WRITING PROMPTS ROUND UP

Here we go, a selection of the daily writing prompts I put up on Twitter. Follow me here, but do say hello so I can follow you back!

* A banker takes a holiday...

* An argument conducted through Facebook statuses (stati?)

* Fish and chips always taste best when...

* An exhaustively detailed account of opening the curtains...

* I'm in the mood for ....

DYING - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

It was on Monday when Joe first saw the colours surrounding people. The red round Mrs Robins was so strong he couldn’t look at her. His friend Caryn was yellow, like sunlight. He ran home. Gasped as he saw the bright beautiful white light coming from where his father waited.



More 50 word photostories here.

CURLING - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

Toast crusts make your hair curl. She tells her daughters this, watching the way they both cram their mouths full, put their fingers up to their heads hopefully. It’s just a way of getting you to behave, she wants to yell. But she cries instead. Tells them they’re good girls.



More 50 word photostories here.

PRICKLY - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

Graham tells her she should be softer. What has she got to lose? But he doesn’t know the last man she loved left her in debt and still hurting. It’s only recently she’s started to trust again. She rubs her arm, feels the goosebumps like small prickles under her skin.


More 50 word photostories here.

HUNTED - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

She told Harry she was an expert rider. Even rode point-to-points. Such fun, she said, tossing back her hair. She thought he’d only be a one-night stand. Not her Mr Right. Mother’s desperate to meet you, he tells her. She’d almost given up on me meeting a proper horsey girl.



More fifty word photostories here.

STRAIGHT THINKING - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

She’s learning to change her mind. She’s putting all the old twisted thoughts behind her, and concentrating only on positive happy things. Like puppies. Who grow into barking dogs. What about daisies? Chains to tie you down. Rainbows. Which automatically mean rain. Babies. No, she doesn’t want to go there.




More 50 word photostories here, and do feel free to leave your own 50 word version in the comments section.

TWITTER WRITING PROMPTS

I've got a bit lost with putting up on here my daily writing prompts from Twitter, so here's a random selection.

Take, enjoy, write - and don't judge me. It's fiction!



* She knew she shouldn't have pretended to be a doctor...

* He thought everyone else would be in fancy dress...

* Stood up by John Logie Baird...

* Things I don't want to own any more...

* The splinter...

* Making breakfast for a stranger ...

* My cupboards have been rearranging themselves without me...

* He has started to dress like Cheryl Cole ...

FILLING THE WELL - A 50 WORD PHOTOSTORY

Who would have thought they would miss water? After the decree about only drinking wine, there were celebrations. Everyone came into work late the next morning. And the next. Until they cursed at Chardonays, moaned over Merlots. I don’t like to tell you what they did to the Pouilly Fuisse.

More 50 word stories here.

Which way to the winner?

Thanks for all your entries to the competition to win a signed copy of Natural Navigator book.

I pulled out a correct winning entry and the book will be searching out its way very soon to Rachel Green...

Congratulations, Rachel, and if you didn't win and are still intrigued by the book, it really is very good - you can buy it here.

WISE WORDS FROM RAY BRADBURY, AND A WRITING EXERCISE

The current edition of PARIS REVIEW magazine, has an interview with RAY BRADBURY which is well worth searching out and reading.

This bit struck me most though, not least because it is what I am always telling my students:

You can't write for other people. You can't write for the left or the right, this religion or that religion, or this belief or that belief. You have to write the way you see things.

And of course, if you are authentic your beliefs may come across. But they will not be forced. And they will matter.

So how do we do this?

In the interview Ray Bradbury suggests this great exercise - again students of mine may recognise it, but it's good to see that RB himself uses it. I've adapted it for here:

TEN THINGS:

Make a list of then things you hate. Write a poem or story really ranting about them.

Now make a list of then things you love. Celebrate them in your writing. Go over the top. A love poem to your electric lightswitch.

