Help me.
Writer’s block sets in slowly and as unpredictably as does productive bursts of semi-genius. Rare is the latter, the former happens at least once a month. Blame the cancer writer’s block occurs far more often than it used to back in my “normal life.” But cancer became my go to writing prompt for the simple fact that it became my life. It’s neither fortunate nor ever what I’d choose to write about but it’s clearly important. Still, I run out of ideas or my chemo brain or brain fog if you prefer robs me of ideas. I am compelled to jot everything down now. My running list of writing prompts helps me get out of the wet cement and so I can run with my output.
While writing typically comes quite naturally, poems can take years to get right and essays can become stale before I’m finishing the final paragraph. I always go back to my old expired or uninspired writing to take another whack at it or to just not begin with a blank stare at a blank page. I keep it in my journals scattered all over the house, and car, and in purses, in between books I’m reading. You get the point…but I don’t toss away or delete anything unless it’s pure drivel. The white page glaring at me keeps my mind dormant at times.
So if you take a single piece of my advice, for what it’s worth, it’s don’t start with a blank page. And reused writing is only one way to get the job done.
Using writing prompts does as well. Keeping up a self created running list isn’t necessary. You can feel free to use some of mine listed below or check out the web by searching up “writing prompts.” Specific or general you’ll find something to write about or to get the old noggin in gear. So dig deep or tread in the shallow end of the pool, but write. Your blog needn’t be the final goal, nor your work on some overdue white paper for work. Using prompts might just surprise you, though.
My prompts ran away with my homework
In the mirror this morning…
If I had wings…
The universe…
The concept of time…
Kindness…
Laughing…
My expectations of…
When I think about (place) I think about…
If tomorrow…
Changing my mind about…
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day…
I want to grab a flight tonight to …
If I could predict the outcome of…
When it rains…
At night I love to…
The first thing I do every day…
I want to change my…
I woke up…
Sunshine…
Full moons…
Mythology character…
Music gives me…
A letter to…
If I knew at 20 what I know now…
Death…
Birth…
If tomorrow never came…
I am so afraid of…
Spiders…
The last thing I ever expected was…
My skin feels…
I wish ____was here because…
Suddenly…
My patience…
The best possible way to…
Under a microscope…
In a telescope…
I grew up…
I feel like a little kid when…
The best age to be is…
If I were born in the year (past)…
If I were born in the future…
When I cannot fall asleep…
I think about____all the time…
Ice cream…
I want to live to see…
It’s no use, I…
Finally…
Walking along the ocean…
Driving in the mountains…
Rollercoasters…
Beginning…
Endings…
Nighttime…
Mornings…
Secretly I love…
I’ve always loved…
I never did like…
Flowers…
Technology…
My favorite musical genre is…
The best day looks like…
My best day to date…
My partner…
Being (religion)…
Museums…
This song brings me back to…
The scent of/ odor of reminds me of…
I finally learned how to…
Cats are better than dogs…
A group of ravens is called a murder…
My top 3 online prompt resources
In my experience, these websites provide fertilizer for sprouting ideas of your own, with straightforward, self explanatory, yet engaging writing prompts. Although these sites focus on poetry, you could eagerly apply most of them to prose, non-fiction, even science or psychology.
I love these lists I reckon for several reasons. First, they get straight to the prompting. No book selling after a tease of a dozen prompts, no sign up forms for more spam email. Just the content without shameful self promotion. Next, no one site takes the same approach to growing your ideas. Furthermore, the sites are professionally written and edited. They’re not cutesy or too self reflective, such as say a goth self published novel writer and their five best steampunk writing prompts. Finally, and my all time biggest web click regret: as the frustration of writer’s block bubbles to the surface while you browse your search engine’s top results, some sites muddy the content with perpetual advertisements bombarding your overloaded or underused senses.
My short list of the three best sites ALL alleviate frustration and grant you FREE access to the articles. Novel idea! Also the links below open up directly at the best articles with writing prompts but do check out each site.
