and BeaconLit 500-word flash fiction competitions. She also runs her own monthly 100-word competition and was Flash 500's 2018-9 judge.

Events included talks and workshops at Troubador’s Self Publishing Conference speakers, workshops and panels at Delapre Abbey Book Festival, interviewing and workshops at BeaconLit, and NAWG Fest with her ‘Editing your Fiction’ weekend residential course.

Morgen can regularly be found as morgenwriteruk on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, and LinkedIn. When not online, she edits other authors’ books, reads, loves walking her dog, and somewhere in between all that she writes.

Like Morgen, her website is www.morgenbailey.com and her blog http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com is consumed by all things literary. Her email address is morgen@morgenbailey.com.

You can read / download her eBooks (paid and free) at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore and Kobo.

Profile photo credit: Cliff Hide for BeaconLit