Describe an emotion without naming it—similar to a previous prompt in which you describe images but of a color but never name it. I think this is a good strategy generally to use to help you push beyond the first phrase and image to explore new connections.
Choose One—A Twitter Prompt
For this prompt, choose one of the following: write a poem in which you ask your question and receive either your truth or your lie.
Second prompt: Write a poem about yourself telling all lies or all truths.
Bonus prompt: Choose one of these to worship as a minor deity. Write a poem of praise to your new god.
Unread Poems and Their Poets—Prompts Inspired by Wanda Coleman
I agree with Devin Gael Kelly: these three lines of Wanda Coleman’s “Obituary”—and the entire poem—did break me.
For the first prompt, skip those first three lines and use the next—“This sunset should trouble / the sky” as a ghostline. Remember to drop the line and give credit to the poet (such as “after Wanda Coleman”).
For the second prompt, write a poem using the following word list from the poem: “hard,” “trouble,” “fault,” “fall,” “felled,” “sound,” “empty,” “will,” “mean,” and “bare.”
For a third prompt, write a love poem that you will never show to anyone. Then take that poem and create an erasure poem out of it by deleting all the tenderness and joy from the lines. What is left?
For a final prompt, write a story or poem from the perspective of the minor deity of unnoticed loves. Let this god/goddess send small blessings—a convenient parking space, a slight breeze on a hot day, exact change found in the pocket—upon the lovers.
It’s NaNoWriMo Time!!!
November is here again, and it’s time to write 50,000 words of that brand new novel you’ve been kicking around—all in one month. National Novel Writing Month is celebrated (and cursed) by thousands of writers. Get an online writing buddy and entire community this month—along with tips, encouragement, and social events—through the NaNoWriMo site.
I will be honest—2020 is not the year for me to attempt NaNoWriMo. I have barely begun a manuscript that I thought would be finished this summer. But the year I did complete the challenge and the years that I didn’t manage to hit even close to the 50,000 by 11/30 were still great experiences. If you decide to begin, let me know and I will happily cheer you on!
Best of luck, everybody!!!
Image courtesy of NaNoWriMo.
And if you need some inspiration, here is a photo of Ursula Le Guin’s writing room.
So let your words spill out of you onto the floor, under the refrigerator and cabinets, and into all parts of the house just as these replacement beans for a beanbag chair so did.
Mix-n-Match Halloween Prompts!
In honor of Halloween, let’s do a Steve Ramirez style prompt: make a list of five monsters or horror movie villains, then a list of five children’s toys, and finally a list of disappointments or tragedies.
Roll dice for each of the categories, or cut them up and put all of a categories options into a hat and draw. Ultimately, see what clicks for you.
For example, perhaps the dice chose Godzilla to explain divorce to the Easy-Bake Oven, but Freddy Krueger just seems more familiar with ovens and furnaces. Go with your gut. Write the poem or short story that calls to you.
For a second prompt, reverse predator and prey: mouse and cat, fly and spider, antelope and tiger, rabbit and hunter…
I took the photograph below in an attempt to capture the face I saw in the stone and moss. Do you see it, or the small figure with outstretched arms that seemed like a thick, misshapen cross from a distance? As a child, I would stare sleepless at the “faces” in the knotty pine walls of my bedroom.
Remember a time when you thought you saw a face in a pattern or shadow, and you had been right. Now write what that figure would have warned you if you had only believed your eyes.
For the final prompt, write a poem or story from the perspective of the “final girl” who makes it to the end of the slasher film but write about your life. You may have to omit 2020 because some storylines just aren’t realistic.
An Imprint of Flight, Wings and Beak—Prompts
A bird flew into our sliding glass door and left an imprint of itself—even of its beak on the glass. I sincerely hope it recovered—we found no body the next morning—but I am using its outline as an excuse not to wash the window and as inspiration.
I also could not help thinking of how ducklings imprint and how another’s touch can create a lasting sensation on the skin or how memory seems to imprint certain places.
