Go Rube Goldberg Yourself—Machine Yourself a Revenge, a New Life, or just a Damn Poem

A Rube Goldberg machine (named after the cartoonist) is the creation of a complex (usually messy and often destructive) chain-of-events to perform the simplest task.

Just look up Rube Goldberg on YouTube and enjoy the obsessively ordered chaos. And of course here is Ok Go’s Rube Goldberg video (thanks, Steve, for the new obsession).

The first prompt is inspired by David Guzman’s “Instructions for Building My Rube Goldberg Machine” in McSweeney’s. Write a poem in which you create a Rube Goldberg machine of revenge, knocking down naysayers like dominoes and launching belittlers into the blue beyond.

For the rest of the essay, click this link.

For the next prompt, again write a Rube Goldberg machine for creating a new life. Perhaps write a poem or story in which you rewire your neural pathways into a glowing smiley face, construct a system of mental pulleys to unload leftover regrets and needless doubts, or build a feedback loop of positive reinforcements in your morning routine. Or maybe you want to describe creating an alter to a dark god out of Legos that takes up a city block and steal your enemies’ shoes (thanks, Twitter, for the best curse I’ve ever heard).

And finally create a poem as if it were a Rube Goldberg machine. Perhaps it is. What is your ending? How do you set up the first line and the subsequent stanzas to get us there?

Ok Go Ghostline Yourself a Poem—Prompts

Blame the Ugly Mug, particularly Steve Ramirez, for my newest obsession: Ok Go. Yes, yes, I am behind the times, out of step, calendar deficient, day unplanner, and time deficient.

For the next prompt, I want you to use the the following line from Ok Go’s song “Upside Down & Inside Out” as a ghostline: “Yeah when you met the new you, did someone die inside?”

Think about all of those former selves or even the phases you went through during your teen years and various periods of your life. Did you have to kill a former to become the current version of yourself? If so, did you feel pity for that self as you murdered it? Was it a violent destruction? A mercy killing?

Or do all of those former selves follow you like a shadow, longer with each passing year as if you are moving through the late afternoon of your own consciousness? Does the weight of all that self history sink you lower to the ground? Is it hard to keep your head up when it is so full of echoes?

Or use one of the other lines from the song as a ghostline:

• “Gravity’s just a habit that you’re pretty sure you can break”

• “So when you met the new you / Were you scared, were you cold, were you kind?”

• “Don’t know where your eyes are but they’re not doing what you said”

For the next prompt, write a conversation among your former and present selves and maybe add a future self too. Will it be an argument, an interrogation or accusation, an explanation, an apology, or advice? What do you wish your former self could tell you? What do you wish you remembered? What advice would you give a past self? Would the knowledge erase your current self as if un-birthing your present consciousness ? Would you share that advice anyway? Or would that death be your intended purpose?

Here is Ok Go’s video for “Upside Down & Inside Out.” Write a poem about being in zero gravity. Try to narrate the video as a sonnet or pantoum. Or write from the perspective of one of the piñatas. Write. Discover what happens.

Reverse a Life, a Death, a Tragedy—Prompts Inspired by Sean Shearer

I know I spend too much of my life retracing steps and looking into the rearview mirror. If I wore cologne, it would be named regret and smell of a struck match, rubbing alcohol and old, water-stained bills.

But the poem “Rewinding an Overdose On a Projector” is achingly beautiful in its attempt to reverse disaster. Thanks to Victoria Chang for sharing it.

For the first prompt, reverse a catastrophe or a mistake. Perhaps describe the bride and groom each sliding the wedding bands off fingers, the bride walking backwards up the aisle, and ushers emptying the church one by one.

For the second prompt, writing a poem using the following verbs from Shearer’s poem: “floats,” “twitch,” “wakes,” “seals,” “pushes,” “fluffs,” “shrinks,” “grows,” “grows,” “rains,” “spill,” and “remains.”

For the next prompt, notice how the lines reverse not only the time sequence, but also the agency: “The wet cotton lifts” and “The water pours into a plastic bottle.” Experiment with changing the receiver and the doer of an action in a poem. What effects does the change create?

