For today's free-write prompt, look at the picture and write a scene about a person who comes to sit on this bench. You can put a second person in the scene, too, and add dialogue, or you can focus on one character and write out the details of why he or she is there and what is going through his or her mind today and why.
OR
Respond to this quote:
Sometimes you get a glimpse of a semicolon coming, a few lines farther on, and it is like climbing a steep path through woods and seeing a wooden bench just at a bend in the road ahead, a place where you can expect to sit for a moment, catching your breath. -- Lewis Thomas
OR
If you had time to sit on this bench alone today, what would you be thinking about?
Showing posts with label free-write prompt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free-write prompt. Show all posts
Friday, March 9, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Breeze of the Future Writing Prompt
Today, I'm going to steal a phrase from a fabulous Mark Strand poem which can be read on Writer's Almanac today. Please read the poem AFTER you try the prompts.
Free-write for 5 minutes to this phrase:
Let the breeze of the future. . .
After you free-write, you can take what you have written to turn into a story, poem, song, etc.
The phrase is from Mark Strand's poem "A Short Panegyric" and can be read here.
Free-write for 5 minutes to this phrase:
Let the breeze of the future. . .
After you free-write, you can take what you have written to turn into a story, poem, song, etc.
The phrase is from Mark Strand's poem "A Short Panegyric" and can be read here.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Summertime Writing Prompts 1
Creative Writing Prompts for Summer
It's going to be a hot one out here today, for sure. Today for our creative writing prompts, we are going to reflect on summer. Where I live, summer is a great time to eat fresh fruit (like watermelon) and vegetables. We also have a lot of colors with the flowers in bloom. We will use quotes today to jump-start our writing.
Free-Write Prompt
In June, as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day. No man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them. - Aldo Leopold
Free-write for at least 5 minutes on what you have noticed about summer recently.
Essay Prompt
There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart. - Celia Thaxter
Write about what you are grateful for in summer.
Poetry Prompt
What are some of your favorite summer foods? Write a poem about one of them. You might want to review Barbara Crooker's prompt on food before starting a summer food poem.
Good luck and enjoy! As always, feel free to leave a comment or an excerpt of your writing.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Patriotic Writing Prompts for Flag Day
Today we celebrate flag day today in the United States. Please read all the verses to The Star Spangled Banner below and you'll find the writing prompts below the poem.
The Star Spangled Banner
Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Perfect Day Writing Prompts
For me, the weather is absolutely perfect today. We have a sunny, breezy day in the 70s and my Bride's Bouquet bush is in full bloom. The yard looks nice and it just absolutely beautiful outside.
For your creative writing prompts today, one option is to free-write from the picture above.
For memoir writing, you can write about any memories you have of feeding ducks, geese, etc.
For a poetry prompt or essay prompt, I ask you to read this wonderful poem by Alice N. Persons called "The Perfect Day." You can read it on the Your Daily Poem website by clicking here.
After you read the poem, you can write your own poem or essay about what a perfect day would be for you.
May you all a have a WONDERFUL day (it doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful) and Happy Writing!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Creative Writing Prompts with Random Words
Today we are working with random words for our creative writing prompts. Here are your words of the day:
lizard like, blink, evolve, ceiling, violin, island, dazzle, afloat, south, backwards, chickadee, humble, random, blush, appear, sunrise, spirit, fall, lie, turn, sweeten, green, willow, green, amethyst
Writing Practice: Use 5 of the words in a paragraph about anything.
Poetry Writing Prompt: Use at least 7 of these words in a poem that is 12 lines or less.
Free-Write: What is the cat in the picture thinking?
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Creative Writing Prompts About Things We Find
Over where I live, spring time sets us free from the cold and going for walks is something we truly enjoy after being couped up all winter. Today, I want you to think about things you have found in the past. And if you have the time and the weather is nice by you, make a walk part of this prompt and see what you find on your walk. Record what you discover.
Creative Writing Prompts For All: Make a list of things you remember finding, perhaps something you found or discovered on your walk today.
Free-Write Prompt: Write about one of the things from you list.
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story where your character finds something that helps him or her solve a problem. What does your character find? How is it found? How does it help with the problem?
Poetry Writing Prompt: Write a poem about something you have found. Below is a poem from Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry Column that features a poem about finding a turtle by Jeff Worley. Notice how the first stanza is about explaining why the turtle was there to be found, and the second stanza starts "I imagine. . . " Try writing a poem in that style or make a style of your own.
I hope you enjoy the poem below and your writing today.
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
A poem is an experience like any other, and we can learn as much or more about, say, an apple from a poem about an apple as from the apple itself. Since I was a boy, I’ve been picking up things, but I’ve never found a turtle shell until I found one in this poem by Jeff Worley, who lives in Kentucky.
On Finding a Turtle Shell in Daniel Boone National Forest
This one got tired
of lugging his fortress
wherever he went,
was done with duck and cover
at every explosion
through rustling leaves
of fox and dog and skunk.
Said au revoir to the ritual
of pulling himself together. . .
I imagine him waiting
for the cover of darkness
to let down his hinged drawbridge.
He wanted, after so many
protracted years of caution,
to dance naked and nimble
as a flame under the moon—
even if dancing just once
was all that the teeth
of the forest would allow.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2008 by Jeff Worley, whose most recent book of poems is Best to Keep Moving, Larkspur Press, 2009, which includes this poem. Reprinted from Poetry East, Nos. 62 & 63, Fall, 2008, by permission of Jeff Worley and the publisher.
Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
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