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There’s a darkness lurking deep in the souls of us all. Our parents instill in us a modicum of civilized behavior and that usually keeps our baser instincts at bay. But sometimes that blackness seeps to the surface and a monster walks quietly among us. Because we are not attuned to evil, we don’t see it rise up until it strikes us down without warning. -H. Terrell Griffin, Blood Island: A Matt Royal Mystery
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story about a person who becomes a monster.
Journaling Prompt: What is the darkness lurking inside of you? Does it ever come out?
Art Prompt: Evil Walks Among Us
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Inform your audience about functional psychopaths and how they can handle the situation if they have to deal with one at work.
Photo Credit: Ronny Robinson on Flickr
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As any urban dweller can tell you, the one thing that’s constant in city life is change. Buildings rise up and are torn down; parks bloom out of old train tracks; swimming pools become ice rinks that become arcades and then turn into Whole Foods. For this reason, urban historian Spiro Kostof calls the city a “process.” Cities change with the peoples that live in them, but they are also a repository of history. Even as we relentlessly build new structures, we prefer to remain in these old places where we can live in what’s left of cities and cultures that are hundreds or even thousands of years gone. -Annalee Newitz
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story with the city as your protagonist.
Journaling Prompt: Write about the changes you’ve witnessed in the city where you live (or your home town).
Art Prompt: The City
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Tell the story of your home town and how it has changed over time.
Photo Credit: Ron Henry Photography on Flickr
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Marty Silvio, a balding, overweight, cocky, cigar-chewing egoist who never really got a good look at himself in a mirror, enjoyed manipulating everything, including the truth. He called it “creative responsiveness.” – Laura Rizio, Blood Money
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story or scene involving Marty Silvio.
Journaling Prompt: Write about an egoist that you have known.
Art Prompt: Marty the Egoist
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Tell a humorous story about an egoist you’ve known or a serious story about an egoist who made the news.
Photo Credit: DaMongMan on Flickr
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We know that people make up false memories if prompted. But since our brain never stops being a jerk, we can also convert real memories into things we believe we imagined…
Cryptomnesia – the misattribution of memories – is a fairly easy trap to fall into. According to the The British Journal of Psychiatry, we experience partial cryptomnesia all the time. We remember things, but don’t remember where we learned them. So we may recommend a book to the person who recommended it to us, or tell a new piece of gossip to the person who first told us about it. We remember learning something, but not where we learned it. -Esther Inglis-Arkell
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story that relies on cryptomnesia as a plot point.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a time when you misremembered something.
Art Prompt: Cryptomnesia
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Inform your audience about the phenomenon of cryptomnesia and give a humorous example of a time when you experienced it.
Photo Credit: knitsteel on Flickr
Send to KindleSend to KindleWelcome to the Carnival of Creativity for May 19, 2013. All links will open in a new tab or window, so feel free to click through and leave some love in the comments. Once you close that window, you’ll be right back here for more linky goodness.
The Creative Mindset
Kevin Ashton presents Creative People Say No posted at Thoughts on Creativity.
Jennifer presents Do We Really Have to Choose? posted at Officially Jennifer.
Resources/Tools
Structured Journal makes it easy for you to keep a daily journal online. Simple to customize to meet your needs.
Sharing Our Work
Emi Bauer presents Bananas posted at Confessions of an Incompetent Blogger.
Liz Shaw presents Gratitude at Work posted at Create a Brilliant Life.
Randy Boude presents Angel Among Us posted at Randy Boude.
Writing Quote of the Week
Writing Tips and Prompts
Chrys Fey presents More on Character Development posted at Write with Fey.
K.M. Weiland presents A Powerful Storytelling Tool: Getting Readers to Fill In Your Character’s Blanks posted at Helping Writers Become Authors.
Erin presents Show Don’t Tell posted at Daily Writing Tips.
Monique Jacobs presents That Next Project posted at Amazing Stories.
Juliette Wade presents How Linguistics Can Help You Part 5: Pragmatics posted at Science in my Fiction.
Gabriela Pereira presents Read Like an Agent posted at DIY MFA.
Creativity Boosts
Tanner Christensen presents The best way to keep your ideas? posted at Creative Something.
