Have you ever noticed the names of paint colors? They are so creative. . . they could be wonderful writing prompts. Writing Idea: Keep a file folder of phrases to inspire your writing. These could be phrases that someone else wrote. They could be snippets you wrote to be used in future writing. This folder can also contain lists like these names for paint colors. You never know when or how you might want to use them. You might find a unique name for a character. Or a fabulous name for: a fictional town, a store, a street name, a pet. My favorite: Amethyst reflection . . . I can imagine using this to refer to eye color. Aqua Rapids Bubble Turquoise California Chamois China White Cloud Nine Blue Crystal Clear White Deco Red Festival Green Fiesta Rojo Fire Roasted Fitzgerald Smoke Frank Llyod White French Silver Inness Sage Innocent…
Tag: writing freely
Movies as inspiration for writing. Prompt #289
Movies can be a wonderful inspiration for writing. I recently saw the movie, Sully. Even though I knew how it ended, I was teary-eyed. I was filled with emotion at how people helped one another. Director Clint Eastwood did an amazing job of telling the right amount of backstory and the right amount of Sully’s personal life. The focus was on the people involved . . . the human interest story. There were lines of dialogue that were exquisite. When using a movie as an inspiration for writing, you can write about the theme or mood of the story, a line of dialogue, a memorable scene, whatever interests you. Write about: A road trip. Thelma and Louise How you learned to dance. Dirty Dancing A time you were tricked, or you tricked someone. The Sting, two con men outcon a con.
Write about a favorite movie. . . OR . . . Prompt #287
Write about a favorite movie. Why do you like it? OR . . . write about a movie you really didn’t like. Did you watch it to the end? Why? Why didn’t you walk away? A note about freewrites: You don’t have to write on the prompt exactly as it’s written. You can write about “Why didn’t you walk away?” Write freely, with no attachment to the final product. Just write.
Detour . . . Prompt #282
Write about a detour you have taken. Or write about a detour someone you know has taken.
Saved . . . Prompt #281
Write about saving a life. Someone’s life you saved, or someone who saved your life. The save could be literal: CPR was performed, pulled from water, put out a fire, rescued from a snarling animal or a threatening situation. The save could be inspirational: Something read in a book, a magazine, a placard, a wall hanging; a mental shift; a realization; an epiphany; something that was said; a behavior change; a belief change. You get the idea . . . Saved. However you interpret this. Just write!
Food For Thought . . . Prompt #280
A friend delivered a gift wrapped in black and white paper with sayings on canning jars. Today’s prompts are inspired from that gift wrapping paper. Choose one to write about. Or choose several: Food for thought. Foodies are the best people. Season everything with Love. Just beet it. Stay hungry – Stay foolish! Eat. Drink. And be amazing. Eat more greens. Farm to table & table to soul.
Imagery and sensory detail ala Adair Lara Prompt #277
“Write five images every day, for seven days, using as many of the senses as possible.”— Adair Lara From Adair’s book, Naked, Drunk, and Writing: “Writing is turning your thoughts, abstractions, generalizations, and opinions back into the experiences you got them from.” Adair’s example: “Not ‘women my age become invisible,’ but ‘they handed drinks around and forgot me, again.’” Using imagery involves the details about what happened. Show what happened so that readers can see the scene, hear the sounds, feel the sensations, taste the elements, and smell the aroma. Adair advises, “. . . every time you write a sentence, ask yourself, How can I show this? Try to get image and detail into every sentence. ” Tidbits from Chapter Six, Using Images and Details: “We want experience, not information. ‘Joan was distressed’ is information. ‘Joan looked away’ is an image. The reader notices Joan looking away, and has…
Vegetables – Not Just For Eating . . . Prompt # 276
What are vegetables good for, besides eating? Some gardens are bursting right about now with zucchini, green beans, summer squash, cucumbers, yellow squash, kale, rhubarb, patty pan squash, lettuce, have I mentioned squash? Here in northern California, growing squash is easy and so abundant that we don’t leave our car doors unlocked, or we might find a bushel of zucchini on the seat. Write about other things that vegetables can do. Inspired from Adair Lara‘s writing workshop. Write about new uses for vegetables.
What do you pretend to not care about? Prompt #274
Excerpt from I Could Do Anything . . . If I only knew what it was, by Barbara Sher Rescuing Your Past Something inside you is too loyal to permit you to turn your back on everything you loved and simply walk away. No matter how many times people tell you to let the past go, it’s never possible. You’ll never move wholeheartedly into the future unless you take your beloved past with you. And that’s exactly as it should be. There’s no reason to turn your back on a happy past. Sometimes we try to turn away from the past because we feel it somehow betrayed us. It’s as though we loved our past, but our past didn’t love us. So we go on strike and pretend we don’t care, as if to punish fate for being unkind. Fate never cares, of course, so we only hurt ourselves. Prompt:…
Our Tribes . . . Prompt #273
I’m thinking about our connections with one another. This excerpt seems timely. Excerpt from Your Mythic Journey by Sam Keen and Anne Valley-Fox “Pre-modern people didn’t think of themselves as individuals — they were members of a tribe as well as of a family. Ancient philosophers knew that human dignity begins with ‘We are a people, therefore I am.’ Modern people are tribal too but we call our tribes by different names — churches, corporations, states, nations. Each of us was nurtured within and shaped by several corporate bodies, voluntary organizations and professional corporations that molded our values and behavior — schools, athletic teams businesses, clubs, temples, and local, national, and international governments.” Prompt: I am from . . . Or: What uniforms or emblems have you worn? Or: What groups have you been a member of? Brownies, Blue Birds, Daisies, Girl Scouts, athletic groups, sorority, secret clubs.