Posts Tagged ‘prompts’

Why Do We Write? A New Year’s Exploration!

ON THE LAST NIGHT OF EVERY WORKSHOP, I used to end with an exercise by Natalie Goldberg.* It’s pretty simple. List a dozen reasons that you write. They can be Work with mecommon-sensical: I write to communicate, or farther-fetched: I write because the fairies want to speak to me, and when I scribble fast enough, they take over my pen and let me know what they have to say.

Fortunately, there are an infinite number of points along the continuum between common sense and, um, fairies! For instance, here’s my (current) list:

  • I write because my father wished he were a writer, so I do it for him.
  • I write because it gives me something to do with my hands, and I’m no good at needle crafts.
  • I write because when I settle down on the couch with a pen and notebook, all three cats come and sit near me.
  • I write because sometimes a pleasing turn of phrase or odd story emerges unexpectedly from my pen.
  • I write because all of my friends are writers.
  • I write because I love the visual pattern my handwriting makes across the page.
  • I write because I have about seventeen gazillion books on writing—and they’re all inspiring!
  • I write because it’s fun to do in a café (and might even make me look interesting).
  • I write because I have a blog and a book to finish.
  • I write because I have things to say about writing and about tarot.
  • I write because it’s expected of me.
  • I write because nothing feels quite as good as having written!

Writing prompt

It’s the end of the year, a good time to take stock. Make yourself a cup of nog or indulge in a sweet, flavored coffee (’tis the season, after all) and dig in to this question: Why do I write? As with any free-writing exercise, move your hand (or fingers) as fast as you can. Don’t stop to think. Get as far beneath the common-sensical as you’re able. Who knows? If you dive deep enough, you might find a few fairies to chat with!

TABLE FOR TWO?
As years of workshops attest, this is a wonderful prompt to do with others. So instead of going it alone, grab a café table and a friend, set a timer, and see who can get the most items scrawled on their list in ten minutes. (Although I asked workshoppers to find twelve reasons they write, going further, to fifty or even a hundred reasons, can really loosen up your brain and get it to bring wilder, more exciting ideas to the fore!)

WRITING RESOLUTION
Once you’ve got your “why’s” for writing, you might use one or more items on your list to guide you as you form your New Year’s writing resolution. Knowing why we write can create a foundation that supports our writing throughout the year—long after we’ve torn off January’s calendar page.

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*You’ll find Goldberg’s Why I Write exercise and its accompanying essay in her first book on writing, WRITING DOWN THE BONES.

Here, Kitty, Kitty: A Tarot Writing Prompt

THE TAROT STRENGTH CARD typically shows a beautiful woman gently closing the jaws of a fearsome lion. When discussing the Strength card, we talk about taming our inner beast, controlling our impulses, or harnessing our own strength to face challenges. But we rarely talk about how the killer instincts of a lion might preserve us in times of danger or how some people won’t listen to us unless we roar!

Tarot writing prompt

For this prompt, let’s try turning tarot convention on its soft-and-fuzzy ear. Make a quick list of times you’ve loosed your own inner wild cat. (Aim for at least five examples.) Now scan that list. Is there one that still makes your hackles rise?

If so, grab that incident by the scruff of the neck and toss it onto a new page. Write about what incited you. Start by describing the scene. Where were you? Who else was present? Who said what to whom? Was there a moment when you felt yourself getting ready to spring? What was the trigger? What happened next?

Finally, after all was said and done, did you feel you used your strength for good? Or ill? Or some nicely complex combination of both?

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This exercise was created for and first published in Christiana Gaudet’s TAROT TOPICS newsletter.

Thanks to U.S. Games Systems, Inc., for kind permission to use the image of Strength from the MORGAN-GREER TAROT.

Holidays + Family + Tarot = Good Times? (Prompt)!

THE FOUR OF WANDS SHOWS a group celebrating in the countryside. There’s a positive sense of community associated with this card. But while we might like experiencing such a harmonious event, it’s not that much fun to describe!

Tarot writing prompt

Your literary task, if you accept it, is to write about a family event—a reunion or other group outing—from memory or entirely from imagination. Include details of the bucolic setting and introduce a few of the characters enjoying the excursion. Then create a disruption: Hailstorm? Someone choking? A drunken fistfight? A gang out joyriding who happens onto the peaceful event?

Whatever disturbance you devise, make sure it not only up-ends the celebration of the moment, but irrevocably changes the lives of one of the characters we’ve met.

(Of course, the holidays are almost upon us. Perhaps there’s fodder for fiction—or fact—right there. In this case, the “festivities” are likely to occur within the four walls of someone’s home. But that won’t necessarily keep marauders at bay.)

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This exercise was created for and first published in Christiana Gaudet’s TAROT TOPICS newsletter.

