Prompts

I stand on the edge of . . . Prompt #42

When using the freewrite style of writing . . . write freely with no worries about the end result. The editor that sits on your shoulder, the inner critic. . . out the door.  Give ’em the boot. Not invited to this party. It’s not about the writing . . . it’s about the process. The process of letting go. Trust yourself. Go with your imagination. Go with what’s on your mind. Today’s writing prompt: I stand on the edge of . . .

Prompts

Make a list of pivotal events. . . Prompt #40

Today’s Prompt is Part 1 of 2.  Part 2 is “How to Write Fact Based on Fiction,” Prompt #41. Part 1 Make a list of pivotal events in your life. Those times when, at night, you were not the same person you were in the morning.  By day’s end, you were a different person.  Just write a list. When you are finished writing the list:  take something from your list and write the details . . . as you remember them.  You can be as detailed, or as general as you want to be. Write about an event that altered your life:  all the gritty details. . . be as honest and as genuine as you can. Bleed onto the page. Part 2 will be the next prompt post.

Just Write

“I began these pages for myself . . .” Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Excerpt from Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I began these pages for myself in order to think out my own particular pattern of living, my own individual balance of life, work and human relationships. And since I think best with a pencil in my hand, I started naturally to write. I had the feeling, when the thoughts first clarified on paper, that my experience was very different from other people’s. (Are we all under this illusion?) My situation had, in certain ways, more freedom than that of most people, and in certain other ways, much less. . . . And so gradually, these chapters, fed by conversations, arguments and revelations from men and women of all groups, became more than my individual story, until I decided in the end to give them back to the people who had shared and stimulated many of these thoughts. Here, then,…

Just Write

Get started – how to use writing prompts

Get out some paper and a fast moving pen or set up your computer. Set the timer for ten minutes. Look at something  in your room, anything, it doesn’t matter. Now write. Just write whatever enters your head. Or, open your dictionary to a random page, run your finger down a column. Stop on a word and freewrite, using that word as your prompt. Or, use one of the prompts in this blog. Think of this as practice writing, just as a badminton player practices before an actual meet. Follow Natalie Goldberg’s six rules of writing listed in a previous post. Try it right now. Paper and pen or computer ready? Glance at your clock. Note the time.  Or set your timer for ten minutes. Write for ten minutes about “trees.” After that, write for ten minutes, using “I remember” as your prompt. Now go with, “What I really want…