All Kinds of Writing Prompts . . .
"Writing prompts" are anything that gets a writer writing.
Some writers find the idea strange since they never have situations or feelings block their writing.
Even though I'm in that group of writers who don't experience blocks, I've spent the last few Mondays at an event on Book Island in Second Life called Writers' Wave.
We all sit down to our typewriters or laptops, June Faramore gives us a one or two word Prompt, and we capture whatever we feel moved to write for twenty minutes.
Then, we share our creations and give each other a few comments.
Of course, there is the desire to go back and edit before sharing, but I'm always pleased to see so many coherent ideas developed in so little time :-)
Even though I'm an unblockable writer and don't need prompts to make my creative vehicle move, it's still enjoyable to see what I come up with on the spur of the moment.
Naturally, there is no dearth of places to find this kind of "writing prompt"—just put the words in Google.
However, there are different kinds of Prompt that operate in certain writers' work.
Prompting can come from more than a word or two. It may be a sentence heard or read, an article or essay, or even a complete book that Prompts the writer to take things in their own literary direction…
While I was at the Writers' Chat on Book Island yesterday, one of the participants gave two different links to the same WebSite when she wanted to give us resources to back-up what she was saying.
I got very intrigued with that site and went to visit.
Alan Bellows is the man behind this site and does the bulk of the writing.
It's essentially a collection of stories and articles that are damned interesting and could easily Prompt a writer to create…
The name of the Space clearly echoes its content: DamnInteresting.com :-)
As they say about themselves: "Damn Interesting is a growing collection of legitimately fascinating information culled from the past, present, and anticipated future. We tend to write about timeless topics, so we leave each article's discussion open indefinitely. New insights are always welcome."
Here are a couple of their Greatest Hits to get you going:
The Unfortunate Sex Life of the Banana
Doctor Watson's Phobia Factory
BTW, if you have a message come up that says the site is unreachable, just click the link again and you'll more than likely succeed. Here's Alan's explanation :-)
"As you may have noticed, until about a week ago the Damn Interesting web server was about as sturdy as a pair of paper pajamas….After a week or so of testing I am happy to announce that the server is now approximately as sturdy as corrugated cardboard pajamas."
Do you use Writing Prompts?
What are your favorite kind?
Have any good places to find Prompts?
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Tagged: Alan Bellows, DamnInteresting.com, writer, Writer Resources, Writer's Block, writing
