MY FAVORITE PROMPT
First, a quick note re: the June 8 Class/Retreat I wrote about last week. It’s been pushed back to September. Permit issues for the site. Ugh.
In a couple of ways, this is much better, though. First, it’s a longer run-up for scheduling plane flights and hotels, etc. June 8 was a tight window. But better than that is the weather. “June gloom” is a real thing in Southern California. For an outdoor event, September should be much sunnier and warmer. So …
My apologies for the mistake. I got a little ahead of myself.
A website with full details will be up very soon. I’ll announce it and give the link here.
On a slightly tangential subject, working on the event got me thinking about writing prompts, i.e. the “assignment” you and I might be given if we attended a writing workshop.
Here’s the one I would hope someone gave me:
Write a piece (of any length) about something you know absolutely nothing about.
If you’re a Mom who graduated from Harvard and has never lived anywhere except in an affluent gated community, write a prison story. Write it in the first person as someone of the opposite gender. Make it brutal. When a scene occurs to you that you’re afraid is too “over the top,” take it further.
If you’re a Navy SEAL freshly home from six consecutive combat tours, write a story (also in the first person) as a nine-year-old girl in Victorian England who steps through a magic portal in her grandfather’s garden and enters of world of elves and fairies.
You’re not allowed to do any research, not even ten seconds on Google. Make everything up. When in doubt on anything—say, what a conversation between a butterfly and a worm might be like—write the first thing that pops into your mind … and keep writing that way.
No ruminating. No self-censoring. No correcting of spelling or grammar.
Write fast. Don’t stop. Don’t think.
Why is this my favorite prompt?
Because when you’re pulling everything out of thin air, you have no time to get bogged down in the ego. You go straight to the Muse.
A truth from my own writing: when I would write actual facts from my real life, readers would say, “Sounds phony to me.” When I completely MADE IT UP—especially about characters and universes I knew nothing about—people would read it and say, “Wow, that was so REAL!”
Don’t write what you know. Write what you DON’T know.
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