Thanks to U.S. Games Systems, Inc., for kind permission to use the image of the Four of Wands from the RADIANT RIDER-WAITE TAROT.

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A Long Way Down (Tarot Writing Prompt)

THE CHARIOTEER, WITH HIS FOOTBALL-PLAYER SHOULDERS, is determined. He has all his ducks (and sphinxes) in a row. He’s laurel-wreathed and star-crowned. He’s got promise, dude! Get such a character in your sights—maybe modeling them on someone you know (or someone you used to be?)—and write about an early success they’ve had.

For instance,

  • She led her high school debate team to their winning-est season ever, then earned a full scholarship to UCLA, graduating summa cum laude in political science.
  • Or, he was an Olympic equestrian hopeful, riding six-figure horses at the age of fifteen.

Next, fast forward ten years and look them up—only to find they’ve fallen deep into a well of circumstances that really surprise you, given their early promise.

For instance,

  • She stays home with five young kids, now, and is supporting her husband’s bid for county commissioner.
  • Or he, horses a thing of the past, has become a beast of burden himself, humping forty-pound bags of feed and bales of hay at the local feed store.

What happened? Did she trip over her own hubris, too confidently taking on a project she couldn’t complete? Or did his attempt to besmirch a competitor’s reputation and steal their ride backfire? Are they in a slump from which they can’t seem to emerge? (Cue movie montage of a collapsed main character, unable to get out of bed, litter box stinking, produce that used to be whirled into fabulous energy smoothies moldering in their refrigerator’s produce drawer.)

Tarot writing prompt

However they got here, your character is drowning at the bottom of life’s pickle barrel. How can you help them? What kind of stakes can you create that will light a fire under your once-optimistic little charioteer and get them to rejoin the race?

  • Do you bring her face to face with an instance of social injustice that directly threatens her family—hoping she’ll get busy writing letters to the editor, canvassing her neighborhood, and speaking passionately at meetings of her local government?
  • Or, do you place a once magnificent, now-neglected horse in a field he passes on his way to work—hoping he’ll rescue it and bring both it and himself back to the glory of their earlier days?

Whatever their predicament, look into your character’s past and find the makings of a virtual cattle-prod of a motivation to jolt them back into the saddle again!

Writing inspiration

WORKING GIRL,1988 comedy, starring Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford
GREAT EXPECTATIONS, by Charles Dickens
“New York, New York,” composed by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb

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Thanks to U.S. Games Systems, Inc., for kind permission to use the image of The Chariot from the RIDER-WAITE TAROT.

 

Meet-Cute: A Rom-Com Writing Prompt

TAROT’S TWO OF CUPS can speak of early attraction—eyes meeting across a crowded dance floor, the meet-cute of romantic comedy fame, or the moment when the warm comfort of a friendship flares up into sudden passion.

Tarot writing prompt

Have you experienced such attraction? If so, you might want to recapture it by writing out the details of those early, excruciatingly heightened moments.

If not, throw two of the most unlikely people you can into a situation that forces them to interact. Were they both sentenced to community service? Best man and maid of honor at a wedding? Has the Ferris wheel stalled, leaving these two strangers stranded together in a car swaying at the very top? Wherever you stick them, make it uncomfortable for them both. Until, you know, those flames of passion erupt!

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This exercise was created for and first published in Christiana Gaudet’s TAROT TOPICS newsletter.

Thanks to U.S. Games Systems, Inc., for kind permission to use the image of the Two of Cups from the MORGAN-GREER TAROT.

Hearts on Fire! A Tarot Writing Prompt

AMONG OTHER THINGS, the ouch-y Three of Swords can speak of betrayal and the heartbreak it engenders. It can also speak of emotional overreaction! Put those together, and you get the stuff of melodrama!

Tarot writing prompt

Now’s your chance to write a script for a soap opera. If you’re a fan of daytime TV, you might want to create a story line for characters from your favorite show. If not, create a cast of characters of your own and set up a betrayal. Either a financial or sexual betrayal would be a great basis for histrionics by the injured party.

Have a fabulous time describing their clothes-rending reaction. But what if they go beyond their first dramatic response? What if they retreat to plan their revenge? What then? And if they carry out that dastardly plan??!!

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This exercise was created for and first published in Christiana Gaudet’s TAROT TOPICS newsletter.

The Three of Hearts illustrating this post is from the THE PRAIRIE TAROT, by Robin Ator.

3 Emergency Writing Prompts

SOME DAYS, IT FEELS LIKE AN EMERGENCY. We want to write, but don’t have anything to write about. Be prepared for such a dire situation. Paint these three mini-prompts fire-alarm red and stick them to your wall so you’ll have them on hand … in case of emergency.

