Friday, June 3rd, 2011  I was taking a brisk walk last night when I smelled the perfume of honeysuckle wafting by on an itinerant breeze.
A flood of memories assailed me.
I was struck with the image of my teenaged self driving too fast along twisting rural roads, music blasting, windows rolled all the way down, honeysuckle scent barreling into the car through windows and vents, bathing everything in its sweet odor.
I was reminded of hot summer evenings, deck-sitting, waiting for the elusive breeze, and with it the tantalizingly sweet smell of honeysuckle.
I remembered visiting my aunt’s house with the steep hill on the front of the property covered in honeysuckle, and sitting in that patch — flowers up to my ears — with laughing cousins and siblings, all of us telling jokes and sucking on honeysuckle flowers.
Wow! It’s no wonder scientists say that our sense of smell is the strongest link with our memories.
What are you reminded of with a particular aroma?
Here’s Your Prompt: Conjure up some scents!
Take a sniff from a perfume or cologne bottle you haven’t worn in a while. (If you don’t have one at home, check out the perfume counter at a department store, or the personal aisle in drug store for shampoo or hairspray or lotion…)
Take a walk in a bakery or florist. Or a leather goods shop. Or the beach.
Anywhere.
Create your own memories by lighting a fire or candle, or baking one of your grandmother’s recipes in the oven.
What memories do these smells evoke?
Write a memoir, an essay a journal entry or a poem.
Friday, May 27th, 2011  I never drive anywhere new without a map.
I think I’ve mentioned before that sometimes I have a map and a GPS, and I still manage to get lost. That’s just me.
Lately, I’ve been looking at maps, deciding where I might like to take some day trips this summer. I’m looking at museums, hiking trails, adventure stuff.
(Some decisions will be made by the apparent ease of getting there. Too many turns, and I’m not going…or I’ll take a navigator. Who’s up for a road trip this summer?)
The Yahoo map to the right has a star marking St. Michael’s Church in Baltimore. I might take trip there to investigate more family genealogy.
Here’s Your Prompt:
In honor of spring and planning summer and fall trips, here are some prompts about maps. You can write a poem, a story, a scene, anything that comes to mind inspired by these:
- Lost again!
- You’re in uncharted territory…
- “Far, far across the crimsoned map the impassioned armies sweep.” – (from ‘The Superman’ by Robert Grant)
- A secret location…
- “A barnyard and fifteen Holstein cows, dabs of white on a black wall map, never blink an eye.” – (from Still Life’ by Carl Sandburg)
- He had never passed this way before…
- “Because he had no map, he followed…” – (from Sandy Star and Willie Gee by William Stanley Braithwaite)
- Here’s a map to my heart.
- He was mapping a sentence when…
- …is only to be considered as a general map of Man, marking out no more than the greater parts, their extent, their limits, and their connection, but leaving… (from An Essay on Man by Alexander Pope)
- Following the map of your desires…
- A mile and a half beyond the yellow barn…
- She opened the tattered envelope and pulled out a map to…
Have fun!
Friday, May 20th, 2011 I’ve hesitated to toss up a photo to use as a prompt because it’s just too easy to get into the habit of doing something lazy, but I just couldn’t pass this up.
The most recent edition of Imker Freunde Magazin (Bee Keeper’s Friend) from Germany wafted pass my day-job desk this week and the cover photo caught my eye.
The object on the right in the photo is some kind of beekeeper’s post, covered all over in bees. The swarm is so large, that the bees have even pooled on the ground around the post. The little girl on the left has attracted the bees’ attention, and some have come to investigate her. One looks like it’s trying to crawl into her pocket. A few are close to landing on her.
The second photo is from inside the magazine, taken from another point of view. The bees are closer, and the child looks…excited? Frightened?
Here’s your prompt: What’s happening in this picture? Write a poem, a song, an essay, a news story. Anything. Just tell us what’s happening.
Friday, May 13th, 2011  In honor of Friday the 13th, I think a writing prompt on phobia is in order.
Fear of this day is so large it’s got TWO Greek names. You may refer to it as either Friggatriskaidekaphobia or Paraskevidekatriaphobia.
A few of my favorites from the wikipedia list of phobias:
- Halitophobia – fear of bad breath
- Ablutophobia – fear of bathing, washing, or cleaning
- Agyrophobia – fear of crossing roads
The wikipedia entry also contains a list of phobias related to animals (such as Ichthyophobia, the fear of fish) and biological instances (such as Hydrophobia, the fear of water, which is a a symptom of rabies). Very informative.
It’s fun to joke about phobias, but for some, they’re true fears which interfere with a way of life, often for the worse.
In college, I had a friend who developed a pervasive fear of social situations (Sociophobia), so bad, that by the end of the semester she could not leave her dorm room. She had to be medicated to be removed, and never completed her degree.
George Lucas’ famous character Indiana Jones has a near-paralyzing fear of snakes (Ophidiophobia) which often hinders his heroic exploits. It’s a great plot device: his fear has a tendency to get in the way of the action, causing tension and raising the stakes, as well as adding depth to the character.
Keep this in mind while you’re working through this exercise.
