B.R. Quinn

Free Writing: I participate in free writing as a way to kick-start a writing session or because I need a break from my lengthier projects. Please know that the free-writes I share on my website have gone through an editing process. When I free write, I must abandon grammar, punctuation, paragraphs, storylines, etc., because having my editor and writer brain engaged simultaneously is too constricting. However, I wanted to make fun short stories or flash fictions for everyone to read on my site, so I edited my free-writes to be much more enjoyable from the reader’s perspective.

World Building: Worldbuilding is something that I struggled with until I noticed how writing short scenes of interest can really help shape a world. When I share a short story or flash fiction on worldbuilding, I may be describing a location, institution, classification, political system, magic system, general feel of the environment, technology level, culture, deities, power description or shift, history of a world, or many other things that help a world take shape. I write in short scenes like this to get a feel for the worlds I want to create, but I will sometimes take a writing prompt or similar and go through a description of a world. If you have ever played tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs), it will often seem like I am writing from a game master’s point of view, telling my players about important aspects of the world. (If I inspire you, please feel free to use any ideas to have a fun TTRPG session!)

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: My friends and I used to challenge each other to the “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Challenge.” We would upload several intriguing photos to Google Drive, and then we had to pick someone else’s photo to write a 1,000-word (or longer) story. This exercise helps with paying attention to scenic detail and finding potential stories in everything. It’s also a fun challenge to issue to your friends!

Writing Prompt: I sometimes defer to writing prompts to kickstart my imagination. In addition, I create writing prompts that I share on Writing Wednesday, Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. Sometimes, I can’t stop after I’ve come up with a prompt that I particularly enjoy, so I go ahead and write a flash fiction piece about it.

Writing Challenge: Sometimes, I will take up writing challenges to help myself grow, but I will also take up flash fiction or short story contests to see if I can get published. If I don’t win a contest, I’ll probably put up the short story anyway, but if I do win, I may just give you a link to read it instead! My challenges for self-growth are similar to those I give everyone during Saturday Summons, so I’ll let you know if I also take up the challenge!

Writing Dice: Using writing dice is a fun way to get inspiration. Generally, I will roll 3 or more dice and attempt to make one sentence with all those words (typically, at least one noun, verb, and adjective). When I write a short story or flash fiction using writing dice, I’ll be sure to include my table, dice rolls, which words I got, and the sentence I constructed. Off of that sentence, I will write my story and share it.

Story Dice: Story dice are another fun-filled way to get inspiration to write. The difference between story dice and writing dice is that story dice give pictures while writing dice give words. With story dice, I have to interpret the image and form it into a word. I will typically roll 3 or more dice and attempt to make one sentence with all those words (generally, at least one noun, verb, and adjective). When I write a short story or flash fiction using story dice, I’ll be sure to include my table, dice rolls, which image I got, what word I interpreted from the image, and the sentence I constructed. Off of that sentence, I will write my story and share it.