Okay, here it is: a forum writing group, complete with weekly assignments. Who's interested? I have ten assignments ready, that translates into ten weeks. Post here if you're interested in it. I'll need at least three people interested to post them, and at least one of the three will need to be posting responses in here. So, sign up!

(Note: these writing assignments will not be things like "focus on character building" or "make sure there's perfect grammar. More like strict prompts.)

I am interested! PM me when you start

paige394, unfortunately, I don't know whether Miyumi is still active on the forum or not. However, if you are still interested in forming a writing group, go for it! Let me know if there is something I can potentially do to help you out with it. Also, good job resurrecting this thread a year later. :)

I am not really active, but I am willing to run this thread if enough people are interested. So, two more.

I'm interested

One more person needed. I'll have to go find those writing topics... and come up with some more. =P

Yeah, sure I'm interested!

Alright! From now on, expect new assignments to be posted somewhere around Friday night, Saturday morning.The rules are as such: you write to the prompt that I post. Do your best with spelling and grammar. Then, you may pm each other critiques of the works you see. Keep it friendly! I don't want to hear about name-callings in the critiques. Note both good and bad things within. Post in regular formatting, maybe a little italics. No bold- that's for the citiques. Here's an example of a critique:

***

"The man stood in the dooray with a gigitntic in his hand."

two typos: doorway and gigantic
Missing: a gigantic XXXXX in his hand

"Seeing him unlock the door, the girl in the room quivered in the corner of her cell."

I love this sentence! You didn't just tell us she was afraid, you showed it. Great wording!

***

As you can see, I took the sentence out, posted enough for the person to know what the heck I was talking about, and then wrote my comments.

Remember, keep the critiques in pm. Authors, once you've recieved a critique, you may edit your work within this topic. Just put a note at the top that says "edited on " so we can plainly see if you've done anything since the last time we sent a critique. You may post anything written. Keep your eye on the writing above the posts- once it's turned green, you've got a long enough post, but you can keep going. Exception: poetry. I encourage you to title works if you're using poetry.

The prompts: I will be posting writing prompts that pose situations. I would love it if you actually use that situation, but it's not required. What you do write MUST relate to the prompt, even if the relationship is vague, and the readers must be able to find it

I SWEAR I WILL NOT WRITE TO THE PROMPT BEFORE I POST IT. I will not give myself a head start on any of this. I play fair.SO...

The united states has aquired a dragon problem- and explosives don't work! Write the scene where the full extent of the problem is uncovered.

A young man with dark hair made his way through the city streets. He was heading to school, on foot. Dodging cars made his curly hair bounce on his tan head, but he made it safely to the other side of the street. Winding his way through campus, in and out of various buildings, he didn't even pay attention to the televisions displaying the news that a team of researchers from his college had uncovered what looked like a perfectly preserved colony of dinosaurs in the arctic, literally frozen in time through sheets of ice. As of yet, they had only uncovered the terrifying heads of the beasts, but they were working towards more. At last he arrived at his classroom, and sat down, pulling out a book. He already knew the language that was supposedly being taught, but sitting here in class was better than being home. Sometimes, he caught on to an error in the teacher's works.

On his way back from the programming class, his attention was captured by the screams eminating from one of the televisions. He looked, and then shook his head to be sure he was seeing properly. The heads of the supposedly frozen creatures were shooting fire, melting the ice that was keeping them bound, and killing most of the scientists there. He shrugged, and stopped at the cafeteria to pick up something to eat. A bag of doritoes served for the first meal of the day, and he snacked on it as he went home. Walking in, his mother looked up.

"Did you see the news?"
"No."

He brushed past, not paying any more attention to her or the television, and pounded down the stairs to the basement for some privacy. Getting out the phone, he called a girl who was several states away. She was crying.

"What's wrong?"
"It's terrible!"
"What is it?"
"Those poor kids... they were just trying to discover..."
"They got what they asked for. A discovery."
"But..."
"There's nothing you can do, so don't worry about them, okay?"
"Whatever you say."