Here’s Your Prompt: Today’s prompt is an exercise in character building/story planning which is a large part of writing. Choose a plausible phobia from the wikipedia list (or any other resource, or even make up your own) and apply it to a character your currently writing about, or one you’re thinking of starring in your next story or novel.
Think of the possibilities that phobia has for influencing your character’s actions, both within the framework of a tale, and as backstory. Is it possible that an entire story can be created from the fear?
Make a list of how your chosen phobia can interfere with every day life, make is plausible, but stretch.
For example, what if your character, like Indiana, suffers from ophidiophobia, but she lives in New York City?
There aren’t many snakes to be found in the city, so how can her fear affect her? Maybe she walks to her job every day, but the zoo has erected a tremendous billboard on her route with the photo of a large, striking rattle snake. She can’t even look at it.
Her fear is so strong that she needs to find another route. And taking that route starts your story in motion. What happens when she has to find another way to work?
After you’ve made your list, determine which items or situations can be used as scenes. Then, get to work writing them!
* Photo by W.J.Pilsak found at Wikipedia.
Thursday, May 12th, 2011  Not the pond I talk about below.It was 54 degrees outside when I left my house this morning: a 30-degree drop in temperature from the afternoon before. There was a bit of a chill in the air, and condensation covered a large expanse of the outdoors.
As I wound my way down the narrow, hilly, and curvy road, I kept my eye out for a view of the pond located at the edge of a nearby farmer’s property.
At 5:30 a.m., I often see wildlife making use of the pond, and today I was looking forward to what I might find.
Brought on by the cool morning, a thin layer of fog hovered over the slowly cooling pond. A single goose swam in the water, partially hidden in the rising tendrils of fog.
Fabulous.
And great fodder for detail in my working — and future — novels.
I thought about this single goose all the way to work, and when I arrived, I jotted down a few of the more striking details:
– cool morning
– condensation on nearly everything outside
– wispy fog over the pond
– details of the pond lost in the fog
– a single goose
– very quiet
– sun hadn’t risen yet
The beauty of a scene like this is that the detail can be used over and over again in different stories and novels, and never has to be used the same way twice. It doesn’t even have to be used as it is!
For instance, why a goose? Why not a deer, if your story takes place in a wooded glade; or a bobcat, if the story takes place in a desert setting?
The same fog could rise in the evening after a warm day.
Perhaps the sun has risen in your story.
(And, by changing details among the details, you’ve not only grown the body of items you can choose from, you increase the possibilities of stories you could write.)
The key to using detail — especially striking detail — is not to overload the reader. Pick only one or two items that stand out, and save the others for another time.
This approach offers three advantages:
- using fewer details allows the reader to imagine the rest of the scene, giving them some “ownership” of the story, allowing them to be absorbed, rather than dictated to.
- it leaves you with several more details to mix and match in other stories you may write in the future, without suggesting to your astute readers that you’re taking shortcuts by writing the same thing over and over.
- the remaining details might be used as story-starters — rather than just scenes or details – for future works.
How have you used real-life incidents or settings in your stories? How do you note them or keep track of them? Do you find yourself using those details in multiple stories?
Friday, May 6th, 2011  On May 6, 1937, the German airship, Hindenburg, exploded just as it arrived at it’s destination, Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty six people were killed.
Herbert Morrison, a radio announcer on WLS Radio, watching the disaster unfold, delivered a live speech as the zeppelin went down in flames, the last line of which has been exploited in movies, television and elsewhere (often taken out of context and used for dramatic — even humorous — effect).
He said:
“Oh, oh, oh. It’s burst into flames. Get out of the way, please…this is terrible…it’s burning, bursting into flames, and is falling… Oh! This is one of the worst… it’s a terrific sight… oh, the humanity.”
Almost a thousand people waited for the Hindenburg that evening. Bad weather and rain delayed both the ship’s arrival and timely docking. A set of unfortunate circumstances: the use of hydrogen for buoyancy and maneuverability (rather than the safer helium gas), the small gas leak noticed too late, Captain Max Pruss’ too-fast landing and subsequent reverse engine thrust, all contributed to the inferno.
Reports say the spectators felt the heat of the blast nearly a mile away.
Here’s Your Prompt: Write an eye-witness account of an accident, a natural disaster, or a medical emergency. What was your first thought, or the first words out of your mouth? What were you doing when “it” happened? Were you with anyone? Were you near enough to be injured yourself? What about anyone else you were with?
Who else was involved? How did it happen? What was the ultimate outcome? Write what you experienced during the event. Don’t ignore your senses: how things looked, felt, sounded, smelled and even tasted. Include how you were feeling when the event was happening, and now, looking back on it, how you feel about it having happened.
Journalistic Prompt: Write the same story as a reporter, not as an eye witness. “Interview” others who saw what happened and relate, in their words, the most key elements of the story: who, what, when, where, why and how. Keep your own opinion out of the story, and be certain to include a spectrum of eyewitness opinions — including contradictory accounts and conclusions — to make certain the story is “fair and balanced.”
For more information on journalism, see my other prompt on the inverted pyramid style of writing for newspapers.