Write a poem about the voice you still hear in your head or the memory of another arms wrapped around yourself that you recall to comfort yourself during moments of fear or pain. Or write about what imprint, if any, you hope to leave on the world. Write about what echo or outline remains.
Read the lovely imagery in Alice B. Fogel’s “Variation 3: Snapping Turtle,” Gina Franco’s “Refrain,” or Claudia Reder’s “Untranslatable Song” or read Alex Dimitrov’s mournful “Together and Ourselves” or Carolyn Forché’s haunting “Selective Service” for inspiration.
For a bonus prompt, choose the last line from one of the linked poems to use as a ghostline. Remember to credit the author.
Measure Your “Blueness”—A Prompt for Sad Poets
Hey, poets, finally a technological invention specifically for us: an instrument to measure our “blueness” or our current saturation of sorrow.
Write a poem using the number system below for your current emotional chroma.
Bonus prompt: Write a poem or short story about an instrument that can predict and ultimately modify emotional states.
Short Story Time or Ekphrastic Poem—Your Choice for a Stolen Prompt
Once again a week has slipped by without me doing anything other than doom scrolling and procrastinating…so here is a prompt I stole from Twitter
Bonus prompt: Reread William E. Stafford’s poem “Traveling through the Dark.” Assume that the deer looking into the camera is the fawn the narrator pushed over the edge but who lived. Write a poem or short story that explains what comes next.
Revision time, people! On your mark, set, go!!!!
Your prompt is to take a poem and revise it one more time. For longer poems move down four or five lines from the end and begin there. For shorter poems, take the last line of the poem to use as your first. What happens? Better?
Try to avoid the 8th revision results as so aptly demonstrated by the following tweet and pic:
Alas, I have many poems that I revised into the second bird.
Bonus prompt: Write a Standard Operating Procedure for the second bird.
Prompt by Eduardo C. Corral
If I were an RPG character in my life, I would call myself Lollianne the Lazy. Another week of not writing, reading (except Doomscrolling), or editing others’ manuscripts…but I did see this on Twitter.
Write a persona poem from the statue’s perspective of emerging from the earth after centuries. Extra points for references of Persephone, the failed rescue of Eurydice, or any other descent into Hades or ascent from.
Bonus prompt: Write a monologue from Antinous, the lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian. After Antinous drowned in the Nile, Hadrian deified him.
Labor—Prompts Inspired by Robert Hayden
Labor Day honors the work and sacrifice by giving a day of rest, but of course many still have to go to outside jobs and others never stop working at home. I never believe anyone who says they are self-made; instead, I think they simply overlook all the people who work around them and for them.
For the first prompt, make a list of five tasks someone does for you regularly. This task could be performed by a family member, a friend, a partner, a coworker or someone in the community (thank you, essential workers). Choose one to write about. For inspiration, read Robert Hayden’s lovely “Those Winter Sundays” or click on the link to hear the audio recording.
For the second prompt, write a poem using the following words from the poem: “cracked,” “weekday,” “blaze,” “splintering,” “call,” “chronic,” “driven,” “polished,” “well,” and “lonely.”
For the last prompt, use “What did I know” as a ghostline or as an anaphora and don’t forget to credit the poet.
For the Few, the Many, the One, or the Rest of Us: Prompts Inspired by Wanda Coleman
Some poets only need a few lines to astonish me.
For the first prompt, think about the poem’s title. What does this choice indicate about the poem itself [From Merriam-Webster, “exoteric” means “suitable to be imparted to the public”; “belonging to the outer or less initiate circle”; “relating to the outside”/“external”]? Write a poem that asks universal questions and provide your own answers.
As you write or edit, consider whom you are writing this poem for? Whom do you generally picture as your audience? When you imagine yourself performing your poems in front of a crowd, who is there? Everyone you know, faceless blobs, or just a few particular people? Do the people change for each poem? Who is the general public now? Silent or vocal, majority or not, who needs these questions asked and answered?
