(C) 2020, JJ Shaun This past weekend, I held Session Zero for a group of youngsters wanting to play Dungeons & Dragons. The age range of most of my players is 11 to 15. Needless to say, it was a little like herding cats. Session Zero is where everyone creates their characters and gets to … Continue reading Session Zero
(C) 2020, JJ Shaun For the past six months, the “tweens” of the family have been clambering for me to play Dungeons & Dragons with them. For various reasons, the timing hasn’t worked—until now. This coming weekend, I will introduce six novices to the world of the Forgotten Realms. I decided to use a pre-generated … Continue reading Introducing D&D to a New Generation
(C) 2020, JJ Shaun When I write to a prompt, I don’t always know what direction a short story will take. This is especially true when writing a character’s backstory. I sit back and record what’s going on most of the time. That’s what happened in this next story. I looked at a prompt before … Continue reading Finding Inspiration
(C) 2020, JJ Shaun I recently got some feedback on the first part of an old story I had posted on a writing website a few years ago. So, I went back and looked at the comments from the reader. I decided it needed a new coat of polish. I began editing the piece. Having … Continue reading Revisiting Old Writing
I have this thing about creating different characters and seeing how they act in various situations. The writing prompts I look at daily help a lot. Sometimes, the prompt itself brings a story forward. Other times, I need to put more thought into what to write. This story needed a little reflection, and I wanted … Continue reading Playing With Character
(C) 2020, JJ Shaun A few weeks ago, one of the daily writing prompts had me step out of my usual storytelling style. The prompt had what I considered a challenge this day, so I ran with it. Here’s the prompt: Write a story or poem where: The main character (narrator / POV character etc) … Continue reading Playing With Scenes
I’ve been using a variety of writing prompts to flesh out some of my characters. Because I spent the most time with her, the Trickster Cleric I play in our weekly tabletop game gets the most attention. Skrie Tripfoot is a young halfling who was orphaned in childhood. She is a survivor who refuses to … Continue reading Writing Backstories
(C) 2020, JJ Shaun According to Grammarly, I wrote almost sixty-one thousand words last week. I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate, considering how much copying and pasting I do. What I consider more impressive is that I’ve got writing data going back one hundred and thirty straight weeks. Not only that, but the app has … Continue reading Writing, Writing, and More Writing
(C) 2020, JJ Shaun A couple of weeks ago, I had a weird day. Weird in that I could not hold onto a writing prompt for the life of me. For the two weeks prior, I could look at the requirements for the contest and remember from one second to the next what those words … Continue reading Finding Words
I decided to mix it up during the week and offer some fiction writing in addition to a Word of the Week. (Yes, my adult ADHD has me, so the stories might jump around a little.) For the last two weeks, I’ve been using the daily writing prompts on a site called Writing.com to flesh … Continue reading Welcome to Wednesday Writing
Poetry BLOG By Edge of Humanity Magazine
New Writing Engaging with the Sacred
50,000 Monkeys at 50,000 Typewriters Can't Be Wrong
J.J. Shaun 