I Give You Prompts
Because I'm halfway taking this week off
This week is spring break in Oregon and I underestimated the effect that was going to have on me. The wild beasts (three of my grandchildren) are home all day and they love to come in here and hang out with me, even though I explain to them, with increasing desperation, that I’m working. They haven’t yet fully grasped the concept of people working at home. Mainly because they think all people everywhere should be subject to their whims.
So instead of the post I planned for this week, which was going to be how to use prompts to write your novel, and also a stirring defense of prompts, I’m going to take the lazy way out and instead provide you with some prompts. Also I’m making this post free for everyone because maybe you, too, have kids at home for spring break (or other distractions, lord knows there are plenty of them) and need some inspiration.
Prompt #1
Check out the above photo. Write about it. That’s it. Haha, no it’s not really. Look at it—really look at it. When I wrote about art an editor rejected one of my articles and commanded me to return to the gallery and stand in front of the painting I was writing about and do nothing but stare at it for fifteen minutes. Then write about it. That taught me a lot. So you go do that now (though maybe just for a minute or two). What do you see in the photo? What does it make you feel? What do you think about the structure in the image? Is it inhabited? What about the colors? The water? Anything else?
AND REMEMBER
Prompts are only a starting point. You may dutifully begin answering my prompt question and suddenly get an idea for a story about an alien on a far distant planet. Go for it. The mind works in mysterious ways. Your job as a creative writer is only to follow it down all paths and labyrinths. Prompts exist only to, well, prompt you.
Prompt #2
Set your timer for ten minutes. Write to each of the prompts below until the timer goes off. Reset it and restart it and write to the next one. Rinse and repeat. (Okay, okay, I list six prompts below. That’s a whole hour of writing. But since these prompts are offered as emergency inspiration, you can do as many or as few as you like.)
—And then we began again
—Raindrops on fir needles shimmered in the sunshine.
—Don’t wait until it is too late.
—We could try.
—Blue is my favorite color, she said.
—The mug shattered as he threw it against the wall, coffee spilling everywhere.
Prompt #3
(Pro tip: for these next two, write to the whole prompt, or take any segment of it as its own prompt.)
Early one morning, as she slept beneath her fluffy white duvet, somebody pounded on the door. She in turn pounded on the arm of the person sleeping beside her. “Answer the door,” she said. “No you go.” Later she would wonder why she had listened. But she got up. And when she opened the door, she…..
Prompt #4
The two of them walked down a country lane lined by large leafy trees, a river on one side, fields stretching into the distance on the other. A large black dog ran up to them, panting and frisky, followed close behind by a woman. From a distance, she looked like just another person out for a walk, but when she got near to them they saw that….
Prompt #5
We end with another photo. Check the one below out. I’m not going to give you any instruction. Just stare at it and write.
I hope these are helpful and fun. If you desire more prompts, I’ve got them for you. You can read tons of them on my Inventive Writing Prompts tumblr. (Yes, tumblr still exists.) And, also many moons ago, I wrote a book of prompts with my cousin. You can buy that here.
See you on Sunday for another love letter. Hope you’re having a great week and getting tons of writing done. Or having a great time on spring break somewhere sunny and warm (she said, as the rain poured down outside).