A prompt for you
There are many different ways you can PROMPT your write brain to get working!
One of my favorites is using a list of words, a single sentence, or other 'elements' and let them fall on the page where they will!
Here is an example, a free write I wrote Jan 24, 2011, from the following elements given to me by a fellow writer and friend:
-The broken glass lies in the sun
-Drive
-Vinyl
-Swedish
-$9.99
-Red licorice
We spent $9.99 on Swedish fish and red licorice.
I was the driver, you were the navigator and highlighted the map at every city sign in bright, orange ink.
The roads were neon and long and we laughed and sang songs
at the op of our lungs.
If we could have played vinyl records in the '67 Chevy we would have.
If we could have done a lot of things we really wanted to back then, we would have.
Before we left our home town at midnight we grabbed the bud light from your dad's fridge
and victimized one city limit sign we got sick of seeing every day. Six bottles became six truths; six fortunes to unfurl relying on faith that running
would somehow allow ourselves to be found.
Bottles one through five were easy. "Be our true selves," "No fear," and other clihes of inspiration.
Number six, you looked at me, waved the unopened bottle in the air and searched
for words to articulate motions embedded.
"Don't look back. Don't ever come back."
You turned, took aim and let the rocket fly.
Twenty-nine years later, that broken glass lies in the sun untouched.
Now, when I first read over the list, this was not what I intended to write! That's one of the tricks about writing, you have to leave your 'editor cap,' as Natalie Goldberg calls it, at the door. Don't NOT write something because you are worried it won't sound good. Just write it! Let it come to the page and decide later what to do with it. It could end up being the bones, the structure, to a really great story or song or poem one day that you never would have written otherwise.
Feel free to use these elements. Write and see what happens!
You are always welcome to share your work here :)
One of my favorites is using a list of words, a single sentence, or other 'elements' and let them fall on the page where they will!
Here is an example, a free write I wrote Jan 24, 2011, from the following elements given to me by a fellow writer and friend:
-The broken glass lies in the sun
-Drive
-Vinyl
-Swedish
-$9.99
-Red licorice
We spent $9.99 on Swedish fish and red licorice.
I was the driver, you were the navigator and highlighted the map at every city sign in bright, orange ink.
The roads were neon and long and we laughed and sang songs
at the op of our lungs.
If we could have played vinyl records in the '67 Chevy we would have.
If we could have done a lot of things we really wanted to back then, we would have.
Before we left our home town at midnight we grabbed the bud light from your dad's fridge
and victimized one city limit sign we got sick of seeing every day. Six bottles became six truths; six fortunes to unfurl relying on faith that running
would somehow allow ourselves to be found.
Bottles one through five were easy. "Be our true selves," "No fear," and other clihes of inspiration.
Number six, you looked at me, waved the unopened bottle in the air and searched
for words to articulate motions embedded.
"Don't look back. Don't ever come back."
You turned, took aim and let the rocket fly.
Twenty-nine years later, that broken glass lies in the sun untouched.
Now, when I first read over the list, this was not what I intended to write! That's one of the tricks about writing, you have to leave your 'editor cap,' as Natalie Goldberg calls it, at the door. Don't NOT write something because you are worried it won't sound good. Just write it! Let it come to the page and decide later what to do with it. It could end up being the bones, the structure, to a really great story or song or poem one day that you never would have written otherwise.
Feel free to use these elements. Write and see what happens!
You are always welcome to share your work here :)
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