Writing Prompts ~2~

In this post, I’ll be giving you some ideas for writing prompts, as well as sources for finding them.  Perhaps, I’ll even give you an example of one or two of mine. 

As I’ve discussed in previous posts, the best way to get better at something is to keep doing it.  Practice, like with an instrument or a sport, will help you to get better.  Getting better and seeing improvement in your own ability is one of the best ways to be inspired, at least for me, to keep working at it. 

Writing Prompts are a great way to challenge yourself to try new things, new themes, new styles and new genres of writing.  I find they can help to bring me out of a slump too.  There are many different types of prompts. 

 

If you’re a story writer, a good source for writing prompts could be the newspaper.  Review the headlines to find a situation or story that interests you and, without reading the newspaper’s article, write your own article or story.  Or, you could buy books that have prompts like, The Writer’s Book of Matches or 1001 Prompts to Ignite Your Fiction.  I found out about this from Writer’s Digest

online.  You can find it on Amazon or at a local bookstore.

On the website Creative Writing Now, www.creative-writing-now.com, you will find hundreds of ideas for writing poetry, as well as tips and advice, and a bevy of other helpful things that writers like to poke around and read. 

You could chose to write about an image or painting or other visual stimuli you encounter or peruse in the course of your day.  You can also simply search for images of a certain thing, situation, feeling or word on your favorite internet search engine, like Google.  I searched ‘images for peace’ and got a load of “Peace Sign” images and doves holding olive branches and people holding hands, etc. 

Here’s a writing prompt with a visual for you to contemplate and write a poem for.  It can be any type of poem in any form, just use this prompt as your inspiration.  Try giving yourself a time limit for your piece.

                                                       The sun is rising.

Here's what I threw together in 10 minutes based on this image and these words.

Misty sunlight scrunches my eyes.

Still water slides past my weighty and sluggish strokes

As the long night turns to new day.

Faded, the world drifts past.

Molten gold swallows my oar as it pushes on

While daylight unfolds before me.

I would love to know what you come up with from this prompt.  It would also be great to hear from you about where you get ideas for poems and what inspires you. 

Keep writing and watch how much you improve with the practice.  

Other online sources for prompts:

http://www.writingforward.com/category/writing-prompts/poetry-prompts

http://www.pw.org/writing-prompts-exercises