Writing Prompt: It’s much too dangerous to talk about . . .
-
An idyllic afternoon . . . Prompt #588
Photo by Angeline Revitt I have the good fortune of belonging to a Facebook Group called Hygge Life. A group that posts phenomenal photos and all positive comments.
Recently, someone posted photos of her inspirational garden in Essex Coast, UK, with this invitation:
“Hygge friends! Come take a little stroll with me to my favourite corner of the garden! We can sit a while and sip on our tea/coffee/tissane and gaze at the craziness of our raised veggie beds, the beginnings of the sweet pea pyramid, the formal and wild flowers and listen and watch as the busy white bottomed bees gather pollen! We can stay a while and chit chat about all things Hygge or . . . just listen, smell, and look at the wonder of Mother Nature. Come join me!”
Writing Prompt: Imagine being in this garden, sitting at the blue table, across from a friend. What would you chat about? Or, what would your fictional characters talk about?
Maybe you are alone in this luxurious spot. If you could take the time to sit by yourself, what would you contemplate?
Me? I’m imagining a new friend on the Essex Coast. We’ve just met and have so many things in common that we talk for hours. Lunch leads to afternoon tea which leads to an evening meal, watching the sun pass over her garden. I breathe in the luxurious scent of her garden and listen to the cadence of her voice, enjoying the lilt of her speech. A blissful afternoon.
Another writing prompt: If you had all the time in the world, what would you like to do?
Be bold! Be brave! Go deep with your writing. Be honest! Be authentic! Just like this Hygge Life FB post . . . be open to a Hygge daydreaming moment.
Other prompts about Hygge:
I’ll say a little prayer for you . . . Prompt #574
Photo by Angeline Revitt -
Carry on . . . Prompt #587
Writing Prompt: Carry on.
Sometimes a word or a phrase enters my mind and I think “that would be a good prompt.”
That’s what happened for today’s prompt. But then I wondered, why did this phrase pop into my head. What have I been thinking about?
In the July 2021 issue (page 51), Sonoma County Gazette book reviewer Diane McCurdy compared the genesis of The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year with Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron:
“In the 14th century when the plague, the black death, was ravaging through the cities of Italy, a writer and a group of friends fled Florence to the caves above the city and to alleviate boredom in what was one of the first sheltering in place locales, they told stories. Giovanni Boccaccio recorded those stories in what became a classic, The Decameron.”
I didn’t know about this, never heard of it. How brilliant of Diane to relate this to the inspiration for Musings.
She got it right, “Adversity frequently fosters creativity . . . This little book [Musings] is a highly artistic presentation. Something we really need right now as we emerge from the abyss.”
A friend researched and found this excerpt about the Florence exodus, written by Joan Acocella in the Nov. 3, 2013 issue of The New Yorker.
“In the morning and in the evening, they will take walks, sing songs, and eat exquisite meals, with fine wines, golden and red. In between, they will sit together, and each will tell a story on a theme set for the day: generosity, magnanimity, cleverness, etc. They will stay together for two weeks. Two days must be devoted to personal obligations, and two to religious duties. That leaves ten days. Ten tales times ten days: at the end, they will have a hundred stories. That collection, with various introductions and commentaries, is the Decameron.”
Writing Prompt: Carry on.
Or: Write whatever pops into your head.
Just Write!
-
Chance Encounters . . . Prompt #586
Writing Prompt:
Chance encounters . . . what are the chances?
-
Belong. Prompt #584
The characters in the Broadway show and the movie, In The Heights, chase their dreams and ask: “Where do I belong?”
West Side Story is also about finding one’s place, illustrated in the song “Somewhere:”
Someday, somewhere
We’ll find a new way of living
We’ll find a way of forgiving
SomewhereThere’s a place for us
Somewhere a place for us
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us somewherePrompt:
Write about a time you felt out of place.
A place where you didn’t belong, but there you were.
What did you do? What did you feel?
Have you found Your Place?
-
Baba Yetu . . . Prompt #583
“Baba Yetu” sung in Swahili by the Stellenbosch University Choir.
The Prompt: Listen to this amazing choir. Then write whatever comes up for you.
Or: Write about a musical experience.
Or: Write about connections.
-
What calls to you? Prompt #582
It feels to me like we’re coming down from a precipice, a surreal 15 months.
As we enter this new phase, what calls to you?
What are you ready to let go of?
How can you release or lighten the load you carry?
Prompt inspired from “Where Do You Hang Your Hammock?” by Bella Mahaya Carter.
-
If you could … Prompt #581
If you could change some things in your history, what would you change?
-
Use these words . . . Prompt #580
Use all of these words or some of these words in a freewrite:
Hot tub, paper umbrella, palm tree, camp or camping, vigil, convertible, transformation, fire.
Inspired by “The Oasis This Time, Living and Dying with Water in the West,” by Rebecca Lawton, a fluvial geologist.