Again think about the title and how it so encapsulates the poem’s lines. How would the answers differ if the title had been its antonym, “esoteric”? For the second prompt, write a poem using the title “Esoteric” to discover what happens. What questions—or perhaps only the answers to these rather universal questions—are restricted to only the few? Who are the insiders or the experts in your inner world and of what do only they know?
For the next prompt, take one of the italicized lines and use as a ghostline. Be sure to credit the poet.
This is an old picture of my daughter with a strand of seaweed she named “Lemony” and dragged behind her for the entire day. Rotting and crawling with flies, the seaweed didn’t seem sweet scented to me, but to her Lemony was golden. (Btw, she was not allowed to bring Lemony home.)
Bonus prompt: write about an imaginary friend or some cherished childhood item that others didn’t understand or appreciate in the same way.
Father This—Prompts Inspired by W. Todd Kaneko
Today is my father’s birthday, so I wanted to focus on father prompts and also fangirl this brilliant poem.
For the first prompt, collect five pictures of your father taken at different points in time, or of a powerful mentor if you prefer. What does his expression tell you about the time and him? How has he aged? Has you relationship changed? If so, how? Describe the last time you saw him in person.
For the second prompt, write a poem using the following words from the poem: “twist,” “frozen,” “saved,” “animal,” “smoke,” “surprise,” “serene,” and “whisper” but use at least two of the words twice.
For a third prompt, use the “We talked until” as a ghostline and be sure to give the poet credit. To read more poems by W. Todd Kaneko, check out the poet’s website.
Because We All Need Some Happiness—A Twitter Prompt
With all the stress and uncertainty, sometimes we need to harvest some small joy. Write a poem about a time you were utterly blissful. Perhaps it was during a relationship that didn’t last or maybe it was a time during childhood and that hopefulness is long gone; regardless, focus on that moment of elation.
Happy poems can be more difficult to write than sad ones. Pain and sorrow seem to translate across barriers and languages. We might worry that cheerful poems will come across as shallow or lazily sentimental—and they can—so practice writing joy so that your audience can experience it too. (This instruction is directed at myself more than anyone else.)
Bonus prompt: write a persona poem from the mouse. Be extravagant in your delight.
Another Stolen Twitter Prompt—Gathering Your Field of Ducks (per Autocorrect)
We don’t always get what we want but perhaps we do get what we deserve:
Write a poem in which you did this and, damn, did you ever. Or write a short story that’s story arc can summed up by this.
Good luck reaping what you sowed, but, hey, you got a story or a poem out of it. Good enough.
Flower-headed People, the Best People—Ekphrastic Prompts Inspired by Shaylin Wallace
I fell in love with these amazing photos by Shaylin Wallace. If only I could have my head replaced with flowers so that I could feed on light and my entire face could open up for my lover.
For the first prompt, write a monologue from one of these four portraits.
For the second prompt, write a conversation by the four of them. Or describe the language they share. Does it hum like bees or the ruffling of small wings? What does it mean when one of them opens up? Do the others listen? Do bees and other pollinators carry their words to one another?
For a third prompt, choose the one that represents you and explain why. If none of them resonate with you, check out the artist’s website, which include titles for these portraits. And here is where you can get reprints.
Here is the website in case the links don’t work: https://www.smwvisuals.com/photo-manipulations
OMG, It’s August and I Am Already Two Days Behind on the Sealey Challenge!
So I certainly know that one of the best ways to become a better writer is to be a voracious reader. I heard in a workshop (and of course cannot remember which or by whom) that writers need to spend three hours reading for every hour of writing. If Twitter counts, I certainly do that; otherwise…
Poet Nicole Sealey created the Sealey Challenge—read 31 poetry books or chap books in 31 days. Like NaPoWriMo (April’s writing 30 poems in 30 days challenge), there is no trophy, but the goal is to make you a better reader and writer, and online communities recommend and discuss books. The challenge is a way to promote new and lesser known authors too.
