Friday, January 7th, 2011  Here’s a photo of me and my best friend, Kathy, from a few years ago. We were painting salt dough ornaments we’d made for Christmas.
She’s been on my mind a lot lately…especially on New Year’s eve.
I didn’t hear the traditional Auld Lang Syne that evening, but I was thinking about it: Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?
The opening line is rhetorical, but evocative, and never fails to leave me thinking about old friends…and this year, it was all about Kathy.
She and I played in the sandbox together in Kindergarten. Even though she went off to private school in first grade, we were inseparable. (We got into so much mischief!)
We’ve been friends forever…but I haven’t heard from her since February.
Kathy told me she was quitting her job, selling her house, and moving to Europe to be with the man she loved…and then there’s been nothing but silence. She asked me not to call at first, and I respected that. But her cell has since been disconnected. And she’s not answering her email.
I have no idea how she is, if she’s safe, if she’s happy, if she’s well… It’s hard not to think that something awful has taken place, but I don’t think it has. Kathy’s done this before: neglected to call or write for months on end. But the beauty of our friendship is that it’s easy to pick up where we left off.
If I had a snail-mail address, I’d write her a letter in all caps (like I’m yelling, ya know?) and tell her to get off her duff and call me. (I’m hoping she’s deliriously happy with this guy and just hasn’t had the time.)
Still, it’s strange, and my writer’s mind can’t help thinking the worst…
Here’s Your Prompt: Write a letter to someone you used to know, but haven’t seen in a while: someone you don’t expect to ever see again. What are you going to say to this person? Will you admit some long, buried secret that you never told? (A secret love? The stolen money? Cheating on a test?) Will you blame this person for everything that’s gone wrong in your life?
If you don’t want to write a letter…speculate as to what happened to your friend…what were the circumstances of his disappearance? Did she just walk out the door and never come back? Did he go on vacation to some exotic locale and decide to stay? Did she leave you for someone else?
Friday, December 31st, 2010  I hurt my finger.
Baking Christmas cookies.
I kid you not.
I bake a lot of cookies, dozens of cookies, a gross of dozens of cookies each year for gifts and to put out for Christmas dinner.
I make biscotti and pizzelles using my Italian grandmother’s recipes. These recipes call for kneading the cookie dough, and in the case of the pizzelles, squeezing hard knots of the mixture between wooden-handled irons over the flame of the stove.
(These are not the sissy, liquid pour-and-bake that you buy in the store, or that many folks resort to making because they can’t find the old-fashioned irons.)
I literally wore out my hands kneading the dough. It was so bad by the end, that I couldn’t squeeze out a sponge to wash down the counter tops.
It’s getting better now that I’m wearing a splint, which I’ll likely sport for a few days more. It’s been incredibly enlightening to see how such a minor injury has affected the activities I do daily: signing my name, brushing my teeth, typing.
And strangely, this one injury has beget another: a blister has formed on the pad of my middle finger. From what? I know not. Perhaps the minor rubbing upon it as I still try to do things with this splint (like knit!).
Here’s Your Prompt: Injure your character. Make it as minor as a finger splint or as major as the loss of a limb. See how it affects the plot of your story. What things can your character still do? What things are out of the question?
(Believe it or not, I’m typing with this splint. It’s slow, and I can’t feel the keys I touch with it, but it’s working…)
Do personal research: pretend you’re injured. Put nails in your shoe to make yourself limp. Put a popsicle stick on your finger and pretend it’s broken. Try walking without using your leg. What kind of frustrations do you experience? What thoughts do you have? Attribute these to the character in your story.
If you’re journaling, instead of writing fiction: describe a time when you were injured. What happened? What did you hear? Feel? Think? Was it an accident, or did someone injure you deliberately? What did you feel afterward? What are you still feeling about the injury?
Friday, December 24th, 2010 
I think I’ve already mentioned that I have a thing for the moon.
There’s something mysterious about it that never fails to captivate me. I take time to gaze at the moon nearly every day.
The recent Solstice Eclipse, therefore, was something I was not going to miss. The Husband of Awesome™ set the 2:30 a.m. alarm and out into the cold we went.
This photo, as I’ve mentioned on Facebook, is my inexpert attempt at capturing the event.
So, in honor of the moon, here are some moon-related writing prompts….snippets of poetry and sentence starters…not the detailed suggestions I usually offer.
I’d love to read what you come up with….feel free to post in the comments or send me something via email.
