Chico Writer’s Group

January 2010 Newsletter Article                                                     Vol#1, Issue # 1

During a Craft Chat late 2009, we discussed some ways to get ideas for stories. One idea is to spend fifteen minutes a day using a writing prompt to get your muse fired up and ready to play. There are a number of resources on the Internet and we provided a few suggestions in a recent post (Idea Think Tank: http://ejourn.net/cwg/2009/12/10/idea-think-tank/).

Still craving some prompts? Look no further! We’ve put together 31 prompts, a prompt a day for the month of January to get you going. Like ‘em? Leave your comment or email us at: and maybe we’ll put together some more in our February issue!

1. Finish the sentence and then, the story: Seven minutes into my coffee break, the boss . . .

2. Write about the following characters at the location given with the following object that deals with the situation provided:
Doctor, middle-aged male, parking lot, unresolved issue

3. Word prompt – You may use the word or let the meaning spark your writing, but avoid using a bold font (or underlining/italicizing) whenever you use the word or the meaning (change it up and try using antonyms):  Iconic

4. Find an object and spend five minutes looking at it. If you can, pick it up and test the weight. Turn it over and inspect all sides. Become intimately familiar with the object during those five minutes. When your time is up, hide the object or move to where it is no longer visible to you. Set your time for fifteen minutes and begin writing. Your mission is to describe the object, using original similes, mixing it up with some analogies, but never should you actually say what the object was. When you’re done, test out your description by letting someone else read what you’ve written. Ask them to guess what the object is as they read it. How’d you do?

5. Gender changes: write from an opposing gender’s point of view. Some subjects you can try for this exercise:

mechanic, customer at a car repair garage, car sales person, car buyer, bank teller, bank customer, disgruntled shopper, customer service manager, lingerie sales clerk, lingerie shop customer, dentist, patient with a toothache, personal trainer at a gym, first time member at a gym, dog sitter, band leader, truck driver, maitre d’ at a classy restaurant, host/ess at a fast food restaurant (think Carl’s Jr), bartender, inebriated bar customer, carnival game hawker, ticket sales clerk, theater house employee,

6. Talk about your day from the point of view of a six-year old child.

7. Word prompt (see #3 for instructions): Immaculate Congestion (From Urban Dictionary: http://list.urbandictionary.com/t/8547176/59948095/26447/0/)

8. Finish the sentence, then the story: [Character's name] knew it was a bad idea when [gender] pitched forward and literally went…

9. Write about the following characters at the location given that deals with the following object that deals with the situation given:
Teen girl, mother (doesn’t have to be teen girl’s mother), airport, pen, unrequited love

10. Weave a tale about the following object, making it a central point: red shoe

11. Finish the following sentence: “[Character's Name]’s mother always…”

12. Finish the aforementioned sentence (#11) from a first person point of view.

13. Finish the following sentence: “[Character's Name]’s father would have…”

14. Change the point of view from number 13 and try it again.

15 – 17. Here’s a great prompt that comes from www.creative-writing-solutions.com: Mark is a thief, but after his third burglary, he is caught by police.
(15) Write his story in first person (from Mark’s point of view),
(16) omniscient point of view (the all knowing, all seeing “God-like” voice),
(17) from limited third person, switching between Mark and one of the police officers who arrest him.

18. And another from the same site: Describe a building from the point of view of a man who just lost his only son in war. Do it without mentioning death, war, his son, or himself. (This is a contrast exercise that should be done along with #19 to get the full affect.

19. Referring to #18: Describe that same building at the same time of day and weather conditions, from the point of view of a man who has just discovered he’s going to be a father. The same rules apply however, don’t mention birth, or babies. (If you feel more comfortable change it to a woman’s point of view.)

Note: The purpose of #18 and 19 is to challenge yourself to see through your character’s eyes. What is brutal and ugly to one person in one frame of mind, may not be to another.

20. Tell of something you experienced, but tell the story from another person’s point of view.

21. Write about the following characters at the location given that deals with the following object and situation given:
Elderly person (your choice gender), grade-school child, home of child, locket, life’s greatest lessons

22. Write a short story about the following object, making it a central point in the story: tennis ball

23. Word prompt (see #3 for instructions): Sojourn

24. Finish the following sentence, then the story: “Senior High Weekend would have been a whole hell of a lot better if…”

25. Read the following human interest story, and then write whatever comes to mind: (references and resources follow, but try not to go look until after you’ve completed this prompt)

She … showed me a tattoo on her back, a night butterfly with wide open wings, resting on her waist. She is a little older than my daughter, and she was explaining some facts of life to me that I could never have imagined before. She does not seem to have understood very well what has happened to her. She tried to smile from time to time, but then she would choke, and the smile would turn into a painful grimace. I blamed myself thinking that our discussion was causing her this pain. I did not dare ask many questions. I even made an attempt to get her mind off things she most likely wants to forget. But she would always come back to her story, as if she were reading a novel she could not bear to put down. ¹

26. Here’s your eavesdropping prompt (actual dialogue, you just figure out how to use it):

A. I don’t think we should actually drive all the way out there. It’s late and we have a gazillion things to do. Maybe we can do it this weekend.

B. Except that we never have time to do anything extra on the weekend, especially now that we have to be the entertainment committee.

A. Yeah. I know. But have you looked outside? It’s raining cats and dogs. We’ll be lucky to make it there before they close.

B. What time do they close?

A. I don’t know. Nine probably.

B. Even at this time of year? You know, Christmas hours and everything?

A. True. I dunno, maybe we should check.

B. We could. But look at what time it is.

A. Almost six. What’s your point?

B. Do you really think it will take us three hours to get there?

Want to try your own eavesdropping prompt? Just sit down and start writing every word of someone else’s conversation until you have five minutes or at least 4 lines of each person talking (total 8 lines, max 12). And then see what you come up with! This usually works best if you wait to do the prompt until the conversation is pretty much a distant memory. Another useful trick is to trade eavesdropping scripts with fellow writers. And if you decide to do the trade, be kind and share the story you come up with.

27. Here’s the first line, now write the story:

I had never seen such a magnificent production of The Nutcracker.

28. Word prompt (see #3 for instructions): malleable

29. Spend fifteen minutes writing about the color red. It could be about objects that are traditionally red (such as apples, fire trucks). It could be about a situation where the emotion is associated with the color red (anger). See if you’re able to convey the images without ever mentioning the actual word red. This could be an exercise in finding similes, metaphors, analogies or one that focuses on showing rather than telling. It’s up to you!

30. New Year’s resolutions. Bah humbug. Try your hand at an off-beat comedy about an ordinary resolution that someone took to the extreme.

31. Try your hand at writing a story about the following children’s lullaby: (lyrics found at http://parenting.ivillage.com/newborn/ncrying/0,,b6wt,00.html )

Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall
And down will come baby, cradle and allBaby is drowsing, cozy and fair
Mother sits near, in her rocking chair
Forward and back, the cradle she swings
And though baby sleeps, he hears what she sings

From the high rooftops, down to the sea
No one’s as dear, as baby to me
Wee little fingers, eyes wide and bright
Now sound asleep, until morning light.