Improbable Press Blog

A dozen pardons for the missed week. A turned-in dissertation means it ought not to happen again. However… If an extra week again means more new voices popping in to write for these challenges, these picture prompts, well… But no, we'll keep uploading them weekly and as every week before, I thank you for letting these prompts challenge you. If you've nothing you want to write this week, how about telling me how you are? A line, a paragraph…say hi. Let me know you're here. Riffing on Kindness And direclty on to what people wrote for broken by kindness: ‘I’m...

By G V Pearce Little writing details can be amazing. How a character takes their tea, the objects they always carry in their pockets, distinctive ways they respond to stress, whether they nod along to the pop song on the radio or turn it off—these things can give colour to a character and their world without disrupting the narrative.I’m a big fan of little details, and some of the most enthusiastic feedback I’ve received from readers has been about the details I include. You see, I have a love for writing disabled characters—I’m disabled myself, and I interact with disabled...

Atlin Merrick and Natalie Conyer share thoughts on writing, in their She Said/She Said series, entries alternating between Improbable Press and Clan Destine Press. NATALIE: For nearly four months now – yes, that’s right, four months – I’ve wrestled with the start of a new book. Every day I write something, agonise over it, pronounce it unworthy and delete it. It’s agony, and I’m getting nowhere.Then I realised I’m ignoring one of writing’s cardinal rules. I’ve been trying to produce the perfect draft straight up, instead of doing what all writers need to do; that is, to start off by...

Challenge answered! And in a record number this week. Thank you for your fantastic stories inspired by last week's prompt, what you've written makes me want to know more, each and every one! This week…what's say you do it again? We again have fewer words, so more of the ones you write come from you, not me. These prompts are meant to get your fingers typing, nothing more. If you never use a single one of these words or images but you accept the challenge and write a wee marvelous thing, you're doing it right. Or write. Right? So pass...

My words cramp your style, don't they? You feel like you have to use them, don't you?Feck it, that's what I say. And so that's what I did.As of this week I've thrown out one whole word on the writing prompt and added an image, so that more of the words are yours, inventive and weird and whatever you want them to be. So now, what will you write? What do you see? Seeing Capes, Writing Sex, Accepting Challenges As usual, here are some sweet snippets from last week's stories, written by writers who each saw different things in the...