Denise E Lindquist
Bio
I am married with 7 children, 28 grands, and 13 great-grandchildren. I am a culture consultant part-time. I write A Poem a Day in February for 8 years now. I wrote 4 - 50,000 word stories in NaNoWriMo. I write on Vocal/Medium daily.
Stories (1226)
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Tarot For 2026
Three Blue Roses Tarot - My summary of 2025 - Queen of Air: You are a wordsmith, a clear communicator, and 2025 helped you shed any falsehoods in your life. You accepted the truth, no matter what it was, and you set and kept healthy boundaries for yourself.
By Denise E Lindquist28 days ago in Motivation
Bringing Abstractions To Life
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise — Make several of the following abstractions come to life by rendering them in concrete specific details or images. racism, injustice, ambition, growing old, salvation, poverty, growing up, sexual deceit, wealth, evil The Objective - To learn to think, always, in concrete terms. To realize that the concrete is more persuasive than any high-flown rhetoric full of fancy words and abstractions.
By Denise E Lindquist29 days ago in Writers
It's Winter . Top Story - January 2026.
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise —Write a scene involving two characters. Have the point-of-view character presume something entirely different about the situation from what the other character's overt behavior seems to imply. For example, a landlord comes to visit, and the tenant suspects that it isn't a visit but an inspection. Make up several situations in which one character can fantasize or project or suspect or even fear what another character is thinking. The Objective - To show how your characters can use their imaginations to interpret the behavior and dialogue of other characters.
By Denise E Lindquistabout a month ago in Writers
Making A Short Story Less Long
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise — Here are the events that might make a long short story. Write a scenario in which you indicate + Where you would place a full scene or incidental scene. + Where you would use summaries, either narrative summaries or summarized scenes and indirect discourse. The Objective - To learn to identify which parts of a story should be presented in a scene and which parts of a story should be summarized. To develop an understanding of pace.
By Denise E Lindquistabout a month ago in Writers
Language Differences
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise — Examine a scene you are having trouble with, one that (1) demands action, although not necessarily physical action, and (2) provides a turning point in your story. If you don’t yet have such a scene in your story, try writing one. Make it at least three pages long, although five pages will give you a greater chance to develop the personal dynamics and show how the balance of power can keep changing. Tish, discovering that Mort has cheated her in a business deal, confronts him with evidence that would stand up in court, forcing him to return funds he has stolen. Alycia, a charming jewel thief, is caught in the act by her intended victim — an attractive diamond merchant — and seduces him, ensuring both his silence and the gift of a handsomely insured necklace. The Objective — To show that by the time the scene is over the position of dominance has changed while the characters remain consistent and credible throughout.
By Denise E Lindquistabout a month ago in Writers
Atrial Fibrillation
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise — Choose a story that doesn't seem to be working and cut it apart into the separate components of scenes and narrative passages. Lay these story pieces out on a large table and just take in what is in front of you. How many scenes do you have? Are there any "missing" scenes? What would happen if you began with the beginning of the ending scene and use it to frame the story? The Objective - To see an early draft of a story as something that isn't etched in stone. Not only are the words and lines capable of being revised, but the story structure itself is often still fluid enough to rearrange and analyze for the questions listed above.
By Denise E Lindquistabout a month ago in Longevity
A Prompt To Complete a Previous Unfinished Storyline
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise — Pull out one of your stories that doesn't feel finished. Have your main character do the following exercises - as if he had his own notebook. For example, maybe you write with a number 2 pencil, but your character prefers to use a Rapidograph pen. Go with the pen. Remember, your character is doing this exercise - not you, the author! So, as your main character: * make a diary entry for the time of the story * make a diary entry for the time preceding the story * write a letter to someone not in the story about what is happening in the story * write a letter to someone in the story Or you might explore places in the story that you haven't either dramatized or summarized. Examples: * Have your characters avoided a confrontation? (This is a natural reaction - we are all nonconfrontational and, therefore, we often allow our characters to avoid the very scenes and confrontations that we would avoid.) Does your story have missing scenes? * What events happened before the beginning of the story? Before page one? Try writing scenes of those events that most affected the beginning of the story. Maybe you started the story later than you should have. * Write past the ending. Maybe your story isn't really finished. Perhaps you are avoiding the confrontation scene because you aren't really sure what your characters would say to each other. The Objective - To explore aspects of a story that may seem, at first, to be on the periphery, but at a closer look can deepen or open it up. Nothing is ever lost by more fully knowing the individual world of each story. And it's better to let your characters speak for themselves.
By Denise E Lindquistabout a month ago in Fiction