For the fourth prompt, use the line “The heart wakes like a handcar pumping faster and faster on its greased tracks” as a ghostline. Remember to use that line to jump off from and then erase it from your poem. Still give credit to the poet though.

What changes if the viewer is looking down rather than up? Write a poem or short story in which directions are reversed, and the reader is kept in suspense until the end or is never certain.

For the last prompt, notice the delicacy of the mold. Describe the un-blooming of this mold and resurrect the fallen tree upon which the mold sprouts. Which is more sacred: the life of the consumed or the consumer? Try to cast the metaphysical in scientific terms. See what the dichotomy creates.

Mad Lib a Meme and Odd Conversations: The What-Were-You-Thinking Prompts

Lately all of my poems have been serious (depressing), and the novel is just a no-go right now, so let’s be silly.

For the first prompt, take the old meme shown below and change the nouns and verbs. This is your chance to be as ridiculous as you have always wanted to.

For the second prompt, choose any poem and mad lib it. Use the antonyms for nouns, adjectives and verbs. See what happens. If you use another poet’s work, make sure you have truly created something of your own if you plan to submit it for publication. This is probably best used for an excercise to jumpstart a workshop or personal writing session.

For the next prompt, personify and write a conversation between the burnt branch and the twig. Are they two selves of the same individual, a parent and child, or master and protege? What happens next in your story?

Or write a poem and use the burnt tree and the new twig to represent the past and the future, outcomes and expectation, 2008 vs 2019, or perhaps again two selves of the same person.

Magic Realism Bot for the End Times—Stolen Prompts about Stealing, Libraries and the End of Time

For the first prompt, write a poem about the end of time using the format of a mathematical word problem. Bonus points if you provide the solution. Or offer a suggestion on who could.

For the next prompt, write a story about the queen’s attempted theft of the amethyst carnation using the pacing and storyline of Ocean’s 8.

For the next prompt, write a poem or short story about this world of libraries. Be sure to explain how the Dewey Decimal System has been applied to the nature and the animal kingdom. Are the oceans kinder under such a classification? How does the platypus fit in a stacked world?

And, finally, write a poem or story from the psychiatrist’s perspective. What would you tell this star (now that the best pun has been taken)?

NaNoWriMo Has Been a NadaNoWriNo

This month has not been productive. Obviously not here but certainly not on the novel. Leaking pipes and dripping ceilings aside, the lack of progress is all self-(un)directed. So if you are working on the challenge, how is it going? Let me know!

For this month, I will focus on fiction prompts (although it’s always a bonus if a poem comes out too). For this prompt, I am borrowing Alan Cheuse’s writing exercise from Naming the World. Cheuse recommends pastiche—or imitating other writers—to help newer writers improve their techniques. He assigns students a famous story such as Checkhov’s “The Lady with the Pet Dog” and has the student write from the viewpoint of Anna’s husband or another character.

Alan Cheuse

Bonus prompt: Write from the perspective of this lion. WTH did you do to make him look at you like that.

Work Terrors—What Follows You Home into Your Dreams That No Raise Can Put Down!

So the other day I went to the dentist and asked her what kind of workplace nightmares she has—you know, the normal conversations you have with someone you have drooled on for 30 minutes (and apologized for, repeatedly).

“Blood. Lots of Blood,” she replied.

Then she described the true horror: “You know when you are eating watermelon and spitting out the seeds. My nightmares involve spitting out teeth. More and more teeth.”

Yep, her workplace dreams sure beat my forgot-to-wear-pants-hope-the-students-don’t-notice nightmares. Or the recent one in which I brought only a pillow and a notebook to a knife fight. Even in my dreams I am unprepared…

So for your prompt, write a poem or short story about the last nightmare you had. Fill in the gaps where necessary. Color in the blanks. Make them red and dripping, or surreal and disturbing as that cooing baby sun from the Teletubbies.

For added difficulty, create a turn in the story; for the poem, make it a sonnet with the shift coming either at the 9th line (Petrarchan) or at the 13th (Shakespearean).

Good luck!

Bonus prompt: This is your head; now tell us your memories from inside the jar.

