Literary – May 10

Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your antagonist describes the event s/he considers to have been most profoundly spiritual in her/his life.

Literary – May 9

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something — a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things — which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.” -Alan Bennett, born this date in 1934, in History Boys....

Literary – May 8

“There was no difference between the behavior of a god and the operations of pure chance.” -Thomas Pynchon, one of the world’s most notoriously reclusive authors, born this date in 1937. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which a random event forces your protagonist to consider whether making any plan at all is pointless.

Literary – May 7

“A battler is someone who struggles forever and will never, ever, really get anywhere.” -Two-time Booker Prize recipient Peter Carey, born this date in 1943. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist must confront her/his fear that s/he will never amount to anything more than a battler.

Literary – May 6

Sigmund Freud was born on this date in 1856. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist’s best friend tries to explain your protagonist’s behavior to your protag in terms of sexual frustration, even though the explanation is far more complicated.

Literary – May 5

“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” -Soren Kierkegaard, born on this date in 1813. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is paralyzed by an embarrassment of choices.

Literary – May 4

“My definition of a tragedy is a clash between right and right.” -Amos Oz, born this date in 1939. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist wages a bitter fight against someone who’s as right as s/he is.

Literary – May 3

Jacob Riis was born on this date in 1849. About him it was said, “He hated passionately all tyrannies, abuses, miseries, and he fought them. He was a terror to the officials and landlords responsible, as he saw it, for the desperate condition of the tenements where the poor lived. He had exposed them in articles, books, and public speeches, and with results.” Writing prompt: Write a scene describing...