They talked until dinner, and then talked until sleep. He carefully avoided all mention of it, and did his best to keep her laughing and distracted from it. Finally, he heard the deep breathing of sleep through the phone, and hung up. It was two in the morning, and he had an early class. Going back up the stairs, he pulled a blanket over himself and went to sleep on the couch.

Three weeks later, he called her first thing in the morning as usual. She didn't answer. Worried, he tried again fifteen minutes later. Finally, three hours later, the phone rang.

"Why didn't you answer."
"I can't talk long, had to use a payphone. I'll get there as quick-"
The phone cut off. He cursed, and called his mother. He finagled her car out of her, and took off, intending on starting at her house and working his way back. Partway there, the phone rang again. It was her.

"Sorry."
"Where are you?"
"Don't know."
"Follow the highway west on the side that would be driving east. I'm coming to get you."
"You can't!"
"I am. Do it."

He hung up the phone, and kept driving. It was midnight when he finally spotted her walking along the highway, limping slightly. He pulled over ahead of her, and she walked back towards him. He swept her up, and he held her and while she cried.

"What happened?"
"Dragons."

She was shaking, so he got her into the car. At the next exit, they turned around and headed back for his home. He had slept well the previous night, and could stay up another day if he had to. It looked like he had to. She fell asleep, but as the light came into the sky woke back up. She talked a little, told him what happened. The dragons those kids found had cleared away the rest of the ice and headed for mainland. They had swept into her hometown, and she had barely escaped, hiding in forests outside the city. She remembered where he lived, so had been heading vaguely west, intending on asking directions after a couple days. She fell asleep again a couple hours later, waking only when he stopped to get them food. The newscast was telling about the distruction and the futility of modern weapons against these beasts. There was a call for help, and rewards offered for whoever figured out how to stop these things.

"Luckily," the neswoman said, "They seem to be impartial, eatting human and animal alike. Already, plans are being made to keep them in the northeast corner of the states with herds of cattle while we wait for the ideas to pour in."

He looked across at her and smiled. "See? The best minds in the country are thinking this through. They'll come up wtih something. You can stay with me until your home is sorted out."
"Thank you."
"Let's go home."

Dragons…what are they? Well they are very small and they come in swarms.
They cannot be destroyed with bombs, explosives, nukes, exc.
How can they be destroyed? Well only one man knows that, and he happens to be very old.
They can breathe fire, they have very sharp teeth and claws, and strong scales cover their body.
The Elves of the West often own them as pets; they train them to do their bidding so they go out in hordes and hunt.
They cannot talk or communicate with humans, and usually the wild ones are less dangerous then the trained ones.


“FIRE!” Yelled the commander and at once explosives were flying through the air at the cloud of dragons that were charging at the castle.
Flames erupted on the rooftops of some places as the dragons flamed the place.
“Sir, the explosives don’t work!” The commander said, out of breath, to the general.
“Hmm.” The General grunted and he turned to him, “Does anyone know how to destroy them?” He asked.
“N-no, sir.” The commander stammered, “Nobody know, sir.”
“Well, then.” The general scowled, “You know what to do.”
“Yes, sir.”

“RETREAT!”
Everyone scattered to find shelter and the dragons, sensing dawn was coming, left.

A few days after this had happened; a very old man went to the general.
“What do you want, old man?” The general snarled.
The old man looked at him, and simply said, “I know how to rid the dragons.”
The general stared at him in disbelief.
“It’s very simple indeed,” The old man continued, “But It will cost a price.”
The general growled, “Is that so?” He thought it over carefully, “Very well, state your price.”
“One million American dollars.”
“One million dollars?!” The general pounded his fist on the table, cracking it.
The old man smiled.
“Fine, but if it doesn’t work, I’ll have your head!”
The old man, still smiling, nodded.
Grumbling, the general started writing a check.
“In cash, if you please.”
The general stared, and the old man added: “It’s not nice to stare.”
Sighing, the general write a note and handed it to him.
“Take this to the secretary and she’ll give you your money.”
The old man bowed out and left.