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011  Ever since I posted the story about the typewriter factory possibly closing, I’ve come across more typewriter stories on the ‘net than I thought possible…without even looking for them.
I think this one, about the artist Paul Smith, is pretty interesting. He was born in 1921, with such a bad case of cerebral palsey that he didn’t attend school.
It didn’t stop him from creating some wonderful art – with a typewriter.
Smith taught himself to be an artist, using shading techniques similar to charcoal drawings. He most often used the keys @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ to create his art, backing up the carriage and typing over and over again in the same areas of the page. He sometimes smeared the ink with his thumb, adding depth to the picture.
It’s a far cry from ascii art, eh? Here’s some by Jorn Barger for comparison. 
During his life, Smith created hundreds of pieces, including portraits of presidents, animals, religious icons, and especially seascapes and pictures of boats. Often, he gave the pieces away.
I love how he wrote “Typed by Paul Smith” on each piece he created.
See more of his art at the paulsmithfoundation.org.
Friday, April 29th, 2011  I got sucked into the whole Royal Wedding Thing this morning, prompted by the fact that I wanted to see Kate Middleton’s dress.
As I was watching, I got to thinking about hands.
Kate’s hands were in the focus of the camera a lot, because she was waving, of course, and then there was that wedding ring bit. I was quite surprised to see how plain they were. Like the dress and the jewels and the tiara, I expected a little more pomp.
Here’s a close up of the ring ceremony. The angle’s not great, but you can see that Kate’s got blunt nails and little polish on them if any. I had an earlier impression of her having bit them down to nubs, but I think this disproves me. Still, her nails are short and to the point, yes?
Here’s a close-up of my own hands the morning of my wedding – those talons are real, btw, no fakes for me. (I couldn’t bear to waste my time in a salon – and besides, I think typing makes them stronger.)
So, what do Kate’s hands say about her? That she can’t be bothered at all? That she’d rather spend her time doing something else? That she can’t bear to spend her time in salon?
What about the photos to the left? Old hands at the top surely evoke a story. Robot hands must make something come to mind. My favorite are those working on the engine. When I get my hands dirty, I take off my rings. Not these fellows. What does that say about them?
Here’s Your Prompt: Study the hands around you. Look at the hands of mothers and policemen and construction workers. Peer at artists’ hands and those of teachers and nurses. Look at your own hands!
Do these hands reveal the vocation or hobby of their owners or not? Does the mechanic you know carefully remove any hint of grease from his nails before he comes home from the shop? Does the artist strip all the paint off or leave it on? Whose hands are dry and cracked, old and worn, nicked and cut?
Now, write a scene or memoir or even non-fiction about a person who’s interesting feature is his hands. Describe them, and why they’re significant — but don’t keep all the description in a large single paragraph. Work in bits of description and significance between the story: show us how these hands are important without telling us all at once. Keep the tension by gradually revealing the story bit by bit.
Friday, April 22nd, 2011  Pretend you (or your character) is scheduled for surgery: something “relatively minor,” like gall bladder removal.
You’re prepped, laying on the gurney in a hospital gown minus your skivvies and socks. The anesthesiologist shoots a nice little brain-numbing drug into your IV and you feel yourself getting woozy.
As they’re wheeling you into the surgery, the doctor leans over you and tells you, “Everything is going to be all right.”
Only, it’s not your doctor…and you knew you were going to be “all right” because what you had going on what something relatively minor.
Before you can protest, everything goes dark.
When you wake up, you realize you’ve still got your gall bladder, but something else is missing.
Here’s Your Prompt: What is it? What actually happened in the operating room? Who was the mysterious doctor? What are the repercussions of this surgery? And, what about your gall bladder?
Friday, April 15th, 2011 April is National Poetry month in the U.S. and Canada.
Do you like poetry? I admit that I don’t know much about it, although I do know what I like.
I favor bouncy, rhyming poems a la Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein (because they are so fun!), but I also like e.e. cummings (clever, clever).
Henley’s Invictus is my favorite (Thanks, Charlie!) because the strength of the narrator appeals to me. It’s also dark, and I really like that.
In honor of National Poetry month, let’s have a prompt about poems.
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Write a poem. It can be jouncy, bouncy, rhyming fun, or free verse, or even a patterned poem, such as a sonnet. (If you choose haiku, you must write at least 5!)
Here are some resources on how to write poetry:
- For a twist on writing poetry, choose a favorite scene from a book or movie, and write it in poetry form. Again, it can be free verse, rhyming or patterned.
- Here’s where the reverse poetry idea comes in: find a poem, any poem, that you like. It can be one from childhood, or a new one you’ve never read before. Then, re-write the poem in prose, but the deal is, you have to use the exact words of the poem in your essay /story / scene.
For example, if you were to choose Silverstein’s “Forgotten Language” which starts off:
Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
You could write…
Once I spoke the language of the flowers: silent and delicate, a trembling of fingers or tilting of head conveyed much. Lengthy speeches could not offer as much information as the casual lift of a hand.
Once, I understood each word the caterpillar said, I knew the flowers for liars….
Get the idea? Find some poetry here:
Brownie points if you post in the comments! Have fun!
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