A writing prompt can be a word, a phrase, a book title, a line from a poem, or a line from a song.
Today’s writing prompt is a word:
Magical
Write whatever comes to mind when you think “magical.”
Blog posts that capture magical and creativity musings.
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Today’s writing prompt, Trouble, is brought to us by Marcia Aldrich’s post on Brevity, “Too Vast for Words: Writing prompts for Large Subjects.”
In this Brevity post, Marcia asks:
Do you have a history with this word, trouble? How long has it been important to you?
Why this word and not near synonyms?
Is it part of a song or movie or book that matters to you?
Does your sense of the word differ from what other people might think of it? If so, how?
Writing Prompt: Trouble
Just Write!
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Sentence starts to inspire ideas to write about:
Sentence starts
If my family had a motto, it would be . . .
The kitchen table . . .
The worst, or best, thing about my mother / father / sibling / grandparent . . .
I will never forget . . .
I will always remember . . .
My favorite thing to do when I was 8 years old . . . 12 years old . . .14 years old . . .
On Saturdays, I liked to . . .
I want you to know . . .
Just Write!
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As we go through life, interacting with people, we learn ways of being in the world. We learn coping strategies.
Sometimes we find that what used to work, no longer works.
Writing Prompt
Write about you then and you now. “Then” is whenever you want it to be.
Write about how you used to react to people and certain situations.
Write about how you now react in the same situations.
Cover of “The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections” features Marlene’s mother ~1945 and letters from her to her mother.
Connections is a collection of writing from mothers and their adult children, using story-telling as a technique to ignite imagination and to inspire writing.
Connections is available from your local bookseller and as an ebook (and print) at Amazon.
Use a pivotal event as a way into writing a personal essay, or a slice of your life . . . a memoir, or creative non-fiction.
A pivotal event is something happened and you weren’t the same after.
Obvious pivotal events are graduating from school, first job, getting married, having a baby, retiring.
There are more subtle events that, at the time, you didn’t know would be a pivotal event. Those are the events that could result in a riveting essay, or give you closure.
Prompt 1
Make a list of things, events, people that you carry in your mind. These are events that you can’t forget. People who haunt you. Memories that you can’t seem to let go.
These are things you think about over and over, events that are on repeat in your brain. Things that happened that you can’t stop thinking about, maybe things you lose sleep over.
Just a list.
Visualization
As you go through this visualization, if you experience anxiety or stress, tap on your sternum with the tips of your fingers. This is a calming and centering activity.
Stretch. Breathe in. Let go.
As you go through this visualization, when you get a feeling jot it down.
Note what the feeling is.
Note where you feel it in your body.
And note what caused this feeling.
If you can, put your hand on where the feeling is and breathe into that space. If you can’t put your hand there, put your thoughts there.
Go back in in time to when you were 3 or 4 years old.
See the people surrounding you. Perhaps your parents . . . siblings . . . grandparents.
Is there something about these people that stand out? Jot down thoughts or ideas that come to you while going through this visualization.
Make a note where there is energy, perhaps an exciting or an uncomfortable feeling.
Picture yourself at age 5 or 8. See your aunts . . . uncles . . . cousins. People you spent time with.
Go to age 9 . . . 10 . . . 11. Who did you play with? Go to school with?
Teenage years. What did you do? Who did you hang out with?
Let a montage of pictures roll by of dating and college years.
Remember to tap on your chest if you are feeling uneasy or uncomfortable.
Early married or living together years. See your children, or nieces/nephews as babies, little children.
Take a deep breath and release.
Prompt 2
Choose one thing from your list. Write what happened. Include as many details as you can.
Excerpt from Brad Yates, Guest Blogger on The Write Spot Blog:
The Mind Can’t Tell The Difference
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Movies!
What movie made you laugh more than any other?
Your all-time favorite movie. Why?
Write about a movie that deeply touched you.
Write about a movie you saw as a teenager.
What movie do you remember seeing as a child?
What makes these movies memorable?
Woulda, coulda, shoulda . . .
If I had . . . then . . .
Or, the opposite:
If I hadn’t . . . then . . .
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“The Write Spot: Memories” available from your local bookseller and as print and ebook from Amazon.
Just Write!
#amwriting #justwrite #iamawriter
#justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter
Do you have a role model?
Write about a person who inspired you, encouraged you, didn’t ask for anything back in return.
Someone who enhanced your life.
Or: Write about someone you mentored or were/are a role model for.
Photo of my role model: My paternal grandmother showing my sister and niece how to make noodles circa 1974.