I run a club for some advanced writing students. Well, I've been bullied into running it by kids who are dissatisfied with having only two levels of writing courses they can take. A constant complaint is coming up with journal ideas, things to write about, seeds to plant.
I often reference two books: Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way and Donald M. Murray's Write to Learn. These are where I go for my own little inspirations, when I simply need a little something to get those morning pages going, and often from there the bigger ideas grow, to be groomed into something greater.
At the request of my students, I'm posting some of my very favourite writing prompts from Murray's book. He lists several at the end of each chapter, and these are the ones I've used and loved over the past fifteen or so years. I'll post each chapter separately for the next few days.
Chapter 1 Write as a Writer
3. Find a brianstorming room: a cafe, dorm room, lounge area, or even a spot outside by a river or under a tree. Make it your own. Settle into your space with notebook or personal computer and reserve an hour or so each day just for free writing or brainstorming. Make a daily appointment with your spot, and commit yourself to keeping it for at least a month.
5. Join an Internet bulletin board or newsgroup [chat room or Facebook page]. Explore the hundreds of topics these boards cover and choose two or three that interest you. Make a point to read and respond to the posted entries at least once or twice per week. Be attentive to various "posts," jotting down what you agree or disagree with, what you learn from them, and what you can add. Then post your own thoughts.
9. Check out the many writers' chat areas and bulletin boards on the Internet. "Listen" to the conversations among writers about drafting and revising, how they write, when they write, where they write. Talk with them about your own processes, and choose a mentor from among them. You will find that most writers in these groups will be most eager to discuss your work.
10. Write in your daybook about a project you have completed that made you proud. How about a speech you wrote and delivered as valedictorian? A car's engine you rebuilt during the summer? A dinner you cooked for your parents" wedding anniversary? The skis you refurbished last winter? When you have finished writing, list the steps you took in planning and carrying out your project. When did you first think of it? Did you have to gather information or do some research in order to complete it? Did you have to revise your plans as you went along? How much time did you take? Was the final project worth it? Was it well-recived by others? When you have finished, compare the process of completing your project to the process of writing. How is it similar or different?
16. Hold a "bad" writing contest. With a group of classmates, write a short essay that you consider dull, unfocussed and . . . well . . . just generally bad. Exchange your bad essays with another group. Using the stages of the writing process outlined in this chapter, write up a list of suggestions for the authors of each essay and how you think they could improve it. Don't get stuck on grammatical or spelling errors at this point. Think about the gist of the piece, and read it with an eye toward planning, focusing, and drafting.
17. Imagine your writing as a house and draw a blueprint. Don't worry about being highly technical or accurate. Just divide the stages of writing into "rooms" (brainstorming, free writing, and mapping, for example, might be the doors and entrance ways to your house), and furnish the rooms with details about each step. As you write your essay, keep track of where you have to change your blueprint. Which rooms get the most use? Which do you visit the least?
18. Create the perfect writing area. Splurge on inspirational posters, artwork, a comfortable chair, the right pens and pencils and paper. Go to yard sales or flea markets to buy all the extras that will spiff up your special corner. Make it a place you will want to return to again and again. If you need music while you write, have your stereo and headphones nearby; if you like privacy, enclose the space with a screen. Post pictures of family and friends of of writers whom you admire around your computer or writing desk.
19. Talk to professors in your major areas of interest about writing in that discipline. Ask them to tell you about any articles they have written, how they went about planning and drafting them, how they revised them. Find out what kind of feedback they got from friends, colleagues, and publishers that helped them put together their final drafts.
20. Retype a couple of pages from a published author's work on a . . . computer. LISTEN to the sentences as you rewrite them. Think about the words you are putting down and how the author chooses them. Pay attention to punctuation and the stylistic choices the author makes. [Hunter S. Thompson used to do withis with F. Scott Fitzgerald's work] Then rewrite the passage. Change or add punctuation or leave it out; drop or add details, or go off on a tangent of your own. Move the middle paragraph to the beginning or change the ending. Choose one scene or detail to write about extensively and omit others. Note when and how the focus of the essay shifts as you fiddle with it.
21. Make a list of teachers you remember. Next to their names, jot down writing assignments you associate with them. Select two or three names from the list and in your daybook write as quickly as you can about the the teachers, what you learned about writing from each one, and how you began, sustained, and completed each writing assignment for that teacher. Be humorous or serious or reflective, but try to trace your writing process through each teacher and each writing assignment.
Murray, Donald. M. Write to Learn. Orlando: Harcourt Brace College, 1998.
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