Here are the Prompts:
- “It’s a marvelous night for a moondance…” (Van Morrison lyrics)
- A walk on a monlit path…
- Write about being moonstruck.
- What counsel has the hooded moon… (James Joyce)
- “Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars…” (1954, written by Bart Howard)
- Write about an eclipse.
- The purity of the unclouded moon has flung its atrowy shaft upon the floor… (William Butler Yeats)
- Write about a honeymoon.
- Each night, as the moon rises…
- It’s only a paper moon sailing over a cardboard sea…” (Arlen, Harburg and Rose)
- Write about the cycles of the moon.
- “Everyone’s gone to the moon…” (Johnathan King, 1969)
- Write about the Harvest moon.
- Tubas in the moonlight, playing for me all night, Tell me what I want to hear. (Bonzo Dog Band, 1968)
- And finally, here’s a short list of “moon” words to spark your writing:
honeymoon
moonbeam, moonbow, mooncalf, mooned, moonflower, moonless, moonlight, moonlike, moon maiden, moonrise, moonscape, moonseeds, moonset, moonshines, moonstone, moonwalk, moonward, moonworts, moony
Friday, December 17th, 2010  “Write what you know” is probably the most hackneyed phrase spoken in writing classes.
Some people think the statement is way off base. How can you write a futuristic science fiction tale if you’ve never flown in a rocket?
I think these people are taking the statement too literally. Or perhaps teachers aren’t explaining it well enough.
I think you can take practically anything you know, and it apply it to any genre. And, I think writing what you know is also the easiest way to make your words seem completely realistic to the reader.
I have a personal example:
I was nine when my grandfather died.
He and I were close, even in the last years of his life, when, jailed by his broken body, he sat confined in a wheel chair. The numerous surgeries that reduced him to this half-life also removed his ability to speak. He communicated with pencil and paper: jagged scribbles made by a stroke-palsied hand, punctuated with slashed underlines when he couldn’t make himself understood.
His sudden death surprised me.
I’m sure the adults saw it coming, but I hadn’t been privy to those hushed and furtive conversations about Grandpop’s condition.
It rained the day of his funeral, making the church gloomy with darkened, stained-glass windows. Cloying incense filled the church, the funeral rites seemed interminable, and the priest droned on.
I remember standing on the steps of the church afterward, waiting for the coffin to be loaded into the hearse. The moment the pall bearers pushed the coffin outside the double doors, the clouds broke and a sunbeam burst through. I had a sudden feeling that Grandpop was finally at peace.
So, what do I know? And how can I apply that to my writing?
- The antiseptic smell of a hospital, the quiet discussion of visitors, the squeak of a nurse’s shoe on tile set the scene for a horror story.
- So too does the odor I remember: the gauze-wrapped wounds, the paper tape, iodine or some other chemical…and the decay of a body still living.
- The hospital-room machinery seemed space-age through the eyes of a child. As an adult I can write about the digital displays, the symphony of beep and whine and hum of the collected devices, and the intent of the machinery in a science fiction tale. I can extrapolate what I remember into futuristic appliances — decision making robots, even — which not only perform a dedicated task but make decisions about the patient’s care.
- I’ve used portions of my grandfather’s graveside service for a funeral in one of my fantasy stories. The weather alone sets the scene: a sunny internment preceded by pouring rain and a single ray of sun.
- Finally: in any genre, I can use the emotions. To my nine-year-old self, my relationship to my grandfather was nothing out of the ordinary. I accepted his disabilities because it was, for the most part, the only way I’d known him. Though I missed him, I even accepted his death as the next stage of his life.
On the other hand, I remember my grandmother’s tremendous grief, her stoic bravery in public and her weeping in private. I remember her saying that she could not live without my grandfather, and realizing that a large part of her spirit did, in fact, die with him.
I remember witnessing the numbness of others in the family.
Any of these emotions can be attributed to the characters in my stories, either singly or as a composite.
Here’s Your Prompt: Dissect your life. Choose a memory that stands out as the most exciting, or most monumental, or even, most sorrowful. Journal your memory. What do you remember seeing or hearing? Did it take place inside or outside? What was the weather like? While you’re writing, include details and imagery from all five senses (seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling).
When you’re finished, review what you’ve written as a basis for a story. What details can be extrapolated or built upon and used in a different scenario or setting? What were you feeling at the time that could be attributed to a character? Can you use anything in a story you’re writing now?
