Writing Workshop Prompts

 If you try any of these prompts, drop your responses in the comments! Looking forward to it !

 

jan18

 Weekend Writers Workshop: Show Don’t Tell

Exercise 1: Warmup! 

6 word story

Exercise 2: Music, instrumentals specifically, has a way of showing and not telling! Use these 2 songs to respond to these to prompts   They provide different feelings and pacing. Use that to your advantage! 

 

Song: Pelos by Misrili Ahmet

https://open.spotify.com/track/28g2DsAiBRhFmF5nyonBWa?si=KZJR5FerS5CNIPlv0PFHEw 

Prompt: “the Clock Strikes 12…” The percussion of this song is fast pace! can you keep up? What’s happening as the clock strikes 12? 

 

Song: 

https://youtu.be/GWkwKGZ4F6I

 Prompt: Knives! Knives are a special tool in that it can be used both as a weapon and a tool to potentially cut an apple in half to share. whether it be to cook, to kill, to protect, or to cut, write about Knives! write in your own style be a poem or short story. 

 

feb15

Weekend Writers Workshop: Personification. 

exercise 1: 

read cloud and cactus from everythingnmo.com


topic: an unlikely love story: 

group write. pass a piece of paper. write a love story together. line for line or paragraph for paragraph. 


each person choose an object: 

for example: light & shadow, cactus & cloud 

chair & floor. 

hat & flower. 


use your personalized writing styles to write these. be it poetry, short story, historical political text  etc. bring your object and the other persons object to life using personification, metaphors, similies etc.  


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exercise 2. 

write a letter to your future self. 

update on where you are right now? advice for future you? affirmations? encouragement? etc.

 

 

March

exercise 1

the box: You have just received a box, using your 5 or more senses tell a story or write a poem that describes the experience of receiving and opening the box and discovering it's contents. Remember to show and not tell

example:

the freshly cut grass wafts in the air, 

morning coffee in hand 

the sun kissing my skin 

but also reflecting the dew on the flowers in the garden 

i look down at my feet

in two different socks 

and there’s a box. 

delivered to me from Pandora 

etched on it is different types of flora 

and faces and lace 

i wait, take a sip of the cinnamon tasting coffee that was made w love 

i know that opening this box 

will change my fate. 


exercise 2

saving time: write a short story or poem about "saving time." Get creative! have fun!


example:

so i wait. 

the seconds fade into thick minutes 

lifting off the page is hours 

being added to my age 

i look up at my numbers decreasing 

and force a smile

cause her smile flashes in my head 

i’m doing this for her i said 

aloud 

but the loud ego voice inside told me it was for him instead 

that we always wanted to be a hero 

even if it brought my time to zero 

a martyr 

i craved a great ending 

cause i was never a self starter 

but i never liked it when things ended 

the bank teller interrupted my thoughts 

“sir, to confirm, you’re sending this amount of 42 years, 10 months, 7 weeks, 8 days, 5 hours 29 minutes and 2 seconds to a Ms. Time?”

yes i reply

“great. but you know that if you do this, you die” 

yes i say with a sigh, 

as long as she gets another try.” 

he then asks me to to sign the rest of my life away

to Miss Time 

who had been my world and my space 

she was always the perfect time and place for me

she only had a few days left 

she had been hit by a theft 

 

April The Art of Noticing 

exercise 1: Take a moment to notice your surroundings and write about what you see. you can write it plainly or poetically. 

The sunrise sat at the table with her pen and pondered "what does it mean to notice? To pay attention? To slow down?"

South Florida's fast pace a race

a marathon of thought flurry in fast forward toward

no real destination

the trees are never in a rush to grow. Stand tall rooted best suited for slow paced play,

dancing arm and arm with the wind while being kissed by the sun:

I think the trees see all or atleast they see me.

example  2

standing on the tracks, my train of thought is released from my grasps, there are no palm trees  on this open palm, just miles of sand from my thumb to my pinky and ocean of brown skin surrounds my island. They say "I know you like the back of my hand'

example 3

the wind felt like kisses from heaven , 

lips made of air, 

crisps and moist 

planted on my cheek, 

my clothes flutter and speak poetry

back at the wind that felt like kisses from heaven

 

May

The Art of Noticing 2

Exercise 1: Notice the things in your current environment. Use all your senses!

exercise 2: Paint a Picture what are some things you notice in this painting?

exercise 3: Finding

Write about the experience of finding. Feel free to incorporate losing in it too. 

example: 

finding 

myself falling 

the wind hugging me 

my wins above me 

my sins reaching for me 

ready to cradle my soul 

i’m falling 

finding myself falling 

it’s dark

and i’m lost 

and

on a losing streak 

when i was once at my peak

i’m falling. 

i keep saying ill go look

but then find myself stalling 

then i forget. 

struggling to forgive myself 

for not calling 

finding 

fireworks in my mind 

a shame i didn’t notice it before 

right in front of me 

celebrate the lost

and celebrate the finding 

don’t focus on rewinding 

divine timing 

i’ve never been lost 

just early. 

 

June

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