Blog
Big Questions – December 22
What do you want to be when you grow up? 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...
read moreRomance – December 22
“Words themselves are all the ghosts we need.” -Donald Harington, born this date in 1935. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which the language a suitor uses to woo your protagonist prompts a traumatic memory.
read moreMystery – December 22
On this date in 1984, Bernard Goetz shot four men attempting to rob him on a New York City subway. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist debates his/her opinion about vigilante justice with a boss who disagrees.
read moreSciFi/Fantasy – December 22
“Roswell was a smoke screen — we’ve had half a dozen better salvage operations.”- Deep Throat, in an effort to reveal the truth that aliens were scheduled to begin colonizing Earth on this date in 2012. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist realizes that someone s/he considered a fellow member of her/his species is something else entirely.
read moreSecondary – December 22
What makes your generation unique from the two generations before yours? Prompt Inspiration will return on Monday, 4 January 2021.
read morePrimary – December 22
Explain why your favorite games are those that you play with others or by yourself. Prompt Inspiration will return on Monday, 4 January 2021.
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 – December 21
F. Scott Fitzgerald died on this date in 1940 at age 44, leaving unfinished The Love of the Last Tycoon. The protagonist of the novel was based on Irving Thalberg, who once said, “Credit you give yourself is not worth having.” Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist figures out someone else is taking credit for his/her essential and important contribution to a group effort.
read moreJournaling + Fiction – December 21
“I think it’s easier than ever to hear only what you want to hear. That doesn’t make a good citizen.”Eli Pariser Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about how you’ll expand your sources of knowledge and information to encounter ideas you don’t want to hear. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which reality pierces your protagonist’s filter bubble.
read moreBig Questions – December 21
Would you prefer to outlive or die before your life partner? 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...
read more
David B. Schlosser is an author of award-winning fiction and non-fiction, and an editor of award-winning fiction and non-fiction.
Read More...