Welcome To The Writing Assignment!

Introductions

Greetings! Thank you for stopping by to check out The Writing Assignment! . The Writing Assignment is currently hosted by our founder, NL* , and our staff:
The Milkman , The Writing Assignment General Manager
Monitor: Scenario 3, 5, & (forthcoming) 8
Starr* Rathburn ,
Monitor: Scenario 7 & (forthcoming) 4
Jay's debut novel is out now! , Website & Account Maintenance
Monitor: Scenario 1 & (forthcoming) 6
Melissa is fashionably late! ,
Monitor: Scenario 2
Sage ,
Monitor: Scenario 5
Sara♥Jean ,
Monitor: (forthcoming) Scenario 8



The History

When I was in High School, my advanced composition teacher, whom I’ll never forget, created a writing assignment that bolstered our creative abilities while eliminating any problems with writer’s block.
He accomplished this by setting up a structure and allowing us to be creative within that structure. Since writer’s block is often a symptom of lack of structure and direction, we found ourselves at a creative high when these obstacles were removed.
The assignment was a simple journal that we kept. He set the stage and we wrote the dialogue and plot. Every week he would give us a new set of circumstances and we had to work our characters and plots around them. It was, in fact, because of this assignment that I first realized my creative story-telling abilities. Now I am setting up a similar assignment here on this site for fun and for writing practice. I would love to see how good and how different each story turns out to be from one another’s.

I originally developed this version of the game hoping to help Writing.com users to develop their writing skills and instill in them a bit of inspiration.
Thanks to a few very motivated and dedicated participants such as The Milkman, The Writing Assignment soon became well received within the Writing.com family and it didn’t take long for it to outgrow my portfolio and my abilities to manage it alone. A growing staff of dedicated individuals hand picked by existing staff now operate The Writing Assignment. I still hang around, though, to come up with new scenarios and scout out new staff to manage them, but more importantly, to check out all the fun. And I mean fun! You’ll see what I mean when you get involved!


The Instructions

Here’s how to play:

1. Set up a Book Item within your portfolio. You may name this story whatever you wish-- it's your story, after all. If you don't have an Upgrade, you may use a Static Item to play instead. We recommend leaving the story unrateable until you've completed all the chapters of the assignment, but this is up to you.

2. Choose a Scenario. "Scenario One"  is usually a good starting place, but you may choose to play any Scenario that you like-- you definitely do not have to do them in order!

3. Go to the first chapter in The Assignments Handbook in the folder for the Scenario you have selected. There you will find the circumstances for the first chapter of your story.

4. Write your first chapter, setting up your characters and your story.

5. Read each new chapter assignment in The Assignments Handbook only after you have completed the prior chapter.

6. Let your Forum Monitor know you are involved by posting to The Forum in the folder of the Scenario you chose. Your Forum Monitor will then read and drop off helpful comments as you write them and create a link to your story in Books in Progress for others to read and review your chapters as well.

From Books in Progress you will also be able to see what other people are doing with their journals and see how one concept can have so many different interpretations.


7. Most importantly, HAVE FUN!

Quick Clicks

[While The Writing Assignment is Under Construction we plan to totally reorganize our Quick Clicks for your ease of perusal! check back soon!]