NaNoWri Is Coming For You!!! Muhahahahaha

Sorry for the hiatus, my iPad was out of commission and then my discipline was… I will post another Halloween-themed prompt tomorrow, but I wanted to discuss NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month challenge) because it starts this Friday.

The NaNoWriMo challenge is writing 50,000 words of a novel in one month. Recently, the challenge has been expanded to include collections of poems, short stories, memoirs and other genres. Technically, the project is supposed to be a new novel or all new stories/poems/writing, but of course just getting people to write is the point. I have tried twice and once completed the challenge a few years ago. I decided to do it again this year because I need to shift from poetry to fiction for a while.

One of the things I really enjoyed about NaNoWriMo was the community support. The NaNoWriMo site offers tips, tools, online writing buddies, and group writing events. For more information about the challenge and to sign up, go to organization’s website nanowrimo.org

Join me in the all-night slogs and, I hope, the eventual celebration.. Let me know if you plan to register at the NaNoWriMo site, so that we can be buddies.

Barren Magazine—Prompts and Submission information

Barren Magazine’s Issue 13 is open for submissions of poetry, flash fiction, creative nonfiction and photography. The prompts are suggested themes but not restricted to them. For more information on guidelines, click here.

Good luck!

Growing Teeth on the Inside—Vagina Dentata and Other Prompts for the Strong Stomached

For the first prompt, use the picture of the ovarian teratoma to write a poem or short story from the perspective of a tissue that has grown teeth and sentience inside another’s body. Does your narrator feel safe and content within the other, or does the narrator want to chew its way out of its prison? How much does the narrator understand of its world and its own limitations?

For more information on this dermoid cysts and teratomas and its possible relation to the myth of vagina dentata, click here.

For the second prompt, write a variation of a vagina dentata poem. Think of the movie Teeth but with less assault and more bite (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun). For inspiration, here is a poem by the amazing Arminé Iknadossian.

Btw, this poem was published in Moon Tide Press’s Dark Ink: A Poetry Anthology Inspired by Horror. Come out to Goldenest Diner (13030 Goldenwest, Westminster) on October 17th at 7 p.m. to hear more poems from this anthology. Don’t forget to wear your dark side on the outside to compete in the costume contest!

For the final prompt—muhhahahahahaha—make a list of five iconic objects/image of a famous horror or suspense movie and write from that object’s or image’s perspective. What does Freddy’s blade-embedded glove help him keep track of? To-do lists, to-kill lists, multiplication tables? What does the elevator want to carry in its belly in The Shining? Does the elevator see itself as a protector or a villain?

Weekly 150-Word Flash Fiction Competition—Prompt and Contest

Even though this is not horror-themed, I wanted to post this competition for all you flash fiction writers. Here is the link to the publication and submission form.

Chanting Turkeys, Final Countdowns, and a Basement Vortex—Prompts for October

For October all of my prompts will be weird and creepy. Also, I am trying to write more horror poems to jumpstart next month’s NaNoWriMo challenge (National Novel Writing Month).

For the first prompt, write what the turkeys are chanting as they circle a dead cat in the road. Is it a dirge, an elegy, an ode, or maybe a limerick? Perhaps it is the nine-line, countdown poem, the nonet?

For a video of the circling turkeys, click here.

For the next prompt, write a poem on the theme of a countdown to the apocalypse, armageddon, the Rapture, a Nickelback revival, or similar event of wholesale terror and bloodshed using the form nonet—a nine-line poem in which the first line has nine syllables, the second has eight, and so on until the last line with only one syllable. For more information and a sample poem, check out Robert Lee Brewer’s explanation on the Writer’s Digest site.

For the last prompt, write a short story or poem based on the photo below. What came through the vortex and why? What happened next?

Good luck!

I aspire to be Magic Realism Bot—Prompts

Twitter can be a joy—full of pet pics, shade-throwing dictionaries, Chuck Wendig, Sappho Bot and of course Magic Realism Bot. I simply cannot outdo Magic Realism Bot, so I will acknowledge my defeat and steal its prompts….

