Write about a pet peeve.
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If you could live anywhere. . . Prompt #415
If, for one month, you could live anywhere, any place, in a certain residence, or in a famous home, where would you pick? You can time travel into the past or future.
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You have won . . . Prompt #412
You have just been notified that you have won a prize on the level of a gold medal at the Olympics, or a Grammy, or an Academy Award, or a Pulitzer Prize.
Write about a special skill you have and how you won an award for that.
Let your imagination soar. What have you won a prize for?
What is your reaction?
Write your acceptance speech.
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Betrayal. Prompt #410
“A time comes when silence is betrayal.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
Write about a time you were betrayed. Or a time you betrayed someone.
You could start with: I felt betrayed . . .
Or write about a time you were silent and now wish you had spoken up.
Or write about a time you could no longer remain silent.
You could start with: I want to tell you about what happened . . .
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A lie . . . Prompt #409
Write about a lie someone told you, or a lie you told.
White lies, bald-faced lies, untruths, falsehoods, fabrications, whoppers . . . whatever you call ‘em, you have experienced ‘em . . . Now write about ‘em.
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A time you felt different. Prompt #408
Prompt: Write about a time you felt different.
If you have time . . . write, using this prompt now. Or, think about a time you felt different. Pause. Take some time to remember,
“Diversity goes deep and is often handled on intellectual and political levels.” —Pat Schneider, Writing Alone and With Others.
Prompt: Generate a list of categories that make us different from one another.
Some ideas: Age – Gender – Socioeconomics – Background – Personality – Married or not – Have children or not – Parents alive or not – Lived/grew up with parents in the home – Vegetarian – Athletic – Bookworm – Seeker – Spiritual – Religious – Have tattoos – Have piercings – Hearing impaired – Race – Tall or short
Prompt: Choose a diversity and write a dialogue between two or three people.
Prompt: Write about someone being hurt as a result of being different.
Possibilities:
Write about a time you were hurt because of being different.
Write about a time you witnessed someone being hurt because of being different: Write in the first person, as you were the person being hurt. Stay in the voice of the person who was being hurt.
Write about witnessing someone being hurt and no one helped, including yourself. A time you saw someone being harassed or treated rudely or meanly and you did mothing.
“I saw this and I did nothing.”
Prompt: Write about a time you felt different.
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Use these words . . . Prompt #406
Use these words in your freewrite:
Instinct, illustration, melt, eighteenth, obligation, plunge, immune.
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Your path . . . Prompt #405
Write about a path you took, or a path you didn’t take.
Write about a choice you made.
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Someone you were drawn to. Prompt #402
Write about a person you were drawn to.
It could be a real person or a fictional character.
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This happened . . . Prompt #402
Today’s prompt is inspired by a talk Ianthe Brautigan gave on March 5, 2001.Memoir is a journey. Just because it’s your life, don’t think you know the end. A beeper could go off and change everything.
Life is like a box of chocolates . . . you don’t know what you got until you bite into it. Sometimes your life makes sense after you write and digest your findings.
Ianthe suggests writing a memoir in an unusual way, not “this happened and then that happened.”
To start: Write excerpts from your past. Write your stories. Don’t worry about where they will go.
Tell your story as if sitting around a campfire.
If you need inspiration: Make a collage from magazine articles/photos about what you want to write about. Look at these when you need a nudge to write.
Once you start writing, let go of how you should write. Relax into your writing. Your heart knows what to write about. Allow it.
Ianthe suggests thinking of the clothesline structure: Two strong posts at ends. One is for the solid introduction. The other post is for the solid end. Then play around with insides. Move your stories around as you desire.
Writing Prompt: Think about your childhood. Write about whatever your mind flashes on.
Prompt: This happened to me . . .
Examples of excellent memoirs:
To Have Not by Frances Lefkowitz