Today is a Full Moon, which had me thinking how full moons are a time of completion, and that reminded me of this book. I first posted it back in March of last year and shared one of the writing prompts. I’m personally invested in what I’m writing now, and I get “prompts” from so many sources–a few I can recall off hand are a perfume bottle, a song (lots of these), an ornament, a recipe, a scrap of fabric, an old car–but I remember well what it’s like to feel blank and frustrated when I want to write.
Even if you don’t write, if your stories are in your mind and not put to paper, maybe you feel like indulging your imagination. Here’s the beginning of a story from the book:
For the past six months, this had been his block. The acoustics were perfect, the foot traffic not too heavy or light, and there was plenty of room on the sidewalk for Jonas and his…
Your next word hopefully gives you an image that fires up your curiosity to figure out who Jonas is and what he’s doing. Things you might consider are imagery (what do you see? hear? smell? taste? touch?), motive, and conflict. Imagine it, write it, dream it–and by the way, I hear dreams on this full pink moon may be important.
Photo by Christophe Lehenaff/Getty Images
ego
electric guitar, named 3g0
3g0’s sound flowed, sweetly and softly, with soothing echoes over the ching of wind chimes on a summer breeze
It’s a slippery slope. A word, an edit, then a lot more words… Soon, you’ll have 300 pages and wonder how that happened. The origin will live here for you to revisit.
This reminds me of English exam questions when I was at school.
I don’t think I ever had exam questions that allowed for so much imagination. Though it didn’t matter. English tests and papers never bothered me. That was my favorite subject, and in my last two years of high school, I had a fantastic teacher.
In college, I had several teachers who only intensified my love of critical reading and writing. I was so fortunate.