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Big Questions – October 26
What do you consider to be your life’s greatest accomplishment? Journaling prompt: Spend 15-20 minutes writing your answer in the spirit of exploring yourself and the world around you. If you can answer with a simple “yes” or “no,” explain the sources or implications of your response. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene that forces a character in your story to answer the question, or spend 15-20 minutes answering the question in the voice of a character you want to know more about. Photo from Unsplash, the internet’s source of freely...
read moreRomance – October 26
“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” -Pat Conroy, born this date in 1945. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist describes her/his favorite trip to someone who doesn’t know your protag didn’t really make the trip.
read moreMystery – October 26
The gunfight at the OK Corral took place on this date in 1881. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is caught in a literal or metaphorical crossfire.
read moreSciFi/Fantasy – October 26
“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean there isn’t an invisible demon about to eat your face.”- Jim Butcher, born this date in 1971. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which all your protagonist’s friends’ assurances that s/he is paranoid are proved fatally wrong.
read moreSecondary – October 26
“You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself.” -Beryl Markham, born on this date in 1902. Explain how you think something like that could happen and why it won’t happen to you.
read morePrimary – October 26
Beryl Markham, one of the first female aviators and a record-setting pilot, was born on this date in 1902. She once said that if a person “has any greatness…, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work.” Explain what you think she meant when she said that.
read moreBum Glue
In her craft book Write Away: One Novelist’s Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life, Elizabeth George spends an entire chapter on the value of what she calls “bum glue.” She defines it as that which keeps one’s bottom firmly attached to the chair in which one sits while writing. Although bum glue goes by many different names, the vast majority of successful authors confirm – or, at least, confess – it’s the primary differentiator between writing and not writing. Bum glue needs to be applied daily. That’s why Prompt Inspiration sends a...
read moreLiterary – October 25
“People always call it luck when you’ve acted more sensibly than they have.” -Anne Tyler, born this date in 1941. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist blames bad choices on bad luck.
read moreJournaling + Fiction – October 25
“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”K’ung Fu-tzu Journal prompt: Reflect on your previous journal entries and spend at least 20 minutes writing about mutual respect. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is treated by someone else exactly the way your protagonist treated that person.
read moreBig Questions – October 25
Who consistently gives you the worst advice? Journaling prompt: Spend 15-20 minutes writing your answer in the spirit of exploring yourself and the world around you. If you can answer with a simple “yes” or “no,” explain the sources or implications of your response. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene that forces a character in your story to answer the question, or spend 15-20 minutes answering the question in the voice of a character you want to know more about. Photo from Unsplash, the internet’s source of freely usable...
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David B. Schlosser is an author of award-winning fiction and non-fiction, and an editor of award-winning fiction and non-fiction.
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