Category: Prompts

  • Angry? Too nice? Prompt #454

    Congratulations on being here, taking time to do something for yourself.

    Sometimes the writing prompts on The Write Spot Blog are serious, sometimes fun, and sometimes instrumental in learning something about writing and learning about ourselves.

    You are always free to write whatever you want. The prompts are just ideas to get you started.

    If you are writing and run out of things to say, either repeat the prompt, or write “what I really want to say.” And go from there.

    When you read the prompt, write it down, and just start writing. Get rid of the editor that sits on your shoulder. Don’t think. Don’t overthink. Write whatever comes into your mind.

    The writing prompts are meant to encourage you to write what you really want to write (no judgement on good or bad, nice or not nice content).

    But what if what you really want to write isn’t very nice?

    I say . . . go for it. You can burn your writing or delete whenever you want. No one ever needs to see it. You are writing this for yourself. Not to entertain others.

    Is it okay to write about anger and being angry?

    This is from my friend Lizzie, who is a hypnotherapist:

    Anger is good because it’s energy IN MOTION.

    Depression is stuck energy and we rarely take action. We become bound to “this is how it is.” 

    Back to me: The opposite of being allowed our anger feelings . . . we’re taught to be nice.

    So, yeah, write about your feelings . . . anger, being too nice, or the fine balance of “just right.”

    From The Writing Diet by Julia Cameron:

    “I got a lot of mileage out of being nice,” says Benjamin, a composer. “Whenever I felt angry, I ate to stuff my feelings. I never expressed how I really felt. Instead, I used comfort foods to console myself. When I began using a journal, I found I could calmly and maturely express my anger. I may not be quite as ‘nice’ anymore, but I am a hell of a lot thinner.”

    Back to me: Anger is a spark that can be used as creative fuel. We can take our anger to the page and write our emotions. We write to tell ourselves the truth, and the truth may be that we are angry.

    Prompt: Write about being angry. Write about being nice. Write whatever comes into your head. Just Write!

    Marlene C

  • Changes and challenges. Prompt #453

    What are disappointment and disasters all about?  What is your first reaction when you hear or read disturbing news?

    Write about how you, or your fictional character, deal with changes and challenges.

    Marlene C

  • Weather. Prompt #452

    Photo by Marlene Cullen

    Strangers do it. Neighbors do it. Friends do it. We all do it.

    Talk about the weather.

    Now, write about it.

    Write about how weather affects you.

    What is your favorite type of weather?

    Does weather play a small or large role in your life? How? Why?

    Write about weather.

    Me? I like rain, as long as I don’t have to be out in it.

    Photo: View from my front porch on a lovely rainy day.

    Marlene C

  • An experience in nature. . . Prompt #451

    Today’s writing prompt is inspired by Poetic Medicine by John Fox, Infusing our poems with what nature teaches us:

    A forest fire is awesome and frightening but clears the forest floor for new growth.

    Metaphors and poetic images of earth can often express such feelings better than plain descriptive words, which seem to crack under the pressure of deep feeling. Feelings of grief might bring to mind images of winter’s coldness. Pablo Neruda crystalizes a wintry grief image:

    Yes: seed germs, and grief, and everything that throbs

    frightened in the crackling January light

    will ripen, will burn, as the fruit burned ripe.

    The insights we gain by observing nature, and the poems we make which include these insights, help us cope with our rage, grief and pain.

    The poetry of earth offers us a chance to experience something more about life than our self-definition and ordinary language usually permit. Like the forest after the fire, this something more is full of new growth and unknown potential.

    Writing Prompt: Choose an aspect of the natural world which you feel has something to teach you. It could be an animal, plant, or mineral. What specific quality does it express that speaks to you about your own life?

    Or write about an experience in nature that had a profound effect on you.

    Marlene C

  • Paint a word picture. Prompt #450

    Paint a word picture about anything you want, perhaps something that happened over the weekend, or during this past week.

    Or, paint a word picture of what you look like to others.

    Or write about what you experienced (saw, heard, felt, sensed) during a walk.

    Write about your garden. Or a community garden. Or a public garden.

    Just Write!

    Marlene C

  • A Scar . . . Prompt #449

    Write about a scar. Could be a scar you have. A scar you have seen. A scar on Mother Earth. Could be an emotional scar.

    Write about a scar from someone else’s point of view . . . someone who caused the accident, caused the scar, was bewitched or repelled by the scar.

    Or write from the point of view of the scar.

    Marlene C

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  • Infuse Your Writing With Earth Imagery . . . Prompt #448

    Photo by Marlene Cullen

    Excerpt from Poetic Medicine, by John Fox, “Giving Yourself Permission to be Wild and Magnificent”

    Earth offers us powerful images and metaphors with which to tell our stories. Rather than thinking of the earth’s resources as commodities like oil and wood . . . consider the more intangible qualities which nature offers us, such as beauty and spectacle, turmoil and order, mystery and predictability.

    A sense of beauty – wild and terrible or lovely and breathtaking – can be healing.

