Sometimes, it can be refreshing to step outside of our writing constraints and put ourselves into new ones that have nothing to do with what we’re working on at the time. I did a Google search on random creative writing prompts and vowed to write about the first thing that popped up.
I found Creativewritingprompts.com. It fits the “random” bill entirely. It’s a page of numbers. When you roll your cursor over a number, you get completely random, sometimes bizarre, writing prompts. Consider, for example:
#214: “Create a story based on this personification: love hesitates…”
#59: “Write about a joyous moment…”
#134: “Begin with, ‘I wish someone had told me…’ ”
#7: “Electricity is a recent discovery. Think of 12 things to do when there’s no power.”
You can see how different these prompts are from each other. It’s likely most of us would find something interesting about at least one of these four choices. They all call for different types of writing. The first one almost seems to belong inside of a fortune cookie: “The man who kisses his sleeping wife awake at two in the morning risks sleeping on the couch. Love hesitates until at least six a.m.” (Now, had I used “lover,” “boyfriend” or “girlfriend” instead of wife, implying a newer relationship, that outcome might have been very different!)
The second one longs for a memoir: “I remember the day after Memorial Day, the month of my 23rd birthday, after many hugs goodbye, after the slamming of car doors, after one final visit to the gas station, and one final run to the bathroom—it was finally time, following months of saving, planning, reading travel guides, and hard work at the copy shop—to leave on my cross-country drive with my best friend. Goodbye, East Coast. See you in a few months.” Now give me a minute while I relive that trip, please. Ahhhh.
The third one, for me, would be writing to do someone a big favor and saving them the pain of finding it out for themselves, whatever “it” may be. “I wish someone had told me that right before the housing bubble burst in 2008 was NOT the best time to do a huge addition to my house.” Yep, still paying for that addition. Cost of not sharing a bathroom with three dudes? Priceless, but I will still be happy to pay it off one day.
The last one is obviously a list. There is nothing to get the juices flowing like a good list because nothing feels better than to check things off. Here’s my (G-rated) list of non-electric things (day and night):
- Go outside and play baseball with the kids.
- Take the neighbor’s dog for a walk.
- Read by candlelight. Carefully.
- Cook hot dogs over the fire pit out back.
- Lie down on a blanket and find the stars in the city limits for a change.
- Get out the sidewalk chalk and leave funny notes for the neighbors…
Today’s Writing Exercise:
Your takes on these prompts will be entirely different than mine, except maybe for the list. And they should be. But hey, don’t get stuck with these numbers. Go to creativewritingprompts.com and find your own numbers. Pick at least two to write about. And, don’t get stuck in one genre. Write a poem, or a fortune (that’s a new one for me) or a song, or a list, or a snippet of dialog, as well as the usual story or article or paragraph. Push yourself a little. Happy writing!
