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…
Category: Prompts
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!
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.
Infuse Your Writing With Earth Imagery . . . Prompt #448
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….
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…
Edges . . . Prompt #446
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.
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…
Three-dimensional characters . . . Prompt #444
You have probably heard about the importance of knowing your fictional characters so well that you know what he/she had for breakfast. Readers don’t need to know this, but the writer does. You don’t need to include everything you know about your characters in your story, but as the writer/creator, you need to know a huge amount of information about the people (and animals) who populate your story. The challenge is to create memorable characters rather than one-dimensional characters. Your fictional characters are like actors in a scene. Some fictional characters seem shallow while others seem richer. The difference could be that the writer knows the characters/actors so well, that the dialogue and the details fit the character. Your fictional actor may want to step out of character and exhibit new behavior. This is fine, as long as it’s credible. Your job as writer is to drop convincing clues so…
Describe an item. Prompt #443
In “The Art of Fiction,” John Gardener describes “the fictional dream.” This is when the author has described a scene so viscerally, the reader can see, feel, hear, taste, or smell what’s going on in the scene. Sensory detail is important in writing, but how to achieve it? Practice! Try this: Study an object for ten minutes. It can be something you are wearing, an item on your desk or on a kitchen shelf. It can be something you use every day or a special item put away to keep it safe. You can describe the glass flower decoration above. Notice the details of the object — the shape and texture. Explore the pieces that make up the whole. Hold or touch the item. Notice the texture, the heft. How does it feel? Does it have a smell? Look at the object from all angles. After ten minutes, write a…
Finding balance . . .Prompt #442
Balance is a tricky act. Like a pie crust, balance is sometimes tender and light, and sometimes fails. Sometimes we find balance. Then we totter. Then we regain balance. And totter again. And find balance once more. Write about finding balance. You can use any of these phrases for your writing prompt or use the image. Isn’t this a beautiful pie crust topping? Not something I made. But something I would enjoy eating!