Podcasts
This week’s podcast at Writing Excuses is all about Writing and Convention Culture.
Visual Arts
Liron presents How to Draw a Ferrari Enzo posted at Drawing Lessons.
Jennifer Saksa presents Get Ready to Compete – Video Competition Advice posted at Do More With Software.
Food
Audrey presents Audrey’s Morning Latte posted at Fairy at Heart.
Spam of the Week
I used to be suggested this site through my personal nephew. I am don’t convinced whether or not this particular release is usually created as a result of him or her seeing that nobody else recognise these kinds of particular roughly the problems. You are remarkable! Appreciate it!
Credits
Thanks to Le.Sanchez for the background for today’s writing quote.
That’s all for this week. Be sure to submit your article for next week’s Carnival of Creativity by Friday at midnight!
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Create whatever this visual prompt inspires in you!
Photo by Bert Heymans on Flickr.
Send to KindleRelated posts:
- Prompt #443 – Visual Prompt of the Week – Stonehenge and the Milky Way
- Prompt #589 Visual Prompt of the Week – Favorite Hat
- Prompt #408 – Visual Prompt of the Week – Longing
- Prompt #457 – Visual Prompt of the Week – Moon over a Country Road
- Prompt #526 Visual Prompt of the Week – Fire Escape
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It was the baby, of all things, that woke her up. Not her husband. Not the police. Just the baby and his crying. -Todd Ritter, Bad Moon
Fiction Writing Prompt: Use the first line of the week as the starting point or inspiration for a scene, story, poem, or haiku.
Journaling Prompt: What is usually your first indication that something is wrong at your house? Describe how it happens.
Art Prompt: The Curious Incident of the Baby in the Night Time
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write a humorous piece about your personal security system, whether it be a baby, a dog, or something else.
Photo Credit: rabble on Flickr
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mithridatism noun: The developing of immunity to a poison by taking gradually increasing doses of it.
Fiction Writing Prompt: Use the word of the week in whatever you write today.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a poison that you indulge in (gossip, holding grudges, etc.) and how it affects you.
Art Prompt: Mithridatism
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Use the word of the week in your article or speech.
Photo Credit: Cavin on Flickr
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“What a Fuller Man did was virtuosic. ‘The Fuller art of opening doors was regarded by connoisseurs of cold-turkey peddling in somewhat the same way that balletomanes esteem a performance of the Bolshoi — as pure poetry,’ American Heritage wrote. ‘In the hands of a deft Fuller dealer, brushes became not homely commodities but specialized tools obtainable nowhere else.’ Yet he was also virtuous, his constant presence in neighborhoods turning him neighborly. ‘Fuller Brush Men pulled teeth, massaged headaches, delivered babies, gave emetics for poison, prevented suicides, discovered murders, helped arrange funerals, and drove patients to hospitals.’ ” -Daniel H. Pink, To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, poem, or haiku involving a door-to-door salesman.
Journaling Prompt: How do you react to sales tactics? What works and what doesn’t if someone is trying to sell you something? Why do you react the way you do?
Art Prompt: Fuller Brush Man
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Tell your audience how they can become better at sales through studying the example of the Fuller Brush Man.
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Sin Eaters performed a ceremony wherein they took on the sins that the deceased performed — sins that went unforgiven or without confession prior to death. People typically hired a Sin Eater in situations where the deceased died unexpectedly.
By consuming bread and a drink (usually wine or beer) placed on, or ritually waved over, the dead body, onlookers believed the dead person’s sins were digested by the eater after he or she consumed this beggar’s feast. The act appears to be confined to 18th and 19th Century Europe, with no accounts of necro-cannibalism noted.
In time, the practice expanded in popularity, so that Sin Eaters also attended to people who had just died of natural causes — because people believed the ritual could help prevent the dead from wandering the countryside after death. -Keith Veronese -Keith Veronese
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story or poem with a sin eater as a protagonist.
Journaling Prompt: Write about the oldest tradition your family still practices.
Art Prompt: Sin Eater
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Research a strange custom and tell your audience about it.
Photo Credit: Mikamatto on Flickr
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I believe that the most important thing about writing is to HAVE FUN! You can worry about things like commas, point of view, tenses, etc., later. Right now, just start writing!
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