Writing Prompts

Hi - I am back... wild week, where I have had a double whammy, not only have we been moving Toby down to Cullompton, but moving my desk in the office.

Now the former you might understand and sympathise with the logistics, but you might wonder quite why I have been so traumatised by movement of my location within the office.

I could find nothing when I arrived back in on Monday - the last time I had see such total devastation it was on the news and had had a tornado listing...

So I have spent the week clearing up and am in a quiet place of contentment, so was quite staggared that others aren't also in the place of calm... one person in partcular could only be described as "Riven with Resentment"

So I give this to you today as a prompt - write about being Riven with Resentment...

Right firstly in a first person, then move on to successive paragraphs and changing of points of view... does this subtly alter your writing? different views of the same room?

I would be interested to read your work.

Best wishes one and all.
Shani

Shani Phethean Hubble
http://www.writinginthemargins.co.uk/

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Poem...

(this needs a really warmly coloured picture with happy children going to bed…)

 

 

Bedtime

 

Inside cozy,  outside snowing

Children from their bathtime glowing

In their bedclothes now they're going

Up the stairs,  they're happy,  knowing

It's time to have a story.

 

Kings and castles,  storms and lightening

Trolls and ghouls and monsters frightening!

Eyes are wide and faces whitening

'Til kiss or promise makes things right again

Happy endings for me!

 

 

 

(hope it's ok just to post random scribblings and would love to get any feedback good or bad  C:   -    Pete)

Apologies...

This ranked as one of the best excuses I have ever heard for not turning up to a writing group - so suggested it was posted here :-)

Hi Shani…

sorry but I'm not going to be able to get to the meeting this Thursday. Put it this way, as you're all arriving I shall be shooting down Wedmore Vale on my bike (trying to set off the 30mph sign as I go) then, as you're all discussing stuff over your tea and biscuits I shall be on a train – total transformation from frenetic cyclist to totally still observer of people, traffic, windows….

As you get to your break I shall be sat on a seat 6ft in the air travelling approximately 56mph and somewhere about Monmouthshire. This is fun for me and earns me a livelihood – but it means I miss out on CedarWriters and that's not good.

Please convey my apologies to poetical Roy, intriguing Leslie, James the actor, bright bright Elaine, Tracey with an 'e' (or am I wrong there?!), historical Pat, ever opening Jackie and the awesomely artistic Sarah. Oh and anybody else I've not yet met.

Hi to you too Shani (but you already knew that cos this e-mail was originally sent to you…!

Pete

(I shall be back… though not in the Terminator sense….!!)

Where could you go at 3.30 in the Morning?

I am sat here, on a delightful sunday morning - at the computer (obviously !!).

My stomach tied up in knots, full of excitement for our son during the coming week (he has finally got funding for a Brain Injury Rehab Placement - not without considerable conflict in the last week or so !!) and I am stressed because I have run out of paper to print out the worksheets for tomorrow's meeting of Great Western Writers (nudge here if you have forgotten !!).

We were woken at 3.30 this morning by a young neighbour who needed a kind ear. Instead of being fraught by this, I am reflecting this morning about how proud I am that he knew he could come here and tell us his grief without fear of censure.

I am not reflecting with a big ego - "hey ho look at me, aren't I wonderful".

I am thinking about I am not sure where I could go at 3.30 in the morning and feel welcome.

So that is the prompt today....

Where could you, or your character go at 3.30 in the morning... what did they do? what did they say?

Shani

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Elaine - Ice

The meditation theme tonight was about ice and flames. We each took from it what we wanted to relate to.

All of us free wrote at length, and Elaine has kindly shared with us her piece of well-observed characters...

Fwd: Writing Prompt - "a day which needs re-visiting in the future"

Yesterday was a horrible day - well that isn't really very fair - it was one of the days where you had to really think on your feet all day, and I - in particular - had to call on all my resources of wisdom and tactfulness, which is OK when I am not tired, but a bit of a challenge when I was as fraught as I was.

I did though acquit myself quite well, so I am told - even though I ended up with a thumping headache and a feeling of desperation when I considered what kind of people I unfortunately have to mix with on an every day basis.

When I went to journal last night - I found I couldn't because I was so phased with the day.... I didn't quite know where to start. 

So all I put was "a day which needs re-visiting in the future"

So that is what I offer you today for a prompt.... Take it as a first line, set the clock for five minutes and then write without taking pen off page or fingers off keyboard....

Post the results to the site, or put somewhere safe, without internal editor taking over, and we will return to this another day.... as the title say

 

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The Year of the Rat - a chance to make decisions...

February 7^th is the Chinese New Year, which heralds the Year of the Rat.

New Year Resolutions offer the chance to start afresh to cast all your mistakes behind you. It invites you to clear your desk, buy a new notebook and with confidence that it will be all so different this time – you eagerly scribble away, quickly covering ground and confidence with your words. Then life gets in the way and you feel guilty because you have missed a couple of days, which then become weeks, etc.etc. So New Year starts to be about creating false starts and setting yourself up for failure of self-imposed goals.

The advice from those in the "know", well those who make a lot of money out of selling advice - is to replace these ill-fated resolutions with decisions followed by actions.

Resolutions tend to happen somewhere “off in the future… " - in some indeterminable time, place and plan which it is not possible to really pin down and because it moves off like the horizon line, or end of the rainbow - there are lots of readymade excuses for your internal editor to feed you… there are always good reasons to be found for not knuckling down and getting on with what you need to do to MAKE things happen.

If you want to change – start your journey from where you ARE - now, this minute - workout where you want to be and then – make a plan – set a goal and act on it…. Start where and how you mean to go on.

Saying out loud what you want to happen is the first step to making things happen. Writing it down the second step - there you go - that is two steps, now it is up to you to take the next

Thought for the week: -

You plant bulbs in the autumn because you have faith that they will appear in the spring. So what could you achieve this week in your writing world if you have faith?

Writing Prompt

A day never goes by when I don't learn something... today my starter for 10 was

"hoised by his own petard" 

We use this often in casual conversation and I hadn't really given it any thought - it was just something I say as a throw away remark.

But where did it come from?

Petard is french (meaning large discharge of intestinal gas).  It was used to describe an explosive device which would have been used during warfare to blow open gates to castles...

It seemed to be first used by Shakespeare in Hamlet in or around 1609. 

So by process of elimination I think it means being blown up by your own bomb....

So today's prompt - either write about something which was destroyed by your own hand or write about pyrrhic victory...

That should keep me quiet for a couple of hours !!

Best wishes
Shani

www.writinginthemargins.co.uk

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Sunday Night - Ten to 6 Work in Progress

One of the ways that I start a piece of writing or a poem is to ad lib or write a short first-thought monologue about something, anything, which is on my mind.

This evening it was my response to the mess in my living room !! What is the best use of the short amount of time, that I have available to me? and why can't I just sit and think rather than have to DO something...?

These are just first thoughts - totally off the cuff - then I go on to work them into something else.....

Join me - what is YOUR response to MY first thoughts? can you relate? or do you have a point of view? What happens in your house at 10 to 6 on a Sunday Night....

Post it in the comments... as I will the progress on this piece.

My next stage is to transcribe it word for word and see if there is anything in it which chimes with my sense of rhythm or inspiration, something with which would make a short poem or short story out of. If not.. I just discard it.