A writer who is determined to chase down inspiration with a club will find it in many places: images, half-heard conversation, a headline, a snippet of poetry or a single line from a 200,000 word novel.
For May's prompt, I journeyed to creativewritingprompts.com, and chose prompt #181:
What images does this line in one of Gregory Corso's poems spark in you: "They want to make buttons out of my bones"
In addition to writing down images, as this prompt suggests, I'll gather a few more single lines from sources on my own bookshelves and list them below. Throughout the month of May, I hope this list grows quite long.
To start:"No story can move a thousand miles by word of mouth and keep its shape." from The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, p. 1055.
"It takes many lives till we succeed, to clear the debts of many, many hundred years." from "Out of the Deep" by Enigma
"The crowds upon the pavement / Were fields of harvest wheat." from "As I Walked Out One Evening" by W.H. Auden
"Plague-Infected Mice Missing From N.J. Lab" ABCNews, Sept. 15, 2005
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In addition, I have a notebook upon the cover of which I've written "Story Ideas." It's a very fat notebook. It's very full of scribbles and half-started stories, outlines, nonsense. It's a record of half-seen dreams, a treasure I'll never throw away.
How do you keep track of your ideas? Any favorite prompts or prompt sources to contribute?
If you find inspiration and wish to share your creation with me, please do the following:
* DO paste a link to your creation as a comment to the prompt you’ve used, OR if you don't post your writing publically, type a paragraph as a comment.
* DO include a link back to my blog, Wordweaver.
* DO NOT copy anyone else’s work and publicize it as your own.
Prompt History
January's Prompt
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