There are a million reasons why I love my writing group, The Wicked Wordsmiths of the West, – their assorted, wild personalities; the hard work and dedication with which they approach a project; the never-a-dull-moment meetings – but most of all, I love the way they recharge my batteries. Our meetings are once a month, and often fall on a day when I’m having the worst case of Mondays and the idea of staying two and a half hours after work fills me with dread, BUT the second I enter the meeting room, everything changes. These people pep me up and get me excited about writing. Even when I’m feeling like a talentless hack and, like lately, haven’t been able to churn out anything worthwhile… by the time I leave the meeting, I’m racing home to write because I feel the drive and inspiration.
That was especially true in February’s meeting. Three of us presented writing prompt activities that covered a variety of topics but also included an element of fun. Knowing how much those prompt activities helped pull me out of a writing rut, I decided it would be a good idea to share them here and maybe inspire someone else who might be struggling to get their pen moving.
PROMPT #1
This was a short and simple prompt that I presented. It was right after the Oscars, so drawing on that, I had the Wordsmiths construct their Oscar-style acceptance speech for winning Best Book of the Year. Most all of the Wordsmiths have a project that is either close to being ready for publication or a project that they are working continuously on, so the catch was that, in their acceptance speech, besides thanking their family, God, publisher, etc., they also had to draw out details that actually described what their “Best Book of the Year” was about. This helps us be concise when summarizing. Not many of us actually like reading our writing out loud, but this prompt seems to have been the exception. We had quite the mix of hilarious, dramatic readings and those who gave sage advice about writing as an art (that I swear sounded like they could’ve been quoting Neil Gaiman…they were just that good!).
PROMPT #2
This activity came from Stacy Atkins (Check her out over at The Peculiar Cookie). She said that often when rereading some of her work she would find that she would mention a person, place, or thing, but not describe it sufficiently. As an exercise to improve this, Stacy went through dozens of real estate listings (some of which you would never believe to actually be on the market), and she printed off pictures of the houses. These were homes all over the world, in every architectural style, from secluded cabins to thoroughly modern, geometric homes. We randomly selected two photos without looking at them first, and then had 15 minutes per house to come up with a description that would adequately tell the reader all about the house without seeing the picture. For example, here are the two houses I received:
Nice, right? The one on the left was easy because my first thought was that it reminded me of an abandoned library, and really who WOULDN’T want to live in a library? The one on the right, however, proved that I would have to get creative because nowhere in my vocabulary could I find specific terms for Victorian architecture. At the very least, I did compare it to a gingerbread house, but this one was especially challenging. It definitely made for good practice when writing what you don’t actually know. After each person read a description, they would pass around the photo they’d been working from. 99% of the time, I could see the houses vividly in my mind before the photo arrived in my hands.
PROMPT #3
This is our take-home prompt presented to us by Brent McGuffin (go give him a like!), and we have until the next meeting to complete it. I’m rather giddy about just how fun this one sounds. Brent said that some of the requirements he snatched from a newsletter that he receives, and some of them he added himself. Everything listed has to be included in a story that should hopefully come in at around 2,000 words. Here’s the full list if you’d like to try it out yourself:
1. To find the first sentence of your story: Take the third book from the left off of your book shelf. On page forty-two, seventh sentence from the top, is the first sentence of your story. (If it is a blank page, keep going until you find a page with words.)
2. The leftovers in your fridge is what the main character ate for breakfast. (If there are no leftovers, your character has to eat leftover pizza or the most common dish in your world.)
3. The conflict in the story is what is under your bed. If you are one of those organized minimalist people and don’t store anything under your bed, then here’s your other option: your protagonist wants the last item you purchased.
4. Your protagonist is wearing what is hanging in your closet, second item from the right. I will give you another option if you hate what is hanging second from the right. Your character may wear whatever clothes you left on the floor last night. If there are only your white socks that you didn’t put in the clothes hamper on the floor, here is a terry-cloth robe and a pair of pajamas for you.
5. The protagonist’s hair color is the color of your dog, or your cat, or your neighbor’s dog or cat. If both of your neighbors have pets, go with the neighbor on your right.
6. The protagonist will use whatever is in your pockets to win their conflict.
7. Please, please, please use this word at least once in your story, “bacon”. I said, please, please, please, so I didn’t sound so bossy. (To be nice, I will give you a choice of three words to choose from. One of these words has to be in your story.)
a) bacon b) cat c) page seventy-four in your dictionary, left hand column, fifth word from the top
8. The Antagonist, the person trying to keep the protagonist from getting what they want, has the same name as the person you had a crush on in second grade. (If you didn’t have a crush on anyone in second grade, use the name of your best friend in second grade.)
9. The location is where you spent your last vacation.
10. You will get help to resolve your conflict from a brown paper bag.
There you go! Three different prompts to get you going, now get to it! Happy writing!
Among the Authors 