Write About a Day Moon: Creating Prompts for Writing Practice

For months now, every other week when it’s my turn to lead our Thursday Writers writing practice group, I open a copy of The Lively Muse Daily Appointment Calendar for Writers to find a prompt for us to write to. But when my co-facilitator Steve Montgomery told me one of our fellow practitioners suggested members of the group might like to offer up some prompts, too, I was inspired to create some new prompts of my own.

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My Love Affair with Writing Prompts

I always think of writing prompts as music that invites the writer to dance. Or, to use another metaphor, they’re like starting blocks a runner uses to kick off for a race.

Prompts aren’t “exercises,” which tend to give directions—“Two strangers get stuck in an elevator; write their dialogue.” Instead, writing prompts suggest images or events or spark memories—each prompt evokes something different for each writer. And because they aren’t directives, the writing can take off in any surprising direction.

timed writing

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Midge Raymond on Everyday Writing

This is the first time The Lively Muse has hosted a guest blog I couldn’t be more pleased to have as our premiere guest, author, teacher, publisher, colleague and writing pal Midge Raymond. If you’re a short story aficionado, you probably already know about Midge’s award-winning collection, Forgetting English. And if you like books about writing from darned good writing teachers, then you’re going to love Everyday Writing. Here’s a sample:

Everyday Writing for Summer

By Midge Raymond

As writers, we’re told that in order to succeed, we must write every day—but of course this isn’t realistic or feasible for most of us; we have families, day jobs, and other responsibilities that can get in the way of a daily writing practice.

And in the summer? It’s even more difficult: The kids are home, the weather’s lovely, and everyone’s in vacation mode (writing, while a luxury, is still hard work, which makes sitting in the chair all the more daunting when the sun is calling).

I wrote Everyday Writing to help busy writers connect to their writer selves every day—even if they’re unable to sit down to write every day. What I’ve found is that it’s not necessary to write every single day, but what is necessary is to think like a writer every day. This means opening your eyes and ears just a little wider than the next person—to take in everything happening in the world around you, including in your own inner world, all of which provides the richest material you’ll ever need.

Here are a few prompts to get you started. I’ve designed these prompts especially for the beginning of summer, which is one of the more challenging seasons in which to stay focused (note: you can easily do these in a beach chair with a sand-covered notebook).

Enjoy—and happy writing!

Five-minute prompts

–       Write for one minute about each of the following: watermelon, sand, moon, chlorine, ice.

–       Write about the very first time you saw the ocean.

Fifteen-minute prompts

–       Write about the best summer you can remember. Be as detailed as possible, from who you spent your time with to what was going on in your life at the time. Was this summer a recent one, or was it in the distant past? (Note: Fiction writers can apply this exercise to one or more of their characters.)

–       Write about a favorite summer food or beverage. When was the last time you enjoyed it, and what was your first memory of it? Then, write a scene (either from your own life or that of a fictional character) in which this food or drink features prominently.

Weekend prompt

–       Write about the last time you did something, whether it was play the piano, ride a horse, or smoke a cigarette. Is this something you chose to give up, or something that simply faded away? Do you miss this activity? Why or why not? Be as detailed as possible, and write for as long as you can, letting this prompt lead you wherever it wants to take you.

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 Midge Raymond is the author of Everyday Writing: Tips and Prompts to Fit Your Regularly Scheduled Life  and the story collection Forgetting English , which received the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. Her work has appeared in TriQuarterly, American Literary Review, Indiana Review, North American Review, Bellevue Literary Review, the Los Angeles Times magazine, and many other publications and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Visit www.MidgeRaymond.com to subscribe to her free email newsletter for writers.