I facilitate writing workshops in Petaluma, CA called Jumpstart. We use prompts to spark our imagination. For this type of free-writing, you can respond from your personal experience or from someone else’s personal experience.
You can write as your fictional character would respond to the prompt. You can use these prompts to get deeper into your fictional character’s mind.
The idea for this prompt is inspired by the poem, “What I Like and Don’t Like,” by Philip Schultz.
“Write from your heart. You’ll hear that a lot, but what it means is to write from what moves you, what frightens you, what makes you deeply sad, what makes you ecstatic. Remember to write from that place where the real you exists.” John Kelly, Writer Magazine, July 2015
Photo by Jeff Cullen. Click here to see Jeff’s portfolio on fotolia.
You can use the prompts on The Write Spot Blog to write about your personal experiences, or experiences that others have had, or to write fiction. If you are working with a fictional character, respond to the prompt as your fictional character would. Don’t have a fictional character? Maybe now is the time to create one.
You can take actual events from your life and fictionalize them. Your fictional character could be based on an actual person, or a combination of many people.
Have you been wanting to write? Perhaps this is the summer for your writing. How about this. . . let’s all (me, too) take the month of July to write 15-20 minutes a day. If you have more time, write longer. But let’s commit to a minimum of 15-20 minutes every day.
What to write about? Whatever is on your mind. Need some ideas . . . some prompts to get started?
Click on Prompts . . . Choose a prompt. Set your timer and Just Write!
Ready? Set? Let’s go.
Photo by Kent Sorensen
Prompt: Take Your Fill-In-The-Blank To Work Day
Take your dog, cat, frog, aunt/ant to work day.
From the June 2015 Costco Connection: Summer is typically a time when many businesses see a drop-off in customers, so they create ways to engage customers.
Here are some specially designated days and, of course, you can write on any of these. Have fun. . . Let your imagination take over.
June 1: Flip A Coin Day
June 3: Repeat Day
June 4: Hug Your Cat Day
June 8: Best Friends Day
June 10: Iced Tea Day
June 18: National Splurge Day
June 19: Sauntering Day
June 26: Take Your Dog to Work Day
You can search the internet for all kinds of “official” days.
Just Write!
Use these words in a freewrite:elaborate, bitter, cool, leave, mist, arm, moon, bare, peach, vision
Post your writing on The Write Spot Blog.
Choose one topic from below, these are prompts that have recently been posted here on the Write Spot Blog:
Prompt #158: If pets could talk
Prompt #159: Unforgettable
Also Prompt #159: Strange But True
Prompt #160: Only in America
Also Prompt #160: Happy Endings
Today’s writing prompt: After you have written a freewrite (from above list), write one line for every four sentences from that freewrite. Take out all unnecessary words.
Condense or distill your writing to the most important aspects.
Tweak, form, shape and sculpt until you have a poem. Then . . .
Submit to The Voices of Lincoln Poetry Contest.
No fee to enter. You don’t have to be a resident of Lincoln to submit. Send by July 25, 2o14 Go for it!
So. . . what is all this talk about freewrites and writing prompts? What does it all mean?
A freewrite is a style of writing that is . . . well. . . freeing. The writer hears or reads a word, or a phrase, and just starts writing. Often a timer is set, so there is the “under the gun” feel of a deadline, a limited time to write.
Click here for more information about freewrites.
I post writing prompts writing prompts, on The Write Spot Blog. Sometimes the writing prompts are fun and playful. Sometimes they inspire memoir type writing. Other times they work well for fiction writing.
Mostly the prompts are what you make of them. . . you can go light and stay on the surface, skating on the edge, or you can go deep.
This type of writing is an opportunity to explore and perhaps come up with ideas for writing or . . . for solutions to situations. . . or for personal growth and transformation.
Shed your ideas about what perfect writing means. Give yourself permission to be open to whatever comes up. Writing isn’t always about talent, it’s about practice and going into another dimension. Rather than write for an audience, write from an instinctual level.
Creative writing is an act of discovery. Immerse yourself in writing. Let go of your worries and write. Write to a satisfying inner desire to go to a meaningful place.
Go deeper into the recesses of your mind and really write. Write from the well that stores the fears. Let the tears come, let your stomach tie up in knots. It’s okay to write the story that is difficult to tell.
Get through the barriers to go to a deeper level. See your story and tell it.
Want to practice this freewrite type of writing? Right now? Ready? Here ya go:
Take an imaginary walk through your hometown and see what people and what places pop up. Take a few minutes to remember the smells, and notice what feelings come up as you walk through your town.
Write what you remember about your town. Just write.