The next day the old man showed up at the general’s office again.
“Now, how do you do it?” He demanded.
The old man pulled out a carved flute out of his pocket and handed it to the general.
“This?” The general said incredulity “Is it?”
The very old man nodded plainly and smiled.
“Well, we’ll see when they come,” He said, “Always at nightfall, always…” He said the last part mostly to himself.

Then, at nightfall…
A shrill whistle sounded throughout the castle, which was odd for such a small object.
The dragons hearing this scattered.
“So it does work,” The general said, unhappily; he had really wanted to ring the old man’s neck, but now he couldn’t.
The old man, with all of his cash, left for Japan for he owed the emperor a large sum of money and was hoping to live quietly and not being hunted for the rest of his life.
He was gladly spared and now lived in a meadow, in a little cottage.

A few days after he settled down, the old man was sitting with his back against a tree trunk looking at the sky.
Then he put an object to his lips and it gave a shrill whistle.
Then, as if out of nowhere, a pack of dragons flew out of the forest.
“Hello, my little ones.” The old man cooed, “Look at you have grown so big! That new potion I have been feeding you sure does the trick!” He chuckled and started scratching under the neck of one of the dragons, making it purr.
“Oh, how much fun we’ll have once you’re all grown up.”

The end

Well I would put it in the bank and save it for interest, and then my parents could retire.
End of story.

But that is not what Emily thought.
She was the lease popular kid in high school.She was even lucky to be glanced at in the halls by the geeks.
She had very boring brown hair, blues eyes and had never had any nice clothes, just jeans, a T-shirt, and sneakers. That's what she wore everyday, she was invisible, nothing, a nobody.But when she found out she won the million dollar lottery she thought no more. Of course she wasn’t supposed to bet with money, but who could argue with a millionaire? She ran away from her family thinking she could run away to Hollywood.
But that’s not how it works.

Why would a fifteen year old kid want to walk around carrying a bag of a million dollars in cash in the middle of nowhere?
Well Emily did.
And she acted as though she was the queen, prancing around waving her money and buying dresses and such.

In the end she was broke, someone had stolen her bag, and others had charged her extra and didn’t count out the right change, about ten dollars short. (too bad she didn't pay attention in math!)
She ended up working in an old bakery for eleven long years. When she finally got married and had a daughter and she named her Emma. Emma looked like her mother, but with her father’s green eyes. She liked to pretend she was a queen and play dress up.

At the age of fourteen, Emma got a raise on her allowance and her dad taught her how to spend her money wisely.
And they all lived happily ever after…


…until Emma turned twenty and owned her first million dollars.

(Sorry it's short, but the word thing turned green so I'm OK)

Due to the difficulty I have been having in writing a response, despite knowing how the story will play out...

Plus to give Paige time to edit her work,

I'm giving another week on the previous assignment.

(No, I don't need more time to come up with topics, I have seven or eight prepared already).

Use the time wisely. Get your works as close to perfect as possible.

The buzzer rang, and typically, she didn't use the intercom. Instead, she ran out of her apartment and up the half flight to the front door to see who it was. She stopped dead partway up the stairs, then finished the climb shaking. She was in a daze as they asked her if she was herself, and turned beet red when they gave her the giant check. Her roommate was behind her by then, and everyone was asking what she would do with the money.

"First, I'm going to pay off the loans."

She wouldn't say anything after that, and people soon went away. Back in the apartment, she made a quick post on her livejournal, im'd a few friends, then called her parents. She hung up on them when they woudln't stop giving her advice for what to do with it. Finally, she looked at her roommate and smiled.

"So?" Tek said.

"We could put this away, and use the interest to pay all our bills. We could go on a spending spree and keep just enough to pay off our loans."

"What do you want to do with it?"

"I want to keep enough to pay off the loans, five thousand for the bills for the next few years, plus an extra thousand for emergencies. That takes about fifty thousand. A small shopping spree to deck out the apartment with everything we want, and mail a few hundred to Mom and Dad to pay them back for those checks they sent me last summer. The rest can go towards your motorcycle and my classroom."

"Not going to just pay the loans off?"

"We need credit."

He ruffled her hair. "Plus, what we put away to pay for it will earn interest."

