Writing Prompts

I've decided to go back to providing some writing prompts on my blog. It's been a long time since I did that on a regular basis. Some of you might not know but I taught writing so have gathered quite a collection of prompts over the years. Some are simple, some detailed. Most were written by others & the small cards they are printed on didn't leave me space to put credits; others are mine. I'm going to start sharing some prompts again - at least 3 a week. You are welcome to post your response to a prompt in comments if you dont' mind me publishing it to share with others. Occasionally, I'll share one of my responses too.

Here are a few to end this week:

* It was many years ago in that dark, chaotic, unfathomable pool of time before . . .
* Reflections of passion . . .
* Weekend in New England (or insert another place name) . . .

You can use the above in a number of ways. The first one would make the beginning of an interesting (if long) opening sentence for a short story. You don't have to finish the story unless you want to. Just start writing and see where it takes you.
The seocnd prompt could be used the same way of course, but is a good prompt for freewriting.

If you're not familiar with freewriting, it's a simple technique designed to help you overcome your inner censor. You select a word or phrase as prompt - put it at the top of the page, set a timer for say 10 minutes, and start writing. You do not lift your pen from the paper, you do not stop to read what you've written, you do not worry about dotting "i"s or crossing "t"s. If you get stumpted for something to say you can just write nonsense like "I'm stuck" or whatever until words come again. When the timer goes off, then you read what you've written. You are likely to be surprised by what you say because this can help you bypass that censor that tells you, "You don't want to say that because people will think . . . " and so on.

Now I just draw these prompts from a little copper pot I have filled with these tiny cards. Have to tell you that none of the above appeal to me, though they might to you. I'm going to draw one more. What luck! This one says:

* Dreams - just a single word prompt. Again, you could use it to start the first sentence of something. You could use it for a freewrite. Or you could use it for the CLuster technique. What's that? A techniwue I will share tomorrow.