
Think of three people you know. Pick out their most outstanding characteristic and combine these traits into one character. Write about this character on a sailboat with his wife.
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Think of three people you know. Pick out their most outstanding characteristic and combine these traits into one character. Write about this character on a sailboat with his wife.
Write a story or article that gives a short tour of your hometown.
What is the town’s greatest feature and what is the town’s most thorn in the side feature? Describe in detail why. If not known, make a feature or thorn up.
To our delight we have followers from around the world. As a nod to our British followers, this week’s prompt is about something very British.
Create a story or poem about Bubble and Squeak, either the 18th-century English peasant food – still a favorite, the 1940’s British cartoon about Bubble, a taxi driver and Squeak, his taxi or use your imagination to discover new diversions, characters or culinary experiments on which to apply the names.
I once read that even when a writer doesn’t have a pen in hand or a keyboard to use, he or she is creating sentences in their head, observing life around them, such as an argument in a grocery store, two young lovers kissing in the most unusual settings, or the recent and controversial interviews with Prince Harry. A story is being formed. The author says, “All is fodder.” Every situation you experience can begin in your mind, then released to become your next writing. What fodder grabs you—conversations, walking a country road, a Broadway play? Write about it. You might be surprised.
“The voyage is part of the fun,” he said with a grin.
You have two choices: write using narrative only, or, dialogue.
Write one page (or longer if your mind goes wild) and end with a surprise.
Where is your writing place?
All writers need a place. As Virginia Woolf famously wrote, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” She ultimately found that the room she created specifically to write did not entirely do the trick. She often contemplated and wrote outdoors. She imagined stories while walking the quadrangles of Oxford or strolling through a garden. But the quote in part has come to signify the importance of a solitary place to write. In fact, I know writers who thrive on writing in busy coffee shops that are the antithesis of quiet sinecures of contemplation. They create their own solitude within an impenetrable shell of concentration. I am entirely too distracted in that setting by people-watching and eavesdropping. Each to their own I say. Personally, I like to write while sitting on my patio in the quiet of early morning with only birds as my background chorus. I also have a room of my own. When I close the door, the muse cannot escape; it is trapped in the struggle of my creative tug-of-war. To quote Mrs. Woolf again, “a lock on the door means the power to think for oneself”. In my room, I have a desk. My desk once belonged to my mother and I treasure its history. My desk is cluttered, unlike its life with my mother. When I think of writing, especially if I plan a long period dedicated to that pursuit, I think of my desk. It is my place. PROMPT: Write a short essay on your writing place, your desk – whether it be in a room of your own, in the kitchen, at a library table, a notebook on your lap – wherever. What does it mean to you? Our writers’ group will each write about their desk in our blog posts next week.
Try writing from the perspective of a building, a boat, or a tree. Let them describe
as a first-person narrator the things that go on around them. What have they
witnessed in their history? Have they witnessed emotional moments that have long-
since passed, etc.?
Imagine that you change your outgoing message each day on your voicemail. Make up messages for each day of the week. Each can be as long or short as you like.
It’s 1925 and you are shopping in a dime store.
Describe the people and write their dialogue to one another.
You are on a train in a private compartment traveling from London to Portsmouth, England. You have settled in, the train begins to move when suddenly a stranger enters quickly and shuts the door and says, “_____________________________”.
P.S. You are not allowed to say, “Bond, James Bond.” You will be amazed at how a story can open up with a first few words.