"Going to play the stock market?"

"It's your money."

"I'll only need a couple thousand for the classroom. You can use whatever's left after your bike for whatever you want."

"We'll see."

"If you play the stock market, I'm sure it won't take you long to build what's left up to what you need for the car you wanted."

"What did I say?"

"Of course. The account for the loans first. We need to take a trip to Raleigh."

"Why?"

"The bank my car loan is through had excellent interest rates. All these accounts will be joint."

"If that's what you want."

"As long as you're willing to sign all the paperwork for it to be. Let's go to Raleigh!"

Amber walked home from school on a wet afternoon.
Why did my teacher have to hate me? She thought, why did he have to announce I suck at math in front of the whole class?
She thought about this over and over until she convinced herself that her teacher was evil.

Sure Amber didn’t even try to study and yeah she did daydream a lot about fairies but who could blame her? Do you like math? Does anyone?
As she was halfway to her house she took a shortcut thought the meadow.

“Why?” she said out loud, “I mean I just failed math!” She stared down at her F on her test paper and the note she was suppose to take home.

She looked angrily at it then the next thing she knew she was on the ground!
“Let go, whatever you are!” She shouted, at something that had grabbed on to her test page.

“Let go!”
The page ripped.
“Wha-” She stared as the other half started floating up.
“Show yourself!” Amber yelled, “You coward!”
Then all of the sudden a small figure appeared, floating in the air and holding half of Amber’s test.
“Coward you say?” The little fairy asked angrily “I’ll show you who’s a coward!” He pulled out a mini sward and sliced Amber’s fingers.
“OW!” She shouted her hand wasn’t cut bad, but it still hurt, tears started leaking out of her eyes.
She glared at the little fairy and turned on the spot running towards home.
“Ah-ha! So who’s the coward now?!” The little fairy cackled then flew away.

Amber didn’t want to tell her parents because they would never believe her so she went to her secret tree house and wrapped her hand in a paper towel.

“That won’t help it.” Said a small voice.
Amber spun around and shirked, “Not another one!”

She stood up ready to run, when the fairy spoke.

“Do not worry, I won’t hurt you.” She said, or at least Amber thought it sounded like a she.

“How do I know you won’t?” Asked Amber, her voice trembled.

“Oh, well you see I saw what happened to you and I followed you.” It said.

“What?” Amber said heatedly, “Why didn’t you stop him!”

The fairly chuckled, “Well we fairies are afraid of those pixies.”

Amber gaped.

“Yes, and you should too! Remember they hate being called a coward!”

“Now I know,” Amber mumbled darkly.

The fairy continued, “Well actually we call them goblins because they are evil.”

“You don’t have to tell me that,” Amber said.

“They collect paper and use it to make nests or what you humans call ‘Paper Mache’” The fairy sat down on the stool.
“Now,” It said, “Let me see that cut.”

“Why?”

“If you want it to heal then I suggest you do!” She said.

Amber held out her hand and the fairy examined it and to Amber’s disgust, spit on the cut.

“Ow!” Amber yelped, “That burns!”

“Yes of course it will!” The fairy said, “It will feel better any second now.”

To Amber’s surprise it did feel better not only that, but you couldn’t even tell there was a cut there before!
“How did you do that?” Amber asked in amazement.

“Well it’s quite easy, you just get a big wad of spit and-”

“No! Like how come your spit is like that?” Amber said.

“How am I supposed to know? Maybe it’s the food we eat, I don’t know.” The fairy flew over to Amber’s desk, “What’s this?” He asked pointing to her math book.

“Nothing…just some dumb homework,” Amber mumbled.

“May I read it?” The fairy asked politely.

“Sure, if you can.” She said.

The fairy clapped her hands and opened the book from the back to lesson 123.
“Ooh! What grade is this, 2ed grade?” The fairy asked.

“Erm…no it’s 7th grade.” Amber said, “Why do you asked?”

“Oh, well this is what I learned in 2ed grade.” The fairy said brightly, “These are so easy!”

Amber stared.

“What grade are you in?” She asked.

