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Creative Writing Exercises – 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts
By Deb Gallardo
Story inspiration can come from many places, but there are days when it’s down-right impossible to find one good idea. In my case, I can always find FICTION ideas, but when it comes to this blog, I’ve been known to hit bedrock at the bottom of the idea well. That is, until today.
I received a review copy of Bryan Cohen’s “1,000 Creative Writing Prompts,” and I must admit I didn’t have very high expectations. If you’re a regular reader of this blog then you know I’m not a big fan of writing prompts. Most of them are isolated exercises that, like free-writing, are designed to “prime the pump.” I consider most of the prompts I’ve come across to be wasteful of my creative energy. I want to be able to use what I write, and that isn’t always possible with daily prompt sites, for example.
Cohen’s subtitle, however, gave me a glimmer of hope for my own writing: “Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More.” His introduction is well-written and lays the foundation for how to use his prompts effectively. I found this instructive. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
When I set out to review the book, instead of reading every word of this 100-page electronic book, I did exactly what I expect my readers would do: devour the introduction and skim through the prompts until a category, a sub-category, or an individual prompt caught my interest.
Bryan Cohen’s prompts are, in my opinion, pure genius in their construction.
Please don’t misunderstand. I don’t mean that I liked ALL the prompts. There were many I didn’t care for, but that will be true for anyone. There were subcategories, for example, that rubbed me the wrong way. Such reactions, however, should not rule out using those prompts. On the contrary, writing about a topic you are passionately opposed to could turn out to be some of your best writing because you’re speaking from your heart.
His technique for creating his prompts is truly inspired: They are written as questions.
What’s inspired about that? Our brains, when presented with a question, immediately begin to find an answer. Let me give you an example out of my own experience.
In early 2000 when I first learned my marriage was over, even though I fought to save it, I remember vividly the moment when I asked myself — among other things — “How can I possibly get through this? How can we dismantle 24 years of marriage? Who gets the photos, the furniture, the books, etc.? Where will I go? What will I do? How will I support myself and our child? What is to become of me?”
All but the last question has been answered fully. Solutions presented themselves to me — some inspired, some not, some workable, some not. But answers came since I’d asked the questions.
Cohen has organized the prompts-as-questions into 12 categories that should resonate with nearly everyone. From holidays to seasons, from memories to “the weird,” there is something for even the pickiest writer.
So you’ll have to excuse me if I can’t write anymore here today. I’m heading right over to pages 52 and 53 for the mystery and fantasy prompts.
Join me, won’t you? Go to “1,000 Creative Writing Prompts” to get your own copy. You could be writing up a storm within a few minutes.
Don’t delay, though. Right now he has it marked down to a ridiculously low price, but I can’t guarantee the sale will still be in effect when you get there.
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1 Comment »
January 23rd, 2011 at 6:05 pm
[...] Or better still you could start that novel you’ve been meaning to write “when you have the time.” If you need story ideas, you can find a link to 1,000 writing prompts in this post. [...]