Want to get a little more exposure for your dash pieces? We feel you
deserve the recognition.
Each month we select the best Writers’ Dash submissions made through our blog comment system (whether Daily Dash, Piclit Dash or Siclit Dash). The winning dash piece will be published on our site and promoted throughout our main social media channels (we are followed by several of the big six publishing houses, so show them your best!).
It’s not necessary to enter through the general submission process, just leave your dash piece in the comment section below. You will probably want to submit your best pieces of dash, so take some time to edit and revise before submission. See here for full details.
| Day | Writers’ Dash Prompt (am) | Writers’ Dash Prompt (pm) |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | dybbuk | scrying |
| Tuesday | ignis fatuus | oracle |
| Wednesday | seance | ectoplasm |
| Thursday | elemental | trance |
| Friday | witching hour | spirit portal |
| Day | 500 Word Snatch Prompt |
|---|---|
| Monday | Two old friends meet. It has been years since they last saw one another. One is secretly in love. Do they reveal the secret? |
| Tuesday | Your protagonist’s coworker is envious of his success. He begins to plan his demise. How does he carry it out? . |
| Wednesday | A minor character in your story is prematurely declared dead and is lying in the city morgue. What happens next? |
| Thursday | You’ve been given an invisibility cloak for a day. How will you spend your day? |
| Friday | Write a full character profile for all your main characters. |
| Saturday | Write a short prelude to your novel. |
| Sunday | Your plane crashes into a frozen wasteland. There are few survivors. |
Additional Writing Challenges
Dash ‘n’ Drabble
Friday is now our dedicated dash and drabble (100-word story) day, inspired and encouraged by our good friend Crap Mariner. Crap’s weekly challenge this week is ‘hash’. Try using both the dash prompt and the 100-word story prompt to create a Dash ‘n’ Drabble. Once you have your 100-word story feel free to add it to the comments section of this blog post as well as to Crap’s site.
Saturday Fiction Prod (Siclit)
“SicLit” (sic = goad, egg on, drive, encourage, prod, spur, provoke ) is a fun prompt challenge for writers. We provide a time and place prompt together with a verb, an adjective, an adverb and a noun. You write something using the words as inspiration.
When you’ve created your story share it as a comment at the end of this post – we love reading them!
Try to use all prompt words within your story. Go, sic ‘em! This week’s “SicLit” prompts are:
tundra, 2014; hunt, starving, brutally, wolf
Sunday Picture Prompt (Piclit): Dead Forest
Other Writing Events
Look out for our regular word scrimmage on Twitter (#wordscrim).
A word scrimmage is an event in which participants write or type as fast as they can for a set time with the aim of increasing the word count on their current novel or work in progress. The participant who has written the most at the end of the scrimmage is declared the winner.
The event is held regularly on Second Life® at the 3d home of Virtual Writers, Inc. during NaNoWriMo (in November) and throughout the year on Twitter under the #wordscrim hashtag.
If you’re in need of a goal-oriented challenge then check out our 500 Word Snatch.
FAQs
I found #writersdash on Twitter, what is it?
The Writers’ Dash (#writersdash on Twitter) is a 15-minute free writing exercise held on Twitter, Facebook and Second Life® every weekday. At 5:30am & 5:30pm PDT we share the word prompt on our social media channels; the live event begins in Second Life® at 6am & 6pm PDT. Write whatever comes to you. Don’t fixate too heavily on what you are writing and disengage your inner editor – the key is to get the words on the page first; you can worry about editing later. If you are attending the live event in Second Life® there will be an opportunity for you to show your work to the other participants after the 15 minutes are up. If you are unable to attend the live event you can share your work on our blog. Just look out for the prompt post and leave your dash piece as a comment.
What’s the 500 Word Snatch?
It’s easy to feel despondent when you consider the effort required to produce a full length novel, especially when you have so little time.
The truth is you can make a long story short by taking small disciplined steps every day, instead of sitting idly by waiting for inspiration to strike. As Jack London said, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
Your challenge is to write 500 words a day for 365 days, come rain or shine – if you’ve completed the NaNoWriMo challenge you’ll find this one very easy. The 500 Word Snatch (#500WS) is perfect if you have a long-term goal, or need sustained support and encouragement.
Of course, you’re not confined to writing a novel, you can use the challenge for many different writing forms; outlining, a daily blog, a book of poems, short fiction, non-fiction or even revision; we don’t care what you write, as long as you write. This is an exercise in disciplined creativity.
For more details, including free resources and online meet times, visit the 500 Word Snatch page.
About Virtual Writers
Virtual Writers is a free online writers’ community first established in 2007 and committed to showcasing established and emerging writers in a range of interactive and immersive environments. Here we learn to experiment with digital, social and virtual world platforms to push the creative envelope and develop a strong, unique voice.
We host online writing events, workshops and interactive readings and provide a wealth of opportunities for writers to meet and share resources.
If you want to become involved in an active writing community then visit us on Second Life® or our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, & Goodreads) and get interactive.
Whether you are dashing in Second Life®, on Twitter or Facebook we welcome your dashes in the comments section below.
