Why Use Writing Prompts and Free Write?
Write Better Now
A writing prompt, according to Richard Nordquist on ThoughtCo is “a brief passage of text (or sometimes an image) that provides a potential topic idea or starting point for an original essay, report, journal entry, story, poem, or other forms of writing.”
A lot of the time these are used with free writes to get our writer brains moving.
And free writing? According to the Writing Process at MIT (so fancy!), it’s “a writing strategy developed by Peter Elbow in 1973, is similar to brainstorming but is written in sentence and paragraph form without stopping. Thus, it . . .
1. increases the flow of ideas and reduces the chance that you’ll accidentally censor a good idea.
2. helps to increase fluency second-language learners—i.e., the ability to produce written language easily (as opposed to accuracy, which is of course important but which is better addressed later in the process).”
I used to be one of those writers who would never do a writing prompt or exercise. This was because I thought it was a waste of time and as a single mom? I didn’t have a ton of time. I needed to get my stuff done, you know?
The only time I’d do a prompt or a free write was if I was at a conference and the speaker told us to or I was doing a part of a blog challenge.
A blog challenge was something like a double-dog dare. I couldn’t refuse.
But the thing is that they are kind of fun. They free up writer’s block. They make you think about something you might not think about before. If the writing prompt is “you are surrounded by zombie hamsters at the local t-shirt shop, what do you do?” it’s pretty likely you’re going to be stepping out of your comfort zone unless you’re me.
And stepping outside your comfort zone is a good thing. Here, I’ll show you how bad it can be, okay? This is one I wrote ages ago as part of a blog challenge. There was no stopping. There was no thinking. Actually, that’s kind of normal for me. But I’m showing it to you so you can see how goofy you can be, okay?
THE PROMPT
Day 6: Start your story with: “He glanced at his watch impatiently…”
I would never start a story with an adverb!
Sigh.
Okay … here goes …
He glanced at his watch impatiently and she realized what a tool her new man was. Who would glance at his watch impatiently? Especially when he was hanging out with her on a random street corner, deciding where to go to dinner and while also waiting on word from her agent about whether or not GERBILS GONE WILD, her best picture book ever had been accepted for publication.
She glared at him.
He made a face. “Are you staring at me angrily?”
“No,” she said. “I am glaring.”
“Why would you wantonly and openly do such a thing?”
“Because you,” she spat out the words, “are a man of adverbs.”
He lifted an eyebrow and smirked.
“And cliches. Your actions are so trite.”
“Are you feeling nervously anxious and taking it out on me?” he asked.
“Nervously anxious! Did you just say ‘nervously anxious?’” She wanted to scream. She wanted to jab him with an umbrella. She wanted to find a good objective correlative that would express her feelings.
A car on the corner burst into flames.
Perfect, she thought.
“I am dumping you,” she said.
“Why?” He squinted. “Is that car on fire?”
“Because you use adverbs! Because you smirk! Because you lift one eyebrow! Your very existence makes me a worse writer and therefore you must be dumped.”
“You said ‘very.” He smirked.
The car’s gas tank exploded. She screamed.
“EXACTLY what I mean!”
“You said ‘exactly.’ That’s an adverb.”
She ran towards the car.
EXERCISE
Writer’s Digest has a zillion writer prompts here.
One of them by Moriah Richard is this:
“For today's prompt, a message from an unknown number has surprising consequences.”
PLACES TO SUBMIT
These are culled from the fabulous Erica Verrillo who is on Medium.
“So to Speak. Genre: Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and visual art. “We are looking for work that matches our intersectional feminist viewpoint.” Payment: $100 per contributor. Deadline: April 10, 2023. No submission fee for Black/Indigenous writers.”
“All Women are Werewolves: An Anthology of Womanhood. Restrictions: Open to women, inclusive of those who identify as non-binary and trans women. Genre: Short stories. “This anthology is a collection of stories about the transformative experiences that shape womanhood; dark, uncanny, curious and captured by vivid, varied feminine voices.” Payment: £100 plus author copies of the book. Deadline: April 14, 2023.”
LINKS FROM LAST WEEK
All the links are here, which is updated monthly.