“Me? 9th grade.” The fairy answered still looking at the problems.

“About the goblins, what are their weaknesses?” Amber asked, thinking fast.

“Um…sugar.” The fairy said.

“I have lots of sugar, you can have it if you want, ya know to get the goblins.”

The fairy spun around, “You have sugar?!” You must give it to us!” Then the fairy added, “We would gladly repay you!”

“Could you help me with my homework?” Amber asked.

“Of course! Now where is this sugar?”

(Lol! As soon as I saw the next assignment I just started typing away! )

Ms D was lost. It was summer, and she had taken some friends' advice and gone to Ireland, and here she was lost in the woods. They had been full of mist when she set out that morning, but as she expected, the mist had soon cleared up. Now, two hours later, she was back where she had exited the mist, only to see mist in front of her again. So, she walked through it, puzzled. She couldn't see her footprints anymore. There had been no one all day, but now, she saw small colored lights and heard voices. Suddenly, she was out of the mist, in a clearing full of colored lamps. In front of her was a tall being with pointy ears that made her think of an elf. But elves couldn't exist...

"I am here to inform you that your fairie is very sick."

"My what?"

"Your fairie. Assigned to make sure you keep in touch with your child-self. Every person has one, and teachers always get two. One of yours was killed earlier, and the other one is sick. You have a choice- if you choose to let her die, you will not get any more. But if you attempt to heal her, then you will have two within five years, no matter what."

"Is this like the guardian angels?"

"Hardly. Guardian angels are supposed to protect you. Fairies just keep your imagination active."

"What will happen if I don't have one?"

"You will lose touch with your ability to think in creative and new ways. Your ability to have fun will diminish. You will cease to enjoy pracitcal jokes, and become unbearably serious. This will affect your teaching, which is your way of life. Most people in your position decide to trust their fairie to live. This is unwise, though on occasion they get lucky."

"I... I need time."

"You have four days. You may stay here until you are ready."

"Can I... can I see her?"

"Of course. That purple light over there-" The elf pointed, and Ms D made her way to the tree with the purple light. The light focused into a house as she approached it, and inside was a tiny person with butterfly wings. The tiny woman was lying down, and looking very pale. The light emanating from her flickered on occasion. Ms D looked back at the elf.

"What needs to be done to heal her?"

"Simply two drops of your blood, which I will prepare into a cocktail for her. After she drinks it, you must say her name three times, and then say that you love her, and mean it."

"Take the blood."

The elf approached her, and placed his hand on her shoulder. A quick movement later, she felt a stab on her neck. Next thing she knew, she was waking up in a bed, with the elf standing over her.

"Tell me about this..." She waved. He smiled briefly.

"I am the keeper of the fairies. Every time a child is born, they are assigned a fairie. If they become a teacher, they get a second one. Sometimes, they recieve two at birth. The fairies live here, and the crazy things they do sparks ideas in people's minds. I look after them, summon their humans if they get sick, and keep away the pixies, who would attack and kill fairies. Sometimes, I can't get the human here in time. That human is automatically given a new fairy. Any human who comes through here, I wipe their minds of the encounter before they leave, with varying degrees of success. That's where you get the stories of fairies and vampires."

"Don't you get lonely?"

"I have human company often, and there's always the fairies."

"How do they get sick?"

"When a human gets your age, the fairie gets sick. I bring the human here, and they make their choice. I send them home, they happily forget about it."

"I don't want to forget."

"Then you truly love her, and she will heal. Come; it's time."

He led her out to the same tree, and gently placed a miniscule vial inside the house. Another fairy flew over and snitched the vial, flying all over and pretending to drop it before finally lowering to the bedside and helping the ailing fairy drink. Within minutes, the fairy was looking healthier."

"Damsee, Damsee, Damsee. I love you." Ms D called, not knowing how she knew the fairy's name. The elf smiled, and the fairy looked brighter. Ms D felt a prick on her neck again, and this time she woke up in the woods, right outside the village she was staying in.

"Well, look at that, I wasn't lost at all. The mist confused me, is all."

She went back in, trying to remember a dream that was just out of her reach.