Readers Ask: What is Your Favorite Writing Prompt?

With each new project, I tend to develop a series of specific triggers. The aim is similar to what happens in dealing with writers’ block, because in many cases this writing ‘prompt’ is just another word for isolating myself from the outside world and returning swiftly to the world of my current project.

When I first started writing, I ran a consulting group based in Dusseldorf. My work had me in three countries every week. I held this job, and wrote on the side, for eleven years. My writing prompts were crucial to drawing me away from the fear and the frustration and the pressures, and return me to what I wanted to do with my life. Write.

Early in that period, I read an article about Mick Jagger, who has prepped for every concert he has ever given by listening to the same artist—James Brown. I find music enormously helpful, and will often use this as a means of drawing away, and drawing in.

There are others, as I said, that are specific to the current project. You need to search these out. It is vital. Don’t wait for the perfect moment. You have to ready yourself to take full advantage when those rare perfect moments arrive.