And lastly combine up to five things from each. Combine them in such a way the reader doesn't realise this is an exercise. Can you swop them? Form a passion for something on your hate list, or mock a precious thought or object.

Whatever happens, you will have created a piece with energy and life. Plus it's fun. Which is never a bad thing.

LIKE BEES TO HONEY...

WELCOME TO CHAPTER 30 OF CAROLINE SMAILE'S WONDERFUL NEW BOOK....

Open publication - Free publishing

AND BECAUSE YOU'RE BOUND TO WANT TO READ MORE, YOU CAN BUY THE BOOK HERE....


OR GO BACK TO READ RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING AT CAROLINE'S OWN BLOG HERE...

AND CARRY ON READING THE REST OF THE BOOK HERE

THANKS FOR BLOG HOPPING. DO TAKE SOME CAKE WITH YOU AND COME BACK SOON....

Oliver Sacks on Writing | Oliver Sacks | Big Think

Oliver Sacks on Writing | Oliver Sacks | Big Think

Another treat for you...

Remember this competition, and the winner, the most amazing HOLEN SABRINA KAHN?

Well, Holen very kindly sent me this beautiful card of the quote, and has allowed me to share it on here...



I should have mentioned that the beautiful translation given by Holen (and used above) is by Marilyn Kallet.

I do urge you to visit both Holen and Marilyn's sites. I found them both extraordinary.

WHEN STORIES COME TO LIFE...

One funny thing about a blog is that you are often sending thoughts and stories out into the darkness, particularly when there aren't many comments about them. So it's always a welcome shock to find that people have not just actually read my stories but have done something about them. Remember this Fifty word story?

Well, last week I was contacted by a design student called Chris Ford, who has produced this wonderful animation based on those fifty words.

I'm delighted.



Hope you enjoy it too!

ON IMPROVING OUR STORY TITLES

OK, I'm still smarting at one review - a very OLD review admittedly but I remember every single word - that suggested I could improve the titles of my stories. Anyway, I've just been thinking about a title for the current story and not coming up with much.

So reading these song titles cheered me up tremendously.

What about:

You Were Only A Splinter As I Slid Down The Bannister Of Life

or

I've Been Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart

and how about this one

Velcro Arms, Teflon Heart

There are more here. Lots and lots more actually. Which is your favourite? I'll eat my hat if someone doesn't opt for:

C’mon Down off the Stove, Granny, You’re Too Old to Ride the Range

Somehow I don't think my titles are all that bad!

Closing date for Natural Navigator Comp..

Oops, sorry. I AM now officially rubbish at competitions. Just to confirm that the entries for the Natural Navigator book competition (see below) will close on Wednesday 19th May. I will pick one of the winning entries, and Tristan will send the book. To the right address. And not getting lost on the way....

SO WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE IDEAS THAT DON'T QUITE WORK?

(And have a sneaky look at the final piece and meet Bertha here!)

So how does the creative process work?

Of course if there was one quick answer to that, there wouldn't be any point in being artists, or writers, or scientists. We could just programme the computer and let it go. But there's no doubt it's addictive to keep trying to uncover our own creative processes.

Several times on this blog, I've written about how I sabotage myself with trying to do too many things at once. One of the exercises in Barbara Sher's book, Refuse to Choose has been useful beyond belief in helping me address this.

So to show how it works for me, I'm going to explore the process involved in one particular project, a collaboration between four writers and four artists for an upcoming exhibition at the Tunbridge Wells art gallery based on objects held in the basement there. I wrote here about how I decided to use a collection of dolls patterns, some cut out of old newspapers, as the object I was going to work with.



But what was I going to do with them?

I carried the idea of the dolls patterns in my head, the photographs on my phone, my notes in my daily journal. I thought about poems. About stories. About short plays. The best way to describe what was going on in my mind was chaos. It wasn't pretty to live with.