    Infusing your writing with earth imagery will help reveal your unique voice and imagination. The stories of earth – and our stories – are interwoven, constantly changing in the cyclic process of birth, growth and death. A language for expressing these deep changes in your life can be found by tuning to the language of the earth.

    Poem-making and the natural world give you permission to be wild and magnificent. Your poetic musings of connection with the earth can take you beyond conventional ways of looking at yourself.

    We are often so busy conforming to traditional notions of success that we miss this joyful opportunity to cut loose and feel our lives – to express our highest potential and explore our true legacy.

    Prompt:  Using inspiration from the natural world present an outrageous, yet honest, picture of yourself . . . or paint a word picture about anything you want, perhaps something that happened over the weekend, or during this past week.

    Marlene C

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  • Pacing . . . Prompt #447

    When you read the next ditty, read “d-o-e-s” as in female deer.

    Mairzy Doats

    Mares eat oats and does eat oats

    and little lambs eat ivy

    a kid will eat ivy, too

    wouldn’t you?

    Say it fast and it becomes:

    Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
    A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you?


    Link to what this sounds like.

    I think of this rhyme when I think of pacing – paying attention to the cadence and rhythm of writing.

    How and when to increase the pace when writing.

    Paraphrased from Make A Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld:

    By pacing your scenes well and choosing the proper length for each scene, you can control the kinds of emotional effects your scenes have, leaving the reader with the feeling of having taken a satisfying journey.

    Pace should match the emotional content of your scene. First scenes should get going with an emotional bang—start big or dramatic, ratchet up the suspense or lay in the fear, since you’re capturing the reader here.

    Your first scene is like a cold pool—the reader needs to dive in and get moving fast, or he’ll be too cold to stay in the water for very long. In other scene types, you’ll have more leeway with pacing. In the first scene, however, a quick pace—with more action and less reflection or exposition—will be a better sell.

    Dramatic scenes – Start slow, speed up pace to match emotional intensity, slow down for reflection.

    Speed up pace: Strip away exposition, use dialogue, quick action, and hot emotional content to build intensity.

    When and how to slow the pace

    After a lot of action or intense dialogue give the reader time to digest what happened.

    Use description, narration, details and interior monologues to slow the pace.

    When a character is contemplative, time slows down.

    During these contemplative scenes you can weave in details. Be specific and descriptive. Give your character something to observe or something to do, more than hair twirling.

    Your turn:  Do a freewrite about pacing.

    Here’s mine, thinking about Mairzy Doats. This was a quickly written spontaneous type of writing, just for fun.

    Go too fast and we get frantic and hear garble versus calm, steady breaths and an even, gentle flow.

    Calm is water caressing rocks, dark green moss going with the flow.

    No rough and tumble white water rapids. No gurgling over brooks, no water cascading over boulders.

    Rather, when we slow our writing, we achieve a calm, quiet, graceful feeling.

    Pace yourself. Eat watermelon slowly. Savor the juices.

    Pace yourself.

    Write fast let you lose that thought.

    To slow down, think about the poppy scene in Wizard of Oz. Slower, slower, snail’s pace slow.

    Meditate. Ommmmmmm.

    To pick up the pace, think caffeine and the energy of a toddler/child, always on the go. Child knows no pacing. Always running, talking, doing.

    Challenge self:  No such thing as Writer’s Block. Just keep writing.

    More on pacing:  Find the right pace by Adair Lara: Prompt #70

    Marlene C

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  • Edges . . . Prompt #446

    Photo by Marlene Cullen

    If your life was surrounded by a frame, what would the edges look like?

    Sharp, soft, curvy, plain, straight?

    Brightly colored, small, large?

    Dull, deep, shallow?


    Stand out?

    Plain, simple, fancy?

    Blend in?

    Fierce?

    Protective?

    Describe what the edges of your life’s frame would look like.

    Does your frame help you or hinder you?

    What kind of edge does your life hold?

    Write about a frame that borders your life.

    Marlene C

  • Character’s Voice . . . Prompt #445

    Your fictional characters should be as different from one another as the real people in your life. One way to show differences is in their voices.

    Years ago, returning home from Aqua Zumba, I drove past Hermann Sons Hall and remembered the German woman who managed the building as if it were her immaculate residence. On our early morning walks, my husband and I watched as she polished door knobs, washed windows, and replaced gravel in the driveway. Her mission was to keep “her” building spotless. You didn’t want to cross her.

    How does a writer establish “voice” for characters? 

    If your character is a stoic German woman who manages a building as if it were her pristine cottage, picture what she looks like. Short hair, stern features, sensible shoes, tailored clothing. Then you can imagine what she sounds like: sharp, clipped sentences, uses precise words sparingly.

    Contrast that with a Mother Goose type:  round in looks, ample lap for children to sit on, laugh lines forming parenthesis around her mouth, her eyes crinkle with merriment. She might talk softly or slow. You can hear the smile in her sugary voice.

    Write a scene showing two characters’ personalities using dialogue.

    For more on writing about character: Three-dimensional characters . . .  Prompt #444 on The Write Spot Blog.

    Marlene C