Great Writing Prompts

[Black.thorn]

Here's a really cool book full of intriguing writing prompts titled, "642 Things to Write About". I found it in Chapters and thought It would help my writing process. So, I thought I'd share in hopes that it may help out some others too.

 

prompt eg. "Write what your desk thinks about during the night"

 

 

[barleycorn]

Which location did you find it? Was it in the bargain section?

 

If you are interested, The London pen club meets at William's on Wonderland Rd S about 9 or so on Saturday mornings. Bring some pens, ink and paper to share and meet some interesting folks.

Edited July 14, 2013 by barleycorn

[inkstainedruth]

Sounded interesting, so I looked it up on Amazon. There's also one called _642 Things to Draw_ (which is a journal) and _712 More Things to Draw_.

I'm definitely intrigued now.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Runnin_Ute]

Sounds like book I have that is used to help write your personal/family history. It has like 300 questions. Stuff like "what is your name", to "were you involved in Cub & Boy Scouting? What rank did you achieve?" What was your yard like? What did you talk about at dinner?

 

Some of it is kind of silly - who remembers what conversations took place at the dinner table two days ago let alone when one was growing up? But the idea is the same - to get you thinking about it. You end up remembering far more than you think you do. It also breaks up life into different periods of time;

Childhood - birth to 11

Adolescence - 12-18

Early Adulthood - 19-25

Prime Adulthood - 26-45

Middle Adulthood -46-60

Later Adulthood - 61 to present

 

obviously some things that might be asked in say Prime Adulthood - such as things about your spouse, how you met, your kids etc., might actually fit for a given individual fit in a different age period. For example I was a few days short of my 24th birthday when I met my wife. I was 24 she was 22 when we got married six months later. That was almost 31 years ago. It is called "Share your Stories" and there is a male/female version (labelled as Father and Mother)

[Matthew Lee 1959]

Sounds like book I have that is used to help write your personal/family history. It has like 300 questions. Stuff like "what is your name", to "were you involved in Cub & Boy Scouting? What rank did you achieve?" What was your yard like? What did you talk about at dinner?

 

Some of it is kind of silly - who remembers what conversations took place at the dinner table two days ago let alone when one was growing up? But the idea is the same - to get you thinking about it. You end up remembering far more than you think you do. It also breaks up life into different periods of time;

Childhood - birth to 11

Adolescence - 12-18

Early Adulthood - 19-25

Prime Adulthood - 26-45

Middle Adulthood -46-60

Later Adulthood - 61 to present

 

obviously some things that might be asked in say Prime Adulthood - such as things about your spouse, how you met, your kids etc., might actually fit for a given individual fit in a different age period. For example I was a few days short of my 24th birthday when I met my wife. I was 24 she was 22 when we got married six months later. That was almost 31 years ago. It is called "Share your Stories" and there is a male/female version (labelled as Father and Mother)

That sounds like a book Bob Greene wrote many years ago. I heard him in an interview on WGN radio promoting the book. The idea behind it was fleshing out the everyday lives of family members while they were still with us so the stories don't die. Now that I'm older there are so many things I wish I could ask. I remember some of the stories my grandmother told me about her days growing up in the U.P. One was that literally their daily entertainment was the whole town showing up at the local train station to see the people and freight get unloaded and loaded. When the train left everyone went home had dinner and went to bed.

[Black.thorn]

Barleycorn:

They keep this book with all of the journals, notebooks, and day planners etc.

[Runnin_Ute]

That sounds like a book Bob Greene wrote many years ago. I heard him in an interview on WGN radio promoting the book. The idea behind it was fleshing out the everyday lives of family members while they were still with us so the stories don't die. Now that I'm older there are so many things I wish I could ask. I remember some of the stories my grandmother told me about her days growing up in the U.P. One was that literally their daily entertainment was the whole town showing up at the local train station to see the people and freight get unloaded and loaded. When the train left everyone went home had dinner and went to bed.

This actually looks like a journal and has decent paper so you can make the entries in it and if necessary flesh them out later in a different place.

 

The one that talks about grandparents for example (I knew 3 of 4 plus my great grandmother), I had more to write than I had space, so I had to rewrite elsewhere. Even the one I did not know, I knew a lot about. (and he died when I was only 13 months old) Strange how that happens sometimes.

[Bookman]

Writers write too much. I know I do. I realized the other day that the obsessiveness I thought I'd hung in the closet with my suits when I quit practicing law still had me by the throat, racing me to——what? I don't know how to write every day and live my life. I'm not living it because I'm too busy writing about imaginary people or studying the people around me instead of talking to them or reading books or writing notes I can use later on that I never look at. Sorry about that, he said, not deleting it.

 

Meanwhile, I can recommend the highlighted words and phrases on the home page of Arts & Letters Daily http://www.aldaily.com/ for interesting prompts. Just scroll down and read the bold letters. Among others currently you'll find "the importance of being cynical," "rebuilt when recalled," "Hollywood and Hitler," "the tyranny of rectilinearity," "kings, paupers, saints, and warriors," "Jane Austen summer camp," "drifts toward incoherence," "tears can mean almost anything," and "The Shakespeare of the lunatic asylum."

[Black.thorn]

Writers write too much. I know I do. I realized the other day that the obsessiveness I thought I'd hung in the closet with my suits when I quit practicing law still had me by the throat, racing me to——what? I don't know how to write every day and live my life. I'm not living it because I'm too busy writing about imaginary people or studying the people around me instead of talking to them or reading books or writing notes I can use later on that I never look at. Sorry about that, he said, not deleting it.

 

Meanwhile, I can recommend the highlighted words and phrases on the home page of Arts & Letters Daily http://www.aldaily.com/ for interesting prompts. Just scroll down and read the bold letters. Among others currently you'll find "the importance of being cynical," "rebuilt when recalled," "Hollywood and Hitler," "the tyranny of rectilinearity," "kings, paupers, saints, and warriors," "Jane Austen summer camp," "drifts toward incoherence," "tears can mean almost anything," and "The Shakespeare of the lunatic asylum."

Thanks for the link. Some pretty intriguing prompts lol.