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Three Writing Prompts

Writing Prompts for Idle Writers

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If you’re stuck at home during this crisis with nothing to do but to contemplate the yawning void that lurks beyond the known universe, here are three writing prompts that might inspire you to put ink to page.

  1. When a woman loses the family farm to unmanageable debt, the new owner offers her a chance to win it back. What form does that offer take and is it worth it?
  2. In the spirit of sibling rivalry, three brothers compete for the attention of the town’s richest bachelorette. But unbeknownst to each other, only one of them truly cares for her. Who do the other two truly love? And how is the first brother thwarted?
  3. Her husband is dying. But before he dies, he asks her to perform a terrible act of vengeance for a wrong done to him twenty years before. The target of this vengeance has returned to town to visit the husband, not realizing that he harbors such bitterness against him.

How Not to Handle Returning from a Writing Hiatus

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Writing After a HiatusUpon the times that I’ve returned to writing from a longer hiatus, I’ve exhibited the following, possibly unhealthy, pattern.

  1. Get story spark from divine events.* Hastily jot down notes on character and plot. Start writing.
  2. After two to four weeks, encounter the inevitable snarl. The writing is bogged down, going nowhere fast. Spend a session or two alternating between unsnarling, writing new scenes, destroying old ones, and beating head on desk.
  3. Step back and realize I failed while crafting original story outline, failed to think through motivations , sub-plots and things of this rudimentary ilk.
  4. Get disgusted with story. Start a new story, learning from my mistakes.
  5. Get it right. Pen masterpiece?

As experienced writers understand, momentum plays an enormous role in bringing about good writing. It keeps you on the edge of your game, thinking through all the elements of story a good writer needs to be thinking about. Remembering what you did in the last book, or last week, comparing it to what you just read, and so on. You’re in the zone of your craft, as it were.

If I take a break, then several of those perceptions and skills, some of the subtle, tend to shake loose and become misplaced. If I take a break, I need a practice round, something expendable. Or at least it becomes expendable in the process. I’ve never planned this, but looking back, I’ve recreated this pattern several times. You would think I would see it coming. No matter, it’s still something I have to do. The price I pay for taking a break. I should know better.

*And by divine, I mean mundane.