Writing prompt

Highway heading of into the distance

Today write using a image or item as a symbol of something important going on is a character’s life.  Bright colors on the beach may be indicative of the variety of choice a person has, or the image of a long road of twists and turns moving off into the distance may relate to the confused route the person is taking to get to a goal.  Pick an item off your desk or something you tripped over today and see what it can bring for symbolic value to a character you are working on.

Something blue & a little magical

This week do a little world building.  Pick a quality you want to highlight, such as magic is a pale sky blue color, and everything that has that color has some degree of magic connected with it.  Now build from this one premise by surmising what would be effected by this one fact and what sort of laws of nature and humankind would need to exist to respond to this single unique feature of your created world.

Write about camping in an exotic place.  It could be a planet dedicated to campers of all types or a visit to the trout stream not far from your home or a desert oasis in a tent, RV or bed & breakfast.  Take your character some place for a change or imagine yourself there.

This time write with a symbol in mind.  Focus in on it early.  For example, the first thing you describe is a clock: go into detail about the ticking sound it makes, its unique look (cuckoo, grandfather, a plastic sun or imbedded in the belly of a purple elephant), whether it is on time, slow or fast, not working at all.  As you move away from the clock, bring in the rest of the scene, but very carefully and subtly, also bring in other time-related items.  A worn sock, wrinkle cream on the dresser, a comic desktop flip calendar, a planner, egg timer, etc.

So pick your symbol and maintain the reference, gently, with care and not so it clobbers the reader over the head.

Two birds overlook a lake, near Stockholm

Today’s prompt is inspired by Sandra Cisneros.  She wrote an anthology of short stories titled Woman Hollering Creek which had a story called by the same name.  What a fantastic title! I can imagine her coming up with it first and then writing the story about a woman who needed a place to yell out her angst: Urban legend and attendant name resulted.

So your prompt today is to come up with a name for some place, and then write the event/reason that led up to that name being attached.  If you cannot come up with an interesting name, use one of these.  Broke Toe Hollow or Two Bird Lake.

By the way, that book is great.  It makes you wince.  You end up wanting something to holler about because no one should go through life without a reason to scream now and then.

PROMPT PEN

This seems like an appropriate prompt:  Take a few minutes to magine how things will be different for you this time next year.  Now do the following steps: First, describe yourself, your successes and how you achieved them, then what new ambitions you will be deciding on based on what you have accomplished at the close of this year.  Second, consider what it took to meet the goals and what had to be overcome.  Finally, can this insight into change be applied to a character and rolled into a story?

While you’re digesting that last question, consider what you need to do first to head in the direction of this possible future.  Hey, why waste such useful thinking?