I've been tweeting writing prompts for a while now. The plan (ahem) was that I would use them too, and get into the habit of doing a little bit of writing every day.
Yeah. Um....let's not talk about that.
What I have successfully managed to do is start a brand new 'tweet a daily writing prompt' habit. For ten weeks, in fact, which - since I'm giving myself the weekends off - brings the total so far to a nice round 50. Here's the full list so far:
1. A mistake you're glad you made (or one you wish you hadn't.)
2. You've been given £1000 to spend. GO!
3. Your worst culinary disaster
4. The weirdest piece of trivia you know, and why you remember it
5. A song which takes you back to a particular time or place
6. The stupidest argument you've ever had
7. Alternative career plans
8. The worst/best New Year's Eve you've ever spent
9. Write for 15 minutes without using the letter 's'
10. Your dream holiday itinerary - money is no object
11. A family tradition and how it started.
12. A time you were running late
13. Twenty of the most scathing insults you can come up with.
14. The advice you would give your 15 year old self.
15. The one that got away
16. A period of time you'd like to travel back to, and why
17. The best/worst customer service you've experienced
18. Being ill
19. Plan the perfect road trip. Destination, co-drivers, soundtrack, travel snacks....
20. Someone is in your home town for 48hrs - what should they do?
21. The best present you've ever been given
22. An interesting conversation you've overheard
23. Your childhood hero/heroine
24. Describe the best meal you ever ate
25. What was the worst moment of your school career?
26. Twenty uses for a marshmallow, which don't involve eating it.
27. An awkward conversation you've had.
28. Argue passionately for the opposite side of a cause you feel strongly about.
29. A place you fell in love with
30. Your home is on fire.You have your laptop, purse/wallet, phone, keys. What else do you grab and why?
31. DIY disasters
32. Write a chase scene - who or what is being chased, and why?
33. Someone has suddenly become homeless. How, and what do they do?
34. Set a music player to shuffle. Write about each song which plays, for as long as the song lasts.
35. Give a well known story a different ending
36. Something which hasn't been invented yet, but you wish it had.
37. Read an advice column, and write about what happens when someone takes (or ignores) the advice given
38. Trace the journey of a pound coin over the course of the day.
39. Happy Friday 13th! Write about bad luck turning into good, or vice versa
40. A fence. What was it designed to keep in or keep out, and what happens if it doesn't work?
41. The longest you've ever procrastinated about something
42. Guilty pleasures
43. Cancelled plans. Who cancels them, why, what are the consequences? (The more dire the better!)
43. A power struggle. Who has it, who wants it, how do they try and get it?
44. Time for a bit of romance! Come up with 5 new meet-cutes ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_cute )
45. Something which annoys you even though you know it shouldn't
46. Write about a day which is governed by Murphy's Law - anything which can go wrong, does
47. Dream up and describe an extremely nice theme restaurant or bar
48. Add an eighth dwarf to the existing seven. How do the others react to his (or her) arrival?
49. List your 10 favourite words
50. What would be your specialist topic on Mastermind, and why do you know about it?
It's probably worth mentioning this all started after I did a comedy writing course, run by the fantastic Grainne Maguire who, as well as providing all sorts of practical advice and tools (not to mention biscuits) in our classes, sent a daily writing task by email each day. For those four weeks I did manage to stick to a daily writing habit, and really enjoyed it.
You can use the prompts any way you like, of course, but if you would like some advice, here is mine:
1. Write for 15 minutes. Or, if you're a fan of the Pomodoro Technique, you could write for one whole Pomodoro. If you have no idea what that last sentence means (which was me, a week or so ago) it's really worth having a look at the link.
2. However long you've decided to write for, keep writing for the entire time. Even if you think you've finished, or you get bored, or you think of something else you ought to be doing. And even if - especially if - your brain feels so empty that the idea of trying to squeeze anything else out of it makes you want to vomit. (Trust me. This will happen.) The best ideas will be the ones which come right after that point where you feel like giving up. But only if you don't.
3. Use the prompt as a starting point, but if your thoughts or ideas wander off sideways and you end up writing about something else....that's fine. Just keep writing.
4. Don't pick and choose your prompts - if you can't write every day, then commit to writing on a particular day or days - no matter what the prompt is. Most of my favourite pieces of writing ended up being the ones on the topics I least wanted to write about.
No comments:
Post a Comment