But I stuck with it, using what Twyla Tharp calls scratching. It is absolutely astonishing to me, every time, how if you can hold an idea in your head then you pick up more and more ideas and images that make it more substantial. It is a form of magnetism. And when you start to attract the right metals, there is that same buzz like an electric shock. Ping!

My final itch came when I visited the V&A's Quilt exhibition and read the beautiful story about a quilt still retaining its mosiac of paper templates cut out of love letters.

But what should I do with all the other ideas. The ones I've been convinced at separate times that they were RIGHT.

Cue Barbara Sher, and her journal idea.



Barbara Sher suggests that rather than just dismissing the idea, or following each new lead like a headless chicken, we can write it down in our journal. Play with it there, write exactly what we liked about the idea, the sources that drew us to it, and to dream too. Write about it as the bestselling, Turner or Booker Prize winning, world changing idea we thought it was for even jsut one minute.

So here - presented rather nervously, I must admit - are three ideas I've recorded in my journal but have dismissed for this particular project. I would dearly love to do something with them one day though, so having them outlined so clearly really helps. It's not something I've tried before reading Barbara's work, trusting on the invisible compost approach but running in danger, if I'm honest, of filling up with so many ideas I couldn't get any space to breathe. Here, at least, I get them OUT!



Above is one of a series of paper cut out dolls I was thinking about. Each dress made from a different newsmedia - financial, cooking, travel, interior, fashion - and with an apt caption.



And this comes from the idea of erasure poetry, something I've been playing with a lot recently. Instead of particular words, I was thinking about inserting different versions of the word 'doll'. Changing 'facts' so they mean something quite different.



Those first two ideas I spent a bit of time on, cutting and sticking like a demented playschooler, but just to show it doesn't have to be so complicated, here's my scribble for taking the concept of patterns being sent in an envelope - sometimes across the world - and what those patterns could mean to the receiver. Here I was thinking of stories, in the form of instructions, for making worlds, or lives, or even stories.

And what idea did I choose?

Hah, you'll just have to come to the exhibition when it opens!

WIN A COPY OF THE NATURAL NAVIGATOR!

However many times I rave about Tristan Gooley's book, The Natural Navigator, I will still find something new to say. Just as everytime I read it, I learn a new trick, a new myth, a new story idea.



This time, it's made me think about how many times I've stifled a natural desire to play through a tendency to read too much theory about it. Something interests me, hey, I will go straight out and look for experts or classes or websites to tell me about it.

Because if I'm honest, many many times I buy the books and I don't even read them. It's as if I am buying the time or desire to be an expert in the subject. As if the book will miraculously leak its knowledge into my brain.

But anyway, I am digressing, following a scenic route (although I feel somehow Tristan approves of scenic routes). Why I'm thinking about this, is something he says about how, in his desire to find out about navigation he took and passed many many courses before he started wondering about what he was doing:

"In the midst of studying books at night about air law and learning how to find my way using radars, I came to the ackward realisation that this technical detail had little in common with the passion that had been within me since early childhood.... it was the sense of connection that the journeys brought that really excited me, the contact with the world around me.... In a bid to gain the skills to undertake the journeys I dreamed of, I had been forced into another world, one as removed from my romantic impulses as can be imagined.'

And I think why I love this book so much is that Tristan Gooley is so good at getting across - and back to - his original passion, not just for navigating but for travelling in the first place. As he says,

'We travel not only to escape, consume and copulate, but also to think and create. Jean-Jacques Rosseau wrote, 'When I stay in one place I can hardly think at all.'

(above is the cushion in my writing room, probably one of my favourite possessions)

And now I'm delighted to say that Tristan has offered this blog a chance to win a signed copy of his book. All you have to do is to answer this question:

Which of the following is untrue...

Drivers have blamed satnav for:

a) driving into the wrong country
b) getting stuck in a country lane
c) nearly driving off a cliff
d) all of the above

For obvious reasons, you'd be better sending your entries to my email address - sarahsalway -@- googlemail.com (obviously the dashes and spaces are to confuse the spam robots, not you guys so just leave them out!).