If the witch’s cauldron doesn’t jumpstart any ideas, let’s play around a bit. If life is a bowl of cherries of alternate timelines, you have chosen to eat the one containing the pit of hell with undercooked eggs and Nickelback on an endless loop. Describe.

O you escape that pit only to be faced with the same bowl of cherries: the next one contains the Garden of Eden with carnivorous daisies and deceitful tulips, but the dragonflies…they are tiny fire-breathing terrors and you have invaded their tettitory. What is plan of escape and your weapon of choice?

Next prompt: Who literally killed poetry, and what were the motive and the weapon? Be alliterative detective.

OMG, I cannot even blame the wine. I didn’t have any…

Sooo sorry.

Animus, Schadenfreude, and Rancor: Giving Birth to All My Little Bitter Joys—Prompts

I want to thank Jan Stinchcomb for messaging me this poem. It is incredible.

For the first prompt, use the last line of Dayna Patterson’s “Self-Portrait as Titania with Newborn Animus”: “All my words call for bandages” as a ghostline. Go from there. Ignite.

I find the imagery in this poem breathtaking. Only on a second reading, did I notice all of the sound devices—alliteration, consonance and assonance as well as the careful attention given to rhythm. So many examples of sound repetition: “womb of worry,” “faith has fled,” “fathers’ fallow,” “What are we but the leavings.” So lovely.

For the second prompt, write a poem in couplets and include this repetition in at least one of the two lines and consciously slow down phrases and lines for greater effect. The phrase “vernix of red flame” felt heavy in my mouth as did the hyphenating of phrases—their slowness mimicking the birth in the poem. I am not a sound poet and often miss these devices, although I am trying to improve both my performance and my awareness of sound and rhythm for the reader. If you prioritize sound or at least balance it with imagery more than I, please offer suggestions in the comments. I would love to hear them.

For the third prompt, take one of the questions in the poem and write a response poem answering that question.

For the final prompt (as usual), write a poem or story using the following words: “vernix,” “fringe,” “cusp,” “scorch,” “linkage” “flesh,””rope,” “render,” “sterile,” and “wounds” but do not use either birth nor botany/farming as your subject matter.

And as always, make sure to avoid mimicking another’s voice—make the words and images your own—and acknowledge the poet for your inspiration.

Good luck!

The Form of Hope—Prompts

For the firstt prompt, take the line “All poetry is a form of hope” (midway in the poem) from Dean Young’s “Small Craft Talk Warning” to use as a ghostline. From there, create a list of items that somehow are the form for hope. Play with the idea of poetic forms. Perhaps include an image to represent morning for an aubade (a love song or poem associated with dawn). See what connections you can make between poetic forms and personal associations. Bend, blend, and reform however necessary.

I appreciate this poem’s disparate images. I have not yet found the through line but am not disturbed or disappointed that I haven’t. Instead, the poem feels like each image is a separate treasure or is akin to people watching and trying to explain the relationships seen among a group.

For the next prompt, take five concrete nouns from the poem (e.g., “hive,” “ornaments,” “ghost,” “dosage,” “space station”) and five verbs/would-be verbs (“miscalculate,” “thaw,” “forces,” “probing,” “counted”) and mix and match. See what creates friction and write in whatever form—sonnet, free verse, flash fiction, etc.— works in the moment.

As always, give credit to the poet who inspired you and be careful to write in your own voice. Good luck!

Bonus prompt: create a dialogue between the two small piles of stones and lighthouses in the distance.

Event and Prompt: This Wednesday at the Ugly Mug—Dark Ink Anthology Reading! Be there and be scared (of me apparently)

Mermaids, monsters, 50-ft. women, oh, my! Join us at 8 p.m. at the Ugly Mug in Orange for your favorite creature feature and Moon Tide’s publisher Eric Morago whom I blackmail into publishing me because I keep his darkest secret in an empty Kleenex box on my bedside table. I haven’t ever seen it—it is a dark secret and avoids the light, duh—but I feed it pumpkin seeds, so I know it is still there. Buy the book and free his secret or his soul—both probably cost the same.