1) I SPY: Did you ever read HARRIET THE SPY, by Louise Fitzhugh? In this Middle Grade novel, the awesomely unsentimental, eleven-year-old urban-dweller Harriet M. Welsch spies on friends and neighbors—and jots her sharp observations in a notebook. (Sounds like an aspiring writer, to me!)

Of course, things go badly for Harriet. Let’s hope they go better for you! Today, spy on yourself. Make notes about your life, your environment, your associates, your habits—in third person, as if you had yourself under surveillance. As if you were a spy.

2) MEMORIES: What was your life like … before you were born? Go as far back as you like. As far back as you can! Take a wild ten minutes—and keep your hand moving!

3) TOP SECRET: What’s something you’re not EVER allowed to talk about? Write about your own secret or someone else’s … then burn, shred, delete, or flush the page you’ve written it on.

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The photo illustrating this post is “Pulitzer prize winning photo” by betke2 and is licensed under CC0 1.0.

The Waiting Game: A Tarot Writing Prompt

IN THIS IMAGE, a young man rests on his hoe and gazes at the not-quite-ripe coin fruit he’s been tending. Clearly, he can’t make it grow any quicker—but he doesn’t seem perturbed. In fact, his patience is a trait many urban-dwelling, multi-tasking, traffic-jamming folks might benefit from emulating!

But that would be boring. Wouldn’t it?

Tarot writing prompt

Make a list of ten or more situations in which common sense would tell us there’s nothing for it but to wait. Got it? Now, pick one, put a character in that situation, and assign the character a superpower that would allow him or her to speed things up … a little or a lot.

What would the consequences be of, say, speeding up the rate the earth circles the sun? Or having the state award your two-year old a driver’s license?

Think the Tom Hanks character in BIG or the Adam Sandler character in CLICK and let your imagination take you as far (and as fast!) as you can.

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This exercise was created for and first published in Christiana Gaudet‘s TAROT TOPICS newsletter.

Thanks to U.S. Games Systems, Inc., for kind permission to use the image of the Seven of Pentacles from the RIDER-WAITE TAROT.

 

Making Stone Soup from Words and Breadcrumbs: A Writing Prompt

AS A CHILD READER, I hungered for the dishes fictional characters devoured. British kids in Noel Streatfeild’s SHOES books breakfasted on “fry ups” of sausage, eggs, sliced bread, and kippers, while Hansel and Gretel feasted famously on marzipan windows and cookie-dough sills.

Back then, fairy godmothers impressed me less than huge castle feasts, the treacle from Alice’s well, her little cakes and comfits, and the Snow Queen’s Turkish delight.

And then there was “Stone Soup.” A ravenous little girl, I salivated when clever Fox, after declaring to the other Animals that he could make soup with just a stone, enticed his guests to add herbs, lentils, carrots—a stalk of celery, here, a grand, round potato there—until, voilà! Boiling in Fox’s cauldron was a magnificent soup made (almost) from a single stone.

Now that I’m a still-peckish adult, the journal ALIMENTUM: The Literature of Food feeds my need for pages of pasta, potatoes, porridge. Publishing fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction exclusively about food, ALIMENTUM delivers a tasty meal, complete with napkin, right to your inbox.

Writing prompt

Dig into the cupboards of your imagination and the crisper drawers of your creativity and cook up the story of an unexpected soup. Metaphorical or actual, let whatever you dish up have unexpected benefits—or unexpected consequences!

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Thanks to U.S. Games Systems, Inc., for kind permission to use the image of the Seven of Disks, from the ANCESTRAL PATH TAROT.  

A version of this prompt appeared on a previous blog, Workshop Porkchop.

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7-Minute Autobiography: A Memoir Writing Prompt

FOR YEARS, I BEGAN EACH NEW WORKSHOP with this memoir writing exercise from WRITING ALONE AND WITH OTHERS. It’s a great way to get to know other people in a group—and also a great way to get to know yourself, so I’ve adapted it here for your personal-writing use.

Memoir writing prompt

How can you kick start your memoir writing with this prompt? Set a timer for seven minutes. Then, writing fast, hit the high and low points of your life, skimming across the years—from birth to this very moment—like they were so many tumbleweeds.

When the timer rings, stop and read over what you wrote. Mark three events that stand out to you. Pick one (you might save the other two for another day, when you’re looking for something to write about).

Take another ten minutes for memoir writing and write in detail about the incident or period you’ve chosen. Why is it important to you now? How is it relevant to the bigger story of your life-to-date?

Extra credit: Was a shadow* illuminated by your attention? If so, how can you write your way to a deeper understanding of what was hidden?

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Image is of a Free 3D stopwatch. Find them here.
*Thanks to Bonnie Cehovet for seeing the possibilities here.

 

Would you benefit from a memoir writing coach to help you with your memoir? Get in touch with me for a free writing consultation.

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