Saturday, April 5, 2014

E is for: Enjoy the Prompts

Life is a huge collection of writing prompts. That's why every creative writing teacher I've ever had strongly suggests carrying a notebook everywhere I go. If someone handed you this picture and told you to write a two hundred word story about it, would you, could you tell a tale?

Images are all around us. We just need to pay attention and let our imaginations take over. Who do you think is under this umbrella? What are they talking about? Where are they? Why are they together?

Try picking out a random prompt: something you see out the window, a picture in a magazine, people walking down the street, sitting on a park bench. Go ahead. I'll wait...

5 comments:

  1. Hi Maggie -- I just found out you're doing the A to Z Challenge so I'll be back. That photo made me think of a rainy day at a spring training baseball game.. The wetter we got, the colder we got, and that was weird for a warm day in south Florida.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm thinking (randomly) that life is like a fruit salad - a lot of different moments jumbled together, maybe with a little sauce. I'm looking out the window (11:14 pm local time). Most is just stark blackness. The light at the door illuminates the little front porch. I can see the ends of some of the branches of the nearest tree, which are all bare. And that's weird because it's spring and where are the leaf-lets and buds and such. Then, to top it off, I can see the reflection of the indoor lights in the window.

    (BTW, if you're not particularly attached to the CAPTCHA, you'll probably get more A to Z visits and comments.)

    LuAnn Braley
    AJ's Hooligans @AtoZChallenge
    Back Porchervations

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love free writing exercises in response to one word prompts/photo prompts...
    Writer In Transit

    ReplyDelete
  4. This reminds me of free writing exercises we used to do in school. My English teacher would put photos on the board depicting crazy situations....it is how I first discovered my love of writing. I hadn't thought about using prompts in years... Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  5. You are right! Life has more writing prompts than we can handle. Maybe that's why a writer's life is never boring :-)

    ReplyDelete