ESCAPE YOUR WRITER’S BLOCKProfessor Yelena Bailey-Kirby

Writing Prompts for January, February, & March 2014:

Directions: Choose one of the following writing prompts and write for fifteen minutes without censoring yourself as you generate ideas. Then, you will share your work with the rest of the group at today’s creative writing club meeting. Have fun everyone!

1. Write a letter breaking up with someone, using a sarcastic tone and starting out with, “Dear______, it’s not you, it’s me …” and then from there, build it into a poem or short story. 2. Pretend you are a recovering alcoholic who falls off the wagon while attending your high school reunion. Start your story or poem with “I hadn’t had a drink in nearly 10 years” and end it with “If only I could remember where I left my pants.”

3. You’re late for work because you overslept, but your boss hates over-sleepers. He does love entertaining tales that make him laugh, so create the most outlandish excuse as to why you were late in the form of story or poem.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Writing Prompts for April, May, & June 2014:

Directions: Choose one of the following writing prompts and write for fifteen minutes without censoring yourself as you generate ideas. Then, you will share your work with the rest of the group at today’s creative writing club meeting. Have fun everyone!

1. Build a poem or scene to a story from the following: One morning you awake to find yourself in a straight jacket, being taken off to an asylum. How do you prove your sanity? What do the guards and psychiatrists say you did? 2. Build a poem or scene to a story from the following: One morning you awake to find yourself chained in a cage for a type of circus/show/exhibit and an audience is watching you. What is your “special talent” if you are performing or “unique attribute” if you are part of a freak show exhibit in this traveling circus? Who is your audience (animals, other people, children, aliens, etc…?) and how do they respond to your performance? What is at stake for you if they do not like your “act” and what is your reward if they like it?

3. Build a poem or scene to a story from the following: It’s your 18th birthday and, upon it, you parents deliver some pretty shocking news: You’re not really human. They admit that they’ve been covering up the fact that you are actually a (fill in the blank). After hearing the news you still decide to go to school, but this school day is different than all your school days past, especially when it’s revealed to others what you truly are. Write this scene.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Writing Prompts for July, August, & September 2014:

Directions: Choose one of the following writing prompts and write for fifteen minutes without censoring yourself as you generate ideas. Then, you will share your work with the rest of the group at today’s creative writing club meeting. Have fun everyone!

1. Two men stop you on your way into your local post office. One flashes a badge at you. They tell you about a top secret sting operation they are about to execute and they need your help. They can’t give you any of the details, only that you are to walk into the post office, go up to the counter with the gentleman named Bert working it, and you have to say to him, “My stamps are looking a bit square these days, if you know what I mean.” Write what happens next.

2. When you were little, you could swear there was a monster under your bed–but no one believed you. On the eve of your 30th birthday, you hear noises coming from under your bed once again. The monster is back and has an important message to deliver to you. Write what happens next.

3. Write a poem from one of the following pictures.

a. b. c.

a. Write about a time you felt like this. b. Pretend you have the power to stop time. c. Where does this path lead? What would you do?

Writing Prompts for October, November & December 2014:

Directions: Choose one of the following writing prompts and write for fifteen minutes without censoring yourself as you generate ideas. Then, you will share your work with the rest of the group at today’s creative writing club meeting. Have fun everyone!

1. First Writing Prompt – Confrontation : Construct a very tense situation where two individuals must confront each other face to face in a story or poem. If one character is hot-headed, he might be taunting the other character. Perhaps there is an impatient, temperamental salesman trying to assist a very slow-paced, talkative young woman who can’t seem to get to the point. The idea in this exercise is to confront a confrontation, so to speak, between two characters. Tension is a breeding ground for plot, and with a little bit of thinking, this exercise can be a lot of fun

2. Second Writing Prompt – Fish Out of Water : Put a character (or narrator in a story or poem) into a situation in which she doesn’t at all feel comfortable. If she’s a timid kind of person, make it so she’s forced, by some misunderstanding, to go to a nymphomaniac support group. When she’s there, explore the conflict between her surroundings and her personality. Maybe she’ll make a friend, someone to latch on to, which makes her feel even more uncomfortable about the situation/ (Note: Exercise 2 aims to throw a character into a major conflict, and with this kind of conflict, plot should easily follow. If there doesn’t seem to be any plot developing out of this exercise, either do some research on the setting or change the circumstances.)

