First writing challenge

A little later than promised (had not realised the timings on the challenge were all America EST), here is the link to the first weekly writing challenge.  http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/weekly-writing-challenge-cliffhanger/

I think that the photo one may prove to be easier... Hope to publish that later today!

Writing Challenge 1. 

Weekly Writing Challenge: Cliffhanger!

by michelle w. on January 6, 2014

We blog for a million different reasons, but in the end we’re all storytellers. Writing Challenges help you push your writing boundaries and explore new ideas, subjects, and styles.
To participate, tag your post with DPchallenge and include a link to this post to generate a pingback — and make sure your post has been specifically published in response to this challenge. We might just highlight some of our favorites on Freshly Pressed on Fridays, or in our monthly newsletter.
Welcome to the first Daily Post writing challenge of 2014! You might be expecting a New Years’-themed challenge like your blogging resolutions, or a 2013 retrospective — but we read your blogs, and we know lots of you have already written those. Let’s kick off 2014 in a different way: with a cliffhanger.

Sylvester Stallone starred in the excellent dramatic film “Cliffhanger,” and is also looking forward to your entries this week. (Photo by Towpilot, CC BY-SA-3.0.)

For this week’s challenge, write a post that will leave readers waiting for more. Breathless with anticipation. On the edges of the seats. Obsessively clicking “refresh,” waiting impatiently for the end of the story. We want to hear audible groans when readers reach the end of your post and see “To be continued…”
You’ll need to think through the story you want to tell, and then figure out where to split it in half for greatest dramatic effect.
Does this mean we’re asking you to write fiction? Not at all — any kind of post can get the season finale treatment:

• Tell a personal story, but withhold the unexpected ending.
• Write a forceful opinion piece, but don’t reveal your point of view.
• Share a photo essay, but hold back the final, perfect image that ties the rest together.
• Get our mouths watering with a description of your favorite dish, but make us wait for the recipe.
• Show us the steps in your last DIY project, but wait on sharing how it turned out.

Blogging is about sharing our stories, and a good story keeps readers hooked. This week, figure out how to turn your story into a nail-biter.
Publish the two posts whenever you’d like; on the same day, a day apart, or a week apart, depending on how tense you want to leave your readers.  Zero to Hero folks, you’re welcome to get in on the action! Bonus points also available for anyone else who manages to work Sylvester Stallone into their post.
Ready to up the tension? Write!