Good luck!

WRITING PROMPTS ROUND UP

Ooops, a little late in putting these up. Many apologies.


Mon: The secret gold mine in her garden

Tues: She has become an angry knitter

Wed: Her fingers start talking without her

Thurs: She sees the dog vote. It even winks at her.

Fri: The decline and fall of Emily Scrivens


And just a reminder, you can get these daily from my Twitter account.

PUMPKIN'S PROGRESS

The earth is moving....

CALLING THE ARTISTS TO EAT

OK, it might not be the only one, but how tempting is the idea of buying this bell to call family to supper, as supposedly used by Grace Higgens, housekeeper for the Charleston Bloomsbury set?

It would be a good story anyway. Although maybe not one worth nearly £500.

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON'T VOTE?

The novel, SEEING, by the Portugese writer, Jose Saramago, is surely the ultimate book to read in election week.

Set in a mythical country, it starts with an election in which hardly anyone in the Capital turns up to vote. The Government hold a second election, threaten the populace who, to the politicians' satisfaction, queue up outside the election booths, but when the vote is counted, eighty three percent of the votes are blank. This isn't against the law, and no one is legally obliged to say how they voted, but the Government turn against their people. No one likes to be made a fool of.

They declare a siege on their capital, before they realise that they are in fact still living there. So they move to a different city, at night, in silence. The capital is no longer the capital until the people who live there remember their duty. Or at least until the Government can catch who is responsible for the movement that has become known as 'blankers.'

Trouble is there seems to be no ring leaders, and the only aggression comes from the Government itself. In fact, if anything, the blankers show that peaceful co-operation is stronger than any resistance.

Something needs to happen.

Then the Prime Minister is sent a poison pen letter pointing the finger of blame at one woman. At last the Government has a scapegoat. Three policemen are sent back into the capital for a secret mission - to catch this woman and force her to take responsibility. The trouble is that the Superintendent has a conscience. A statement he read once won't leave him alone:

"When we are born, when we enter this world, it is as if we signed a pace for the rest of our life, but a day may come when we will ask ourselves Who signed this on my behalf?
"

A metaphor running through this book is blindness.* What happens in a country when everyone goes blind, apart from one person? She can see perfectly. Therefore, the book points out, she has to be dangerous. The rest of the population are content to allow other people to see things on their behalf.

It's not an easy book to read - both in the terms of content and also style. The paragraphs run on for pages sometimes, allowing no break. The dialogue is not laid out line by line as someone speaks, but often a whole conversation between several people will form part of the same sentence. But this is a perfect example of form following theme. No one stands out. No one can be separated from the masses. It's hard to get a grip on the story.

It reminded me of the wonderful film, The Lives of Others, in its handling of the tricky question of what is goodness. I thought it just brilliant. And I picked it up at just the right time.

Come Friday morning, the one question I don't want to be asking is: 'Who signed this on my behalf?"

(* as explored in Blindness.)

NEW FACEBOOK GROUP

At the beginning of the year, when I was going to get organised, before life hit me with a great big wallop of reality as it often does, I had taken the first steps to starting a mailing list. This is still in progress, so thank you for all those who signed up but as you will have spotted, nothing much has happened on that front!

However, in the meantime, I've started a facebook group specifically for my writing news.

Do come and join me there, if you want.

Identity Parade

Selected poets from the new anthology Identity Parade reading a poem each:

WRITING PROMPTS ROUND UP

1, But not even to save your life...?

2. The trees have been dreaming again.

3. Things that once scared me but don't any more.

4. His flat is crowded with life size models of celebrities.

5. The hotel room speaks.

Enjoy!

More prompts here: Daily Writing Practice and some thoughts about using them. I put these prompts up daily on Twitter, Monday to Friday, follow me here.