Friday, November 26th, 2010 Good Morning!
You’ve opened the newspaper today to see your picture splashed across the front page with the headline,” ___________________.”
What does it say?
Is the picture only of you? Or, is there someone with you? If so, who is it?
What did you do?
Here’s Your Prompt: Write the news story about you. Make it exciting.
Write the story in journalistic style, referred to as “inverted pyramid.”
In inverted pyramid writing, the most important facts are made known in the first paragraph, and detail gets less and less important as the story progresses. (This is so that if the newspaper runs out of room, they can cut off the bottom of the story without having to re-edit.)
So, in the first paragraph, answer the questions: who, what, where, and when?
Don’t “editorialize” this lead paragraph, that is: don’t make your opinion known. You don’t want to slant the story! Include only the facts.
You can add a quote or two in this first section. Make sure these quotes pertain directly to the story: perhaps an eyewitness account or two of what happened. What did those people see?
The questions “How?” and “Why?” can be answered in the middle of the story. They will add additional detail.
Sprinkle in a few quotes with the extra detail here, too. These quotes can be opinions. What do people think about what happened?
Make certain that you have quotes from differing points of view: some from people who agree with the story, some from people who don’t. (This is called “fair and balanced” reporting.)
One last thing, journalistic stories are measured in column inches and contain 20-30 words. Your assignment: write 20 inches.
When you’re done, send it to me! I’d love to read about you.
Friday, November 19th, 2010  You’re dreading it: your review with your boss, a conversation with a best friend, or a conference with your teacher about your grades.
If you’re like me, you amplify those situations in your mind…giving voice and thoughts and mannerisms to your opponent, deciding what they will say, and how you will respond, building and building the encounter until it’s blown out of proportion…
This happened to me just last week. (And it was so anticlimactic when I got my way right out the starting gate and didn’t need to list all the reasons why I needed to do a certain something or use all the arguments against what I thought were going to be the obstacles in my way…)
Sigh. And I was so raring to go.
You’ve had moments like that, right?
Well, don’t let these thoughts go to waste! They make excellent fodder for writing.
Here’s Your Prompt: Think of a situation in which you have to confront someone and 1) ask for something you’re certain you’re not going to get, or 2) tell someone something you really don’t want to say because it will make them __________ (angry, sad, jealous, etc. You fill in the blank).
If you can’t think of a real-life situation, make one up.
Step 1: Just write the dialogue. How do you start off? Do you come right to the point and ask for something, or do you build up to the pitch? Do you try to be tactful and save someone’s hurt feelings? Or, do you give it to them straight knowing you’re going to get blasted with anger, but at least it will be over with quickly? Write from the beginning all the way to the last word of the conversation or argument.
Step 2: Go back to the beginning and 1) set the scene, and 2) add the action. Are you standing or sitting? Perhaps only one of you is standing. Who screams her words? Who cries and wrings his hands? Is it day or night, outside or inside, close to a holiday or an important (to you or your opponent) event?
Step 3: Once more, go to the beginning and start adding little details to give the scene some flavor: who’s wearing a red sweater and black loafers? Who’s long hair gets in the way? What kind of dog barked? Can you hear the sound of rain, a horn blowing, or a voice singing off key in the distance?
Finally: consider how this scene could be included in a story. Is it one of many arguments that two people have during the course of a novel? If so, think of other things these two can argue about, how could you build the plot around the theme of the argument/conversation? Or, could this be the culminating point of a short story? The highpoint? What events could have led up to this “blowout”? How could it be wrapped up?
Friday, November 12th, 2010  Happy Birthday, Elizabeth Cady Stanton! She was born on November 12, 1815, and is often cited as initiating the first organized Women’s Rights Movement in the United States.
What’s special about Ms. Stanton is that she wanted more for women beyond the right to vote. Her concerns included women’s parental and custody rights, property rights, employment and income rights, divorce laws, the economic health of the family, and birth control.
Stanton’s outspokenness on many of these issues caused a split in the Women’s Rights Movement, especially after she and Susan B. Anthony declined to support the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. (The 14th broadened the definition of citizenship to include former slaves and the 15th provided the right to vote).
Her opposition was not a manifestation of racism, but of fairness. Despite their passage, the 14th and 15th Amendments did not give women (black, white or other) the right to vote.
