Sit back. Get comfortable and relaxed in your chair. Think about a place you have visited. It doesn’t matter where. It could be the downtown area in your city. It could be the city where you were born. Could be a vacation. Take a few minutes to scroll through your mind and choose a place you have visited. Let your mind drift back to your visit or time you spent at this location. If you are working on fiction, how would one of your characters respond to the prompts below. Prompt #1: What is the first picture, or scene, that appears? Prompt #2: I can still hear . . . Prompt #3: I can smell . . . Prompt #4: This place is important to me because . . . Prompt #5: I wish I could . . .
Category: Prompts
Shoes . . . Prompt #363
Write about shoes. Your shoes, a baby’s shoes, or a grandmother’s slippers. A pair of shoes hanging by the laces on a high wire. A favorite pair of hiking boots. Ballet shoes. Sandals worn on vacation. Shoes.
Perseverance . . . Prompt #562
Today’s prompt is inspired from the Perseverance Rover landing on Mars. What do you think about the Mars landing? Is this as impactful as man’s first walk on the moon? OR: Where were you on July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin landed on the moon? OR: Write about perseverance. About the parachute that helped land Perseverance: The parachute that helped NASA’s Perseverance rover land on Mars unfurled to reveal a seemingly random pattern of colors in video clips of the rover’s landing. NASA officials said it contained a hidden message written in binary computer code. The red and white pattern spelled out “Dare Mighty Things” in concentric rings. The saying is the Perseverance team’s motto, and it is also emblazoned on the walls of Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion. “The Verge”
If you knew . . . Prompt #561
If you knew then what you know now, what would you do differently?
Winter Thoughts . . . Prompt #560
Winter. What is the best thing about winter? What is your earliest winter memory? Or: Most memorable thing that happened in winter.
Time Travel . . . Prompt #559
Think about a relative or an ancestor who you know very little about. You can jot down names or how the person is related to you if you don’t know their names. Take about two minutes for this. Choose one person to focus on. Time travel to when that person lived. Write about that person in a “take me back” way . . . using location or place, date, other characters or people who lived then as details to learn about this person. You can make things up, imagine conversation, imagine circumstances. There are no wrong answers. Have fun exploring the possibilities of “what if?” What if you lived during this time, what would you be doing? Where are you in this scene? The Free February 18, 2021 Writers Forum event features Kate Farrell, Waights Taylor, Jr., and Bev Scott chatting about how to research family history and shape your…
Poem by Dawna Markova . . . Prompt #558
I Will Not Die an Unlived Life by Dawna Markova I will not die an unlived life.I will not live in fearof falling or catching fire.I choose to inhabit my days,to allow my living to open me,to make me less afraid,more accessible:to loosen my heartuntil it becomes a wing,a torch, a promise.I choose to risk my significance,to live so that which came to me as seedgoes to the next as blossom,and that which came to me as blossom,goes on as fruit. Prompt: You can write on the mood or the theme of the poem. Or use a line or a word as a springboard for your writing. Dawna Markova followed her precious grandmother’s footsteps to become a midwife, but rather than babies, she helps birth possibilities within and between people. She has lived many incarnations in the past seven decades as an author, teacher, psychotherapist, researcher, executive advisor, and organizational fairy godmother….
Explore Characters . . . Prompt #557
Create a character, or develop a character. ~ The character could be you . . . when you were younger, or looking ahead, you in the future. ~ Someone you know, dead or alive. ~ A fictional character you created. Give your character a name: Younger Me. Older Me. Someone you know. Your fictional character. Woman in 1940s. Man on a Mission. Person in a foreign country. Get up and walk around your space, looking at things, touching things, as if you were that character. Look through the eyes of the character you are writing about. Say, or think, the name of your character as you walk around. Walk in your character’s shoes. Spend 3-5 minutes on this. When you return to your chair, respond to the prompt from your character’s point of view. Use one of these prompts as a springboard to write about a character of your choice….
Ideas . . . Prompt #556
Write about an idea you have. Something you have thought about doing. You can also write from your fictional character’s point of view. Perhaps something on your wish list. A dream. I want to . . . ~ write about . . . ~ create an art project about . . . ~ a gardening project . . . ~ something that will help me . . . ~ help my community . . . ~ help the world . . . ~ this is what I want to accomplish . . . ~ my dream is . . .
Character Sketch . . . Prompt #556
Prompt #554, Character Idiosyncrasies, on The Write Spot Blog, suggests ideas to write about a fictional character, or someone you know. You can do all that for this prompt. Plus, you can fill out the answers for yourself, as if filling out a questionnaire. Character Sketch . . . fill in the details about your character. 5 positive traits 5 opposite traits 3 least favorite things 3 favorite things What does this person love? What is this person looking for? What is this person afraid of? What is most important to this person? What is this person’s secret? Prompt inspired by Stefanie Freele’s June 2012 Writers Forum talk, “Developing Character.” Please join us on February 10 and February 18 for Zoom Writers Forum talks about story telling by Kate Farrell, editor of Story Power.