Writers devise all sorts of strategies and implement their individual quirky solutions to fight writer’s block and other writing maladies. One of the more common ways to trick or inspire yourself to start or continue writing is to use prompts. In the quagmire of fear of criticism and doubt about your ability to find and write the words the might move the heart of your readers or satisfy your own perfectionist tendencies, prompts have proven to be an effective tools to spark creativity.
Apart from the prompts generated by others, you can also create your own. If there is a particular topic you enjoy writing about, draft related or unrelated questions or statements that will set your mind jumping, spitting out ideas to explore or energizing you to get the information already in your head down on paper.
Here are two examples of being stuck and prompts to help you progress from wallowing to writing.
Example 1: You don"t know how to start writing an essay about your mother.
Prompts:
What are the qualities I admire the most or least about her?
What was the best or worst advice she ever gave to me or someone else?
What quote does she always use?
What are her regrets, her fears, her dreams?
Example 2: Writing in your journal is becoming a chore.
Prompts:
After a taxing day at the office, my ideal evening would be....
If you had to choose only three household appliances to live with, which three would you choose and why?
If you had to do it over again, which subjects would you choose to study in school and why?
How have you remained true to yourself in the face of pressures to conform to some of the norms of modern-day society?
Choose the ones that spark the brightest fire and inspire you to write and use them over and over again. But don’t be afraid to experiment with others. Be brave and let them take you on a writing journey to add variety to your writing.
Two sites where you will find a wide assortment of writing prompts.
Two sites where you will find a wide assortment of writing prompts.
http://www.writersdigest.com/WritingPrompts/
http://freelancewritersexchange.com/writing-prompts/
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