Twenty years passed before the two groups were united again under the Presidency of Stanton. She fought for women’s rights her entire life, and died October 26, 1902 – nearly twenty years before women were granted the right to vote.
Here’s Your Prompt: Create a world in which there is inequality to a specific group of people and how rights are restored to all. (It’s too easy to make this schism based on race, religion or gender, so be more creative and try for something different. )
Pay more attention to the reasons why one group of people sees another group as a threat of some sort. Think about how people react to those who are different and incorporate these incidents into the theme. Who are the suffragettes in this instance? Are those looking out for the rights of others from the “normal” group or the “different” group? Or are they from both? Keep in mind this shouldn’t be a story celebrating the differences but one about the struggle to understand and embrace differences as well as to alleviate any injustices manifesting from them.
In other words, don’t write me a heart-warming story about “people with differences” with a little politics on the side… I want the story to be about the struggle.
Friday, November 5th, 2010  Have I told you I’m a genealogist? I am.
I absolutely love digging up dirt on all my relatives–the dead ones, anyway. (Who doesn’t love gossip, especially family gossip? Sadly, I think this tendency contributed to my wasted career in journalism…)
When I do my research, I want to know my ancestor’s stories more than I care about names and dates. Those things are important, of course, but I’d rather hear how someone did in school than know the dates they attended. It’s people’s actions and exploits which make them interesting.
My great-grandpa, for example, spent time in Leavenworth (a prison so infamous, I didn’t have to say “Leavenworth Penitentiary,” eh?).
He ran moonshine.
He was alerted when the revenuers were in the area and warned not to speak to them. But when the men in suits knocked on the front door, he offered to sell them some white lightning.
And then they took him away.
Here’s Your Prompt: Create a character using tales from your family history. If nothing seems “big” enough (surely, there must be at least one interesting character in your family…?) then combine the exploits of two or more to make composite. If you don’t know any stories, dig through some family papers that might be stashed somewhere. Call up an older relative who might have something to share. Go to your local library (or use a service on line) to find some archives of newspapers from the area of where your family is from. Try Google.
If all else fails: borrow someone else’s family history. There’s plenty enough to share.
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010  I love idea generators.
I get a kick out of seeing what other people make out of prompts as much as I enjoy trying them out myself. (That’s one reason I create a new writing prompt every Friday. Here’s the current list of them.)
Today I came across the Brainstormer. It’s been around for a while, but slid under my radar…probably because I tend to favor prompts with more meat.
The Brainstormer is definitely terse. And yet, I find it very appealing.
Andrew Bosley created the generator from lists he’d compiled while studying visual development and illustration. He’d choose random ideas from each list to prompt him to draw.
His original idea was to present these lists visually on his Web site and let folks cut and paste them together in a dial…but instead his friend John Michel programmed it in Flash.
(At first, I thought I would have loved to print it, cut it, paste it, etc. to have this nifty generator I could hold, but in hindsight I realize that for the cat waxing that it is…)
The flash is so much cooler. And faster.
My first spin of the wheel: Revenge Fairy Butcher
Sorry: You can’t have that idea. Get Your Own. I’m already brewing a story for that.
Friday, October 29th, 2010  I grew up in a haunted house.
I know this because I saw the ghost many times. I’m not crazy – his existence has been collaborated by visitors who’ve seen him, too.
Legend has it that the house was a former monastery, moved from another location in Baltimore to its present location. The ghost was a man, dressed in what I remember as monk’s robes, and when visible, he always appeared to be searching for something.
I make the distinction of his being visible, because there are many times we heard the ghost, but didn’t see him. While walking down the basement stairs, you could hear his footfalls behind you, as well as the creaking of the old staircase. You could also hear his footsteps on the kitchen floor.
On rare occasions, you could feel his presence – not the Hollywood version of dropping temperatures and frosty breath – just the simple impression that you weren’t alone in the room.
He never spoke, but we got the impression he listened. So, we often spoke to him. It grew to be a comfortable relationship.
Here’s Your Prompt: It’s too easy for me to tell you to write just any ghost story. So…write your own ghost story. Who would you haunt? Where would you haunt? How did you die? Don’t be glib: I don’t want to read about you coming back to haunt your worst boss or your ex-boyfriend. Give it some thought. My monkish ghost is always searching for something…I imagine a crucifix of some sort. It’s important to him, and he can’t rest until he finds it. Why would you be haunting a place? What job have you left undone? What job do you need to do before you can move on?
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