March prompts

For the March 7 meeting:
--Use a current popular song as a prompt
--Click the link and pick a photo to write about: http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
--Failing health
--Watching a kitten play with string
--Unexpected visit from an old friend
--"Tell me why."
--"That color is not on the rainbow."
(above prompts taken from the archive at toasted-cheese.com)

Create a character based on the type of car the character owns. Select the car--i.e.: Buick, El Camino, Limo, or use the lack of a vehicle, as your starting point.
(Thanks to Montana for finding this prompt)

For March 21 meeting
--Beware the Ides of March
--Look up "synechdoche" and use one.
--Write about a yearning for something.
--Steal the title of an existing book & use it as a starting point.
--Go to Wikipedia, click 'random article' & write about that topic.
--Being too cold or too hot.
--Out like a lamb.
(above prompts taken from the archive at toasted-cheese.com)

Write about someone discovering a key.
(Thanks to Montana for finding this prompt)

Prompts for February 2013

Feel free to go in any direction these prompts take you. Apply them to any genre or type of writing. Change the gender or any other details as needed. Have fun. Get creative. Let go. Try something unusual. Expand yourself. 

We're aiming for 1,000 words or so max to be read out loud for off-the-cuff feedback (printing is optional but can be helpful), but if it grows (and we hope it does) definitely consider submitting it again for a full critique process. 

February Prompts:

--You inadvertently run an important paper through the shredder.

--A figure in a famous painting begins communicating with an art museum patron. [Extra credit: Make this based on a piece from The Hyde Collection…]

--A man opens his mailbox to find an envelope containing a set of instructions. 

--A lawyer discovers the his client is guilty of the horrible crime for which he was just found innocent.

--While at a family reunion, a teenage brother and sister find an old suitcase filled with money under their uncle's bed.

--A man comes to believe that he is an emissary of God when he survives a plan crash in which all other passengers are killed.

--"And that's when I quit."

(taken from The Writer's Book of Matches by Writers Digest Books)

Look back here for prompts to be added around the last Thursday of each month. 

Past Prompts

Here's a place for the prompts we've used recently. I will be adding more to the blog monthly.

The goal for using prompts is to get creative juices flowing and have fun. Bring in short pieces (1000 words or so) that can be shared out loud (printing is optional but can be helpful) at the start of the meeting for off-the-cuff feedback before the full critiques begin. 

Note: I am finding a lot of prompts aren't gender neutral. Definitely feel free to go in other directions in gender (and age) whenever you feel it appropriate…

prompts taken from The Writer’s Book of Matches from Writer’s Digest Books:

--"Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. A lot."
--A teenage girl browsing at a department store notices a wealthy-looking woman casually shove merchandise into a purse.
--"I don't know.... Something about that guy creeps me out."
--At the reading of their father's will, a group of estranged siblings are provided with a string of clues leading to a buried treasure, one clue for each sibling.
--A man takes lunch to his wife's office, and he's told that she hasn't worked there in three weeks.
--A woman contemplating suicide visits a psychic.

--A man aspiring to be a pro bowler loses to his young daughter.

--A gambler at a private high stakes poker game is caught cheating.

--“Thanks for seeing me. I need to discuss something important, and I didn’t want to do it over the phone.”

--Two people are emptying out a deceased relative's house.

--A writer begins to lose the ability to discern between fantasy and reality.

--"I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone, but I guess I can trust you.”

--“This is the most boring party I’ve ever been to. Let’s sneak out.”

--two convenience store employees are stuck at work during a hurricane [original prompt had "blizzard"]

--You are riding a crowded subway [or any other mode of public transport] with a huge wad of cash in your inside coat pocket [or other garment or accessory]

--"I'm here to answer the ad in the paper."

--During your weekly housecleaning you find an unfamiliar cell phone in the cushions of your couch--but you can't recall having any recent visitors. It rings. (Writer's Digest Feb. 2011)

Poetry Prompt: Write a poem with a hole in it. This can be an actual hole (an ode to your holey socks?) or something as nuanced as a hole (or multiple holes) in logic. For instance, try writing a poem and removing all of the verb and adjectives. (Writer's Digest)

--A nosy [person] eavesdrops on coworkers and immediately regrets it. (Writer's Digest contest #44)

Prompts for the Poetry-minded (pretty sure these were from WD but not sure where now)

--Write a poem that take place at a specific time of the day

--Write a poem that includes at least three different flavors and two odors

--Write a poem that begins and ends with the same word

Note: Two photo prompts didn't come through.