I facilitate a local writing group. We meet once a month on a Saturday morning and share the pieces that we’ve worked on since we last met, time permitting we have a period of timed writing, and I share a writing prompt for the group to work on over the next month. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry, but we are always touched and changed by hearing one another’s stories.
Every month I consider what prompt to take to the group and, once I’ve settled on a topic, I have fun looking through my Beacon Book of Quotations by Women or harnessing the power of Google to find some suitable quotes to include with the prompt.
Recently Alyssa at Boston Bee asked if I might consider posting a writing prompt periodically (Check out her blog – it’s beautiful!). I’ve been thinking about her request and wondering what I might suggest as a prompt and out of the blue it hit me today.
Well duh! I am already creating writing prompts for my group! Why not share them here?
So that’s what I’m going to do; what follows is the prompt my group is working on this month. I hope it sparks your imagination and inspires you to write something. If it does please send me a note and let me know; if you are interested in sharing your piece, let me know that too.
Suggested topic to work on until we meet again: Future or Past
“Whatever your past has been, you have a spotless future.” Melanie Gustafson
“The future was plump with promise.” Maya Angelou, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes
“Sometimes a person has to go back, really back — to have a sense, an understanding of all that’s gone to make them — before they can go forward.” Paule Marshall, The Chosen Place, The Timeless People
“Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies.” Ann Landers
“Never let your memories be greater than your dreams.” Doug Ivester
“The future depends on what we do in the present.” Mahatma Gandhi
Choose one or more of the following to write about:
Imagine yourself transported ten years into the future…
Write a vignette that illustrates how your life, and perhaps your character, is different from what it is today. Where do you live? Who are the people in your life? How do you spend your time? How are things different or the same from what you imagined they would be?
Or
Imagine yourself transported ten years back in time…
Write a vignette from the perspective of you, ten years younger than you are today. What are your hopes and dreams for the future? Where do you live? Who are the people in your life? How do you spend your time?
I hope you have fun with this! Remember to let me know if you are writing something based on the prompt!
I love how the same prompt will produce different stories from different people. Great post, Linda.
I’m not quite ready to launch my authoring career. Mostly I’m prompted to catch snippets of life, and then to store them somewhere – the blogosphere, FB, my journal, or my heart for later ruminations. But someday I will sit and pen-with-purpose something akin to a book. I think.
Hugs,
Kathleen
that is a fun idea….thank you for your nice comments on my blog