Prompts & Freewrites

Like musicians practice their instrument, writers need to practice their craft. Exercises increase your skill as a writer. They help you create new ideas for future work. No need to worry about perfection here; you'll receive full credit by giving it a sincere effort. This is about stretching out, trying new ideas. These exercises don't have to be your best work, but they'll help you to one day write your best work.

From time to time I'll post a prompt for you to write on; like this:

Prompt #1 "Conflict"

Choose a conflict you've either experienced yourself of observed closely. Identify the central issue and any related issues involved in the conflict (for example, a fistfight, argument, lover's quarrel, a family difficulty, a break-up, etc.). Use the following questioning technique to uncover the details:

What exactly was the conflict?

Who was involved?

Where and when did the conflict develop, end?

How did it happen? In what order?

Why did it happen?

When you get the details listed, put them in narrative form, just a page or two. Tell it like a story plot line: beginning, middle, end. As with all your writing here, save to a word file or as a draft on your blog.



Other times, I'll assign "freewrites"; understand that a freewrite means you may write on any subject, in any form of your choosing. You should spend at least half an hour per freewrite. Save these writings in a word file. Periodically, I will ask you to submit your writing either as a hard copy, a post on your blog, or sent to AR Writers via a comment.

Here’s a list of possible freewrites to get you started:

--a record of any interesting things you read, see, hear or feel
--descriptions of people, places, things or events that seem worth writing about
--ideas from your reading that are interesting to you
--dreams (day or night)
--ambitions/career goals
--responses to local or world events and issuse

--attractions/repulsions
--ideas for/from movies, stories, news events, poems, songs, plays, etc.
--personal relationships
--dramatizations
--characterizations of real and fictional people
--descriptions of problems or issues that seem to occur regularly in your life
--invented interviews with real or fictional people
--extended analogies of all kinds
--poems, stories, plays or other imaginative writings
--aphorisms, parables, metaphors, fables, complaints, jokes, songs, riddles, editorials, diatribes, letters, reviews . . .





Prompt #2: "Images into Words"

Use the following images and photos to spur your imagination. Write for at least a half hour. Don't worry about responding to the picture specifically; let your imagination take wing. Consider the point of view from which to write (are you a person in the picture? are you describing what's happening, or what it's about from a distance? does it remind you of a feeling or a memory of an experience? or something else?). The point is not the image, but whatever ideas that it sparks. Save word file. Dream on!