Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Writing by Prompt

Writing prompts are sometimes used by writers when the well of ideas has run dry. There is nothing wrong with that. Even Stephen King has had days where he sat in front of his typewriter and stared blankly at the sheet of paper.

Writing prompts can be viewed as tiny seeds which contain the germ of an idea within them. From each seed, a different flower will grow. Beautiful.

Some of us also like to stretch ourselves a bit through writing. We want to be the tail on the kite, instead of the string. Writing prompts can help with this. New characters, settings, or even a different language--writers want to stretch our imaginations beyond our narrow view of life. Because that is where the meat of the world is. The big ideas.

I often find myself fiercely staring at a blank computer screen, hoping that my brain waves will generate some sort of miraculous blog post that will cure cancer and julienne potatoes and solve the national debt problem.

On these days, I can barely write my name, never mind a blog post.

The fire that was my imagination has gone out, leaving me in darkness.

On those dark days, writing prompts are a spark to light the fire of the imagination. The very light needed to germinate those seeds

So thank you to those people who provide some writing prompts for the rest of us. I appreciate you!

As soon as I figure out how to do it, I will be linking to those blog posts that I have which were generated by writing prompts, so everything will be in one area. Eventually. I am a slow learner, technology-wise.

1 comment:

  1. I was wondering if you want to include my writing prompt site in your list. I have listed the link below.
    Thanks! Anjie

    http://promptsforwriters.blogspot.com/2011/06/red-truck-writing-prompts.html

    ReplyDelete

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