Writing Prompts

My friend Heather suggested that instead of complaining about the lack of ordinary life prompts, I should create my own. Well, she didn’t say it exactly like that. She’s much more diplomatic than that.

However, I agree. I have no right to complain if I can’t contribute (or attempt to contribute) to the solution. Even then, what does complaining really do besides incite everyone to be whiny? A-hem! Enough with that.

In case you didn’t remember, last Monday’s post dealt with the scads of sci-fi or just weird prompts out there. I’m in the minority, I know, but I don’t find inspiration that way. Instead, I find inspiration in ordinary things, often manifesting themselves as one or two sentence character sketches. Things like:

• She was someone to whom life had dealt a tough hand, and who had contrived to make it even worse with her attitude.
• We were poor. I first realized it when Mom told me that I was lucky the same morning that I put my arm through the hole under my shirt instead of through my armhole.
• The tiny crack that a hardcover book makes when you open it to the middle.
• He wasn’t much of a singer. His idea of singing was to open his mouth and wheeze the words over immovable vocal cords.
• She caught her head on the corner of the overhead cabinet. Again. It was only the hundredth time since she’d moved in. But this time, instead of causing a headache, it simply contributed to the one she already had.
• He drained his cup, rinsed it out, and loaded it in the dishwasher at exactly 7:15. Every morning this week, he had finished his coffee and his newspaper at 7:15. He was beginning to wonder…

Okay, Heather, there you are. Some completely random and completely ordinary prompts. I’d guess that any one of these prompts could happen to any one of us.

A few of these I pulled from my “jot journal.” If you don’t have one and you consider yourself a writer, you should get one. I put beautiful words in there, or even questions that I’d like to learn about (can people smell the difference in cigarette brands?).

Happy Monday, everyone. Have fun writing!