Monday, September 21, 2009

Writing prompts

I feel rather dry today. Uninspired. No verbosity from this writer. Maybe it's because I stayed up all night last night thinking about all my works-in-progress. Not much progress, though. I think I need to find some inspiration. One thing I've done in the past that works, is to write something based on a prompt. You can google "writing prompts" and get a wealth of information and prompts that way.

I've always kind of pooh-poohed the idea of prompts, but sometimes, that's just what it takes to get started. I don't necessarily have to write with the end in mind that it's going to be something I can use in whatever work-in-progress (WIP) I'm currently concentrating on. The idea is to get my muse up from its nap and start those creative juices flowing.

For example, one writing prompt may be to write about what you had for dinner the night before and how you prepared it. Dull? Probably. Dry and boring? Most likely. Gets the, ah, juices flowing. Yes! Now, am I going to incorporate that dinner in my WIP? No, not really. But, in one sense it gets incorporated into what I'm writing by virtue of getting my muse flowing.

So, if you're dry and uninspired and have lost your muse, try a writing prompt, and see if you can't get some more ideas for your current WIP.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I loooove writing prompts. They were one of my favorite activities in elementary school Writing class.