It's IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without
fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire
can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure
writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh, our brilliant ninja leader.
Co-Hosts this month: Fundy Blue, Beverly Stowe McClure, Erika Beebe, and Lisa Buie-Collard. To read more, the list of participants can be found here.
Recently, a friend from my writing group sent out a link
to a site called Oneword.com. The premise is simple. Once on the site, you
click “go.” A word appears and you get sixty seconds to write anything inspired by it. A bell sounds at the end of the minute, but you can
still write/edit after that point. If
you chose, you can share/upload your creation. I don't, but I'm keeping my own Word document with the blurbs I've created as a result of each prompt. Completing a Oneword exercise each morning keeps my writing juices flowing. It could be helpful if you’re
struggling with ideas (like me) but want to keep up the practice of writing regularly.
Over the course of the last ten years, I’ve had four inspirations
that took me down novel road. A picture of a friend’s house taken over 100 years ago
stimulated my first attempt at a novel. A conversation in my head during that
mysterious half-life between sleeping and waking kindled the second. A drawing
attached to an essay in Yankee Magazine
inspired my third. The fourth came out of a picture I took on a foggy day. Who's to say what may trigger a new story? Maybe a one-minute writing
exercise some morning, using, say, the word “dryer?”
A
screech came from the laundry room. Wiping her hands on the dishtowel and
throwing it down Sabine raced down the hall. Last time she'd heard that sound,
Bennie had thrown the cat in the dryer and turned it on. Mittens had
disappeared not long after. Sabine had left food outside, called her and called
her, but now it had been weeks and she'd given up hope. It worried her that
Benny didn't seem bothered that his pet had disappeared. As for Theo? Well, he
never liked the cat anyway.
What do you use for writing prompts?
