I just now noticed that every part of my daily writing prompt routine was, in some way, a gift. The mug I use to hold the scraps of paper with the writing prompts was a Christmas present from my friend Griffin (which also included a headless Barbie and a cardboard box with “Arthur’s House” written on it, it’s a long story), the notebook came from a care package from an alumni, and the idea came from the New York Writer’s Institute at Skidmore College. The New York Writer’s Institute was one of the highlights of my life, and I think the experience that inspired the daily prompts illustrates why pretty well. One night a text went out on the session one fiction workshop groupchat that we were having an impromptu writing party and within a couple minutes everyone had assembled in the living room of someone’s apartment. We all wrote out a writing prompt on a scrap of paper, put them in a cup, and responded to them one by one in five minute writing sessions followed by a round of readings. Some of them were funny (“perspective of a pillow” was one of the prompts), some were serious, usually I came away impressed and a little intimidated by what the people around me had come up with in five minutes, but overall it was just plain fun. Writing is almost always created and consumed in isolation. That’s part of the draw to the craft for introverts like me, but even then it tends to get lonely, so being thrust into such a lively community dedicated to writing was just so refreshing.
I had such a good time at Skidmore, it only makes sense that I’d try and recreate it on my own. So three weeks ago I cut up about a hundred little scraps of paper, filled as many of them as I could with prompts, put them into Griffin’s mug and started a new routine. Every morning from then on out I’ve gotten up, pulled a prompt at random from the mug, taped it into the notebook, and written anywhere from a couple sentences to four pages on it after breakfast. I set a timer for five minutes, but almost always end up going over (which means I’ve had to sprint to make it to my research methods class more than a few times, but it’s still worth it).
To give you an idea of the kind of prompts I use, here are a couple examples I drew randomly just now: “Trading cards,” “There is a balm in Gilead…” “Start with a real memory, then fictionalize it.” Sometimes I do nonfiction if the prompt fits and I feel compelled, but usually it’s a first person fiction story.
I realize that between this and the random name generator, there’s a recurring theme of randomization in my writing (sometimes there’s another layer of randomization since the prompt has me roll a dice to choose from a set of possible prompts). I think that comes from a fear of writer’s block, being stuck on where to start or what to name a character. Having an answer pulled at random might seem like surrendering too much control for some writers, and maybe some day I’ll find a better system, but for now I’m happy enough to go with whatever will put words on the page.
In most senses, I think, daily writing prompts have been a success for me and I’d recommend them to other writers. Writing just makes me happy, even if the subject matter is dark (as it almost always is), so it’s a nice way to start off my day. Usually the writing is unpolished and the story is unfinished, but a couple of times I’ve written something I’m actually proud of.
Still, I haven’t been able to recapture the fun of that night at Skidmore for the obvious reason that I’m doing it alone. I guess that’s just something I’m going to have to accept, since writing in groups is fun but never as productive as doing it on your own. Still, if anyone wants to meet up for breakfast and do a few prompts some time, let me know.
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