3. Third Writing Prompt – Disaster Strikes : Have a character experience a major disaster that you explore in a story or poem. If nothing comes to mind immediately, open a newspaper and do some research. Maybe his entire town was flooded, many people around him dying because of it. Perhaps one of his family members was murdered. Whatever disaster it is, the commonly accepted stages a character will often go through are disbelief, fear, anger, and acceptance. After disaster strikes, pick one of these stages and explore it. (Note: This exercise is great for having a character reacting inwardly [and perhaps outwardly] to what’s going on around him. Disaster is a nearly universal plot element, so getting used to writing about it is a valuable skill for any fiction writer or poet.)

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Writing Prompts for January, February & March 2015:

Directions: Choose one of the following writing prompts and write for fifteen minutes without censoring yourself as you generate ideas. Then, you will share your work with the rest of the group at today’s creative writing club meeting. Have fun everyone!

1. First Writing Prompt – The Avenger : Have a character experience, firsthand, a crime. It doesn’t have to be serious; it could be as simple as someone accidentally short-changing a customer. But perhaps a character sees this, overreacts, and vows to avenge the cheated customer by doing something drastic. Most will choose a crime on a larger scale, such as a murder or even corporate racketeering. This is fine, of course, but bigger crimes require more research, in general, so keep this in mind. How will the character react? Does the character meet the criminal at all? Does she follow the criminal? Does the victim ever play a role? Ask lots of questions.

2. Second Writing Prompt – The Covetous Competition : Have two characters fight over a certain object. Get specific: what two characters are going to fight, and how? Perhaps it’s a queen and her servant, and maybe they’ll fight by playing chess. Or maybe it’s a wealthy man and a poor man competing over a moment of glory. It’s a lot of fun when the characters are as different from each other as possible, as this lends to the natural tension. What are they fighting for? Aside from various material objects, they could also struggle for fame, honor, distinction, power, etc. As for the competition, it doesn’t have to be a match of physical prowess, and they don’t necessarily have to even be face to face. It could, for instance, be a match in an online RPG. Just make sure they compete for something clearly established.

3. Third Writing Prompt – The Quest : Have a group of main characters rather than only one protagonist go on a quest in a poem or short story. The rest of the party generally takes one of four appearances: (a) A close friend who is loyal to our hero/main character, but doesn’t have much else going for him or her; (b) A sidekick who is the polar opposite of the hero mentally, physically, and emotionally; (c) A generic mass of identity-less bros who don’t get names because they’re not alive long enough to matter; or (d) A balanced party of brains, heart, and strength who support the hero, or who count the hero as one of their own. (Note: You may want to pick one of the following stages of a quest to begin the writing prompt, such as 1. The Call: What mission does the hero propose to everyone to kick-start things off? 2. The Journey’s Frustrations: What obstacles, temptations, and challenges must they confront and overcome? 3. The Final Ordeal: What final test must the hero or heroes confront to complete their quest? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Writing Prompts for April, May & June 2015:

Directions: Choose one of the following writing prompts and write for fifteen minutes without censoring yourself as you generate ideas. Then, you will share your work with the rest of the group at today’s creative writing club meeting. Have fun everyone!

1. Choose one of the following pictures that demonstrate an absurdity or an example of incongruity that you can explore into a story or poem.

a. b. c. d.

2. Choose one of the following pictures of a store’s sign to help you generate a story or poem when considering the setting, types of characters or narrator, and so on that might work or shop in this kind of store and what sort of misunderstanding or trouble that might occur between the employees and customers on one particular day.

a. b. c.

“VERY SUSPICIOUS SUPERMARKET” A GENERAL STORE A GAS STATION

3. Choose option A on describing your neighborhood in a poem or option B by writing a story with the premise of an instructional manual to help you generate ideas from the following picture prompts.

OPTION A: Write a poem. OR

OPTION B: Write a story. OR