If you are interested in joining me, let me know! And of course send me your book recommendations!
Here is what I am reading now: Ways We Vanish by Todd Dillard. It’s excellent!
For your prompt, use the title “Ways Things Vanish” by Todd Dillard and create a list poem. Here are the first few lines of the poem (this link takes you to the entire poem in the journal Cotton Xenomorph).
Write a Damn Happy Poem—A Prompt and Reminder for Myself
I still am struggling with a lack of inspiration and motivation—the day slips by without me even starting what I had intended to finish. So much is terrible that it is difficult for me to find a quiet enough space inside to create something of my own.
Now it seems impossible to not echo the loss and rage all around (and feel guilt at my fortune in not losing anyone or being targeted). I recently wrote a poem that tried to explore some of the history of racial injustice in the US but instead sounded as if I were appropriating other people’s pain, and some of the language and imagery I used did not match my intention.
I am lucky to have friends who can read and point out my mistakes and offer me guidance, but of course I am responsible for ensuring I don’t appropriate another person’s experiences and that I don’t center myself in other people’s struggles.
I also don’t want to feel as if I am mining my own pain just for a poem to show off as if it were some trendy piece of jewelry, nor do I want to trap myself within my own trauma and erase all the joys I also experienced. Or forget that I survived. I found comedian Hannah Gadsby’s “Nanette” and “Douglas” to address these issues brilliantly.
Likewise I found Gaia Rajan’s poem “Inside Every Poem You Can Hear Muffled Screams” to be incredibly powerful and insightful. I know I will come back to it again and again.
Your prompt is to write a poem in which you free yourself within the poem from the cage you already escaped.
Bonus prompt: imagine spilling your guts and out came flowers and herbs.
Structure a Poem—An Editing Prompt Prompted by Twitter
A while back I read a fascinating discussion between two poets. Since then I have been thinking about quatrains as rooms and trying to visualize what a couplet would be. A covered porch, a gazebo? Here is the discussion below:
What kind of structure feels most natural to you? Or do you experiment with multiple forms? Why or why not? Has your structure changed over time?
For this prompt, take a poem you’ve written and reorganize it into first quatrains or then into couplets. Think of this process as creating spaces—either covered patios or indoor rooms. See what the affect of the extra line space affects the pacing. Which feels fits the poem better? Think about why and possibly even write down these differences to clarify this for yourself.
Analyze a set of four or five poems all related on a theme and edit them specifically for structure. See if the restructuring changes the overall feel.
If you wish, you can try to use this as a writing prompt: consciously write a poem as if you were building a structure with each stanza of quatrain as a wall/support or each couplet a covered walkway moving the poem along. What do you see? What is upheld by your structure? Where do you end up?
Bonus prompt: using sound associations of the word “monostrophe,” address a poem—in one stanza—to a monster. Good luck!
Saint Yourself Into an Obscure Deity—More Twitter Prompts from a Slacker
Still have not finished what I need to work on, and I am even having difficulty coming up with synonyms. My head is a TV with a dangling bunny ear antennae…all static and snow. I hope the rest of you are more productive.
If I were a patron saint, it would have to be of blank pages/screens and a nervously tapping foot. This next prompt is provided by @sharksandpoems on Twitter:
For this prompt, choose something small and specific or mundane. Let others be the saints of thunder and death, rebirth, truth and light. Be the patron saint of petrichor, of Vicks Vapor Rub, of the small bowl of extra pennies at a gas station.
Or elevate yourself to full-on deity, but be petty: god of the well, actually or goddess of the smirk-at-your-pandemic-pajamas-on-Zoom. Or be useful and unassuming: be the god of a lens wipe, goddess of the paper clip, the deity of the Forever stamp.
Or make yourself a nature divinity, one of a specific rock formation or tree branch or curve in a river.
For more ideas, check out this list of Roman deities: https://www.unrv.com/culture/minor-roman-god-list.php (apparently I cannot use the link function tonight, sigh).