And now for the first prompt: write a poem or story about taking a mermaid for a lover or an enemy. For inspiration, read Jan Stinchcomb’s “The Lorelei Project.” Just remember, not all hearts beat warm. 

 (This is the mermaid I created out of rocks, seaweed, and shells a few years ago.)

And here is a picture of me looking very intense (or my attempt at frightening at the Dark Ink anthology launch:

(Photo by Alexis Rhone Fancher)

And here is my mermaid poem in the anthology...but you have to buy the book to read the ending of “Mermaid: The Ending.”

Thank you, Adrian Ernesto Cepeda, for the photo and for the plug on Twitter!

Christmas Prompts—The Gift of the Internet

Last year I came up with my own prompts for the holiday; this year, just a big nope. My brain this holiday season is the blankest page in a notebook, not even lined. So here is a list of writing prompts for both poetry and fiction from Litbridge.  

And here is a bizarre short story that I loved from Greg Van Eekhout and found today on Twitter. Again, Twitter (in spite of all of my griping about Nazis, incels and bots (oh, my!) is a blessing. How could I not click on the link with that description...

NaNoWriMo NOW—First Day to 50,000 Words

Hi all, I meant to give prior notice, but procrastinating and petting my cat Pebbles took priority...as usual. This month is National Novel Writing Month—a don’t-fuss-just-write writing challenge. The goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. The goal is not to write 50,000 perfect and polished words (if you do, then awesome!), but just to write. After November, you have the start of a novel to then complete the story, revise, edit, revise some more, edit, edit, edit... 

Ideally, you should have a plot outline and some characters thought out. I don’t have either. Let’s just jump in and start swimming. I have however signed up at the nanowrimo.org site. This organization really does provide a lot of support, including writing events and writing buddies, and fun rewards. [It also encourages younger writers in K-12 schools and gives resources and materials to libraries.]

What kind of prizes can you get for completing the challenge—other than bragging rights, of course? The T-shirt. Really, it is all about the T-shirt—a self-congratulation to wear on your chest and a pat on your back for your back. I did complete the challenge in 2013. OMG, I did not realize it has really been five years.... Regardless, I still wear the shirt and will until it disintegrates into fine layer of lint. (yes, yes, yes, the date is on the shirt, and I still didn’t realize how long ago, but I don’t stare at my shirt unless I spill food on myself). 

So go to the site, sign in, and start in. Good luck!  

Keys, Hopes and Dreams—The What-You’ve-Lost Prompt

Humans destroy and break things—hence the invention of bandages, spackle, superglue, duct tape and  a whole industry providing windshield repair. But humans may lose more things than they break. I don’t have the percentages on me right now—I think I left them in the other side of my brain. So write a prompt for what you have lost—phone in the toilet, wedding ring in the ocean, your Play-Doh partner from preschool, your imaginary friends and real friends and frenemies, your belief in human progress, your cat Fluffy, your hope for the future, your memory of last Thursday, your childhood self and your sense of self. 

Imagine an afterlife in which all that you have lost is reunited. You are surrounded by mixtapes and house keys, friends and library books, grandparents and pets, all of the former selves and the self-confidence you held for one whole week...

I love both of these poems: “In the Museum of Lost Objects” by Rebecca Lindbergh and “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop. 

Not pearly gates but gates to somewhere...

Hulk Smash—The What-You’ve-Broken Prompt

Humans are clumsy creatures. We do NOT land on our feet, but so much lands around our feet in shards and splinters. I personally seem to project a field of chaos—technology fritzes out, clocks slow down, sidewalks crack, people trip and fall, hopes crash and best intentions collide all at my presence.

Write a poem or short story about what you have broken: hearts and a liver, globes—whether worlds or grapes, a companionable silence, a marriage, bones or an exoskeleton, the shadow of a bird, a unicorn’s last hope, a sense of order, any sense at all, etc. After you broke it, did you buy it? If you did, in what coin did you purchase its loss? If not, whom or what do you still owe? Where do you carry that debt? On your back, around your neck, in your belly or inside your throat?

For inspiration, read “What’s  Broken” by Dorianne Laux.

Hulk toe smash.