The Writing Reader
From the monthly archives: June 2012
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My brother has turned into a swan, which makes it hard to concentrate during band practice. -Eilis O’Neal, Swan (free to read at Fantasy Magazine)
Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, or poem based on the First Line of the Week.
Journaling Prompt: Write about the strangest thing that ever happened in your family when you were a kid.
Art Prompt: Swan
Photo Credit: Boris SV on Flickr
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vi·ti·ate [vish-ee-eyt] verb (used with object), vi·ti·at·ed, vi·ti·at·ing.
1. to impair the quality of; make faulty; spoil.
2. to impair or weaken the effectiveness of.
3. to debase; corrupt; pervert.
4. to make legally defective or invalid; invalidate: to vitiate a claim.
“The peaceful atmosphere at the school was vitiated as a police constable in an inebriated condition created a scene there.” -Alok Mishra; Women, Girls Outnumber Men in Gopalganj, Siwan; The Times of India (New Delhi); Oct 29, 2010.
Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, or poem using the word of the week.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a time when something was vitiating in your life.
Art Prompt: Vitiate
Photo Credit: ernop on Flickr
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As teacher of independence, the evil stepmother is essential to the story. She’s not only the antagonist; she also balances the far-too-generous fairy godmother or angelic absent mother. -Valerie Estelle Frankel, From Girl to Goddess: The Heroine’s Journey through Myth and Legend
Writing Prompt: Write a character sketch for a successful woman who overcame a difficult family situation.
Journaling Prompt: Write about the older women who have influenced you.
Art Prompt: Evil Stepmother
Photo Credit: mcarls on Flickr
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I looked at the ice cream scoop in my hand…my chocolate-bespattered apron…and my future in the world of minimum wage work…or I could go up to New York and audition for this crazy band who was my favorite. What’s the worst that’s gonna happen to me? I miss a day of work…ooh, there goes 21 bucks. -Henry Rollins
Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, or poem about a character who takes a risk to go after his or her dream.
Journaling Prompt: What would you be willing to risk in order to achieve your dream?
Art Prompt: Leap!
Photo Credit: jasonlam on Flickr
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Gradually over the years, a parallel life of undone things builds up. The unresolved has a lingering force and it follows us. Because this happens in the unconscious and unknown regions of our hearts, we rarely notice its effect. The undone continues to live near us; sometimes it is more powerful than what we have actually completed. What is finished lets us go free; it becomes truly part of us and is integrated and woven into memory. What remains unfinished continues to dwell in that still hungry and unformed part of the heart that could not realize itself and grow free; these gaps in our integrity stay open and hungry. -John O’Donohue,To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings
Writing Prompt: What are your character’s regrets? How do they affect how he or she acts and feels?
Journaling Prompt: Write about one thing that you regret and how you could finish it.
Art Prompt: Regrets
Nonfiction / Speech Writing Prompt: Write about the weight of regrets and unfinished business.
Photo Credit: Réno on Flickr
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Rates of dieting, fitness, plastic surgery and eating disorders are at an all time high, but why do so many women, and an increasing number of men, feel insecure about their bodies? A famous study of teenage girls in Fiji, before and after the television was introduced to the island in 1995, is telling: “After three years with TV, the girls who watched it the most were 50% more likely to describe themselves as ‘too fat’; 29% scored highly on a test of eating-disorder risk.” Body images presented by the media are increasingly unrealistic while being presented as an achievable, even necessary, goal. -Orion Jones, Big Think
Writing Prompt: How does your character feel about his or her body? Include this in your character sketch.
Journaling Prompt: Write about how you feel about your body.
Art Prompt: Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Photo Credit: daniellehelm on Flickr
Send to KindleSend to KindleWelcome to the Carnival of Creativity for June 24, 2012. 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.
Responses to Writing Reader Prompts
Cara Lopez Lee presents The End of Allergy Season posted at Girls Trek Too. Response to Prompt #361 Death of a Relationship.
Maureen Hovermale presents The Way the Marble Bounces posted at zencherry. Response to Prompt 360 Time Travel.
The Creative Mindset
Darren LaCroix presents The Pilot’s Mentor: Heights Others May Never Reach posted at Darren LaCroix.
Kenneth Lange presents Getting Things Done: Four Techniques to Boost Your Productivity posted at Kenneth Lange.
Jon Rhodes presents How to Improve Your Creativity posted at Affiliate Tips.
Mike King presents Locking in the Drive of Persistance posted at Learn This.
Resources/Tools
Free to download from Jeff Goins, The Misfit Manifesto.
Sharing Our Work
Eula McLeod presents Shadow Box posted at View from the Wine Press.
Liz Shaw presents Princess Alessa and the Frog War posted at Liz Andra Shaw.
Wilma Rich presents Summer Saints posted at Writing the Rich Life.
Sidhusaaheb presents A Coup That Was Not? posted at I, Me, Myself.
Alexis Heugly presents Lost Socks for Lost Soles posted at Alexis Scribbles.
Writing Quote of the Week
“People are hungry for stories. It’s part of our very being. Storytelling is a form of history, of immortality too. It goes from one generation to another.” — Studs Terkel
Writing Tips and Prompts
K.M. Weiland presents How to Spot and Fix Non-Reactive and Over-Reactive Characters posted at WordPlay.
C.S. Lakin presents Five Months on the First Scene posted at Live Write Thrive.
Mark Nichol presents 15 Stock Characters and How to Restock Them posted at Daily Writing Tips.
Lisa Hall Wilson presents What’s Your Logline? posted at The Candid Writer.
Lauren Davis presents Concept Art Writing Prompt: Human Emotions Bottled as Drugs posted at io9.com.
Chrys Fey presents Writing Good Prose posted at Writing with Fey.
Podcasts
Writing Excuses presents Writing Capers posted at Writing Excuses.
Visual Arts
Lara Whitmore presents Creating a Collage posted at Live Creatively.
Alex presents Samurai Tattoos posted at Tattoos to See.
Creative People Paying it Forward
Harper Perenniel presents Forty Stories, a free collection of short stories.
Creative Food
Trish presents Babushka Cupcakes posted at Trish Gets Crafty.
Spam of the Week
I like this species of boots all fits perfectly. I enjoyment it so much that I even arrogate it with me every continuously when I be disposed of on vacation.
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 AfghanistanMatters on Flickr.
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“We think we know the ones we love.” -by Andrew Sean Greer, The Story of a Marriage: A Novel
Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, or poem based on or inspired by the first line of the week.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a time when you didn’t really know someone you loved.
Art Prompt: Marriaged
Photo Credit: Fikra on Flickr
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bellicose adj. demonstrating aggression and willingness to fight: a mood of bellicose jingoism. bellicosity n. late Middle English: from Latin bellicosus, from bellicus ‘warlike’, from bellum ‘war’.
Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, or poem using the word of the week.
Journaling Prompt: When are you likely to become bellicose?
Art Prompt: Bellicose
Photo Credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com on Flickr
Send to KindleWelcome to the Writing Reader
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!
If you respond to one of the prompts on your blog, be sure to come back here and put the link in the comment section for that prompt. Share your brilliance!
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