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Archie Sheridan slept with the light on. -Chelsea Cain, Kill You Twice
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: Have you ever slept with a night light? Why or why not?
Art Prompt: Sleeping with the light on
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Give your audience information on how to establish healthy sleeping habits.
Photo Credit: creating in the dark on Flickr
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What happens is I write a first sentence, then I read the sentence that I’ve just written, and then I immediately erase that sentence; then I begin anew by writing another first sentence for a completely different story; then another first sentence for another story, so on and so forth.” Courtney Eldridge, Unkempt
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 do you do when you have trouble getting started writing in your journal?
Art Prompt: Abandoned Beginnings
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about the importance of beginning well and the dangers of getting stuck.
Photo Credit: Anthony Mianzo on Flickr
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Kortovsky gave himself a final once-over in the elevator mirror before he reached the hotel lobby. -Gerald Elias, Death and the Maiden
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: How concerned are you about your appearance?
Art Prompt: First impressions
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: First impressions
Photo Credit: roland on Flickr
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“Much of American culture in the 20th century has been engagement in death avoidance,” said Albert Hamscher, the university’s Kenneth S. Davis professor of history. “Bucket lists signify a willingness at least to discuss death again. But note how it is purely secular in its contours. It focuses on the here and now rather than the hereafter, which has been how people typically frame death.”
Death avoidance is a relatively new phenomenon in Western society, according to Hamscher. Philippe Aries, a 20th-century French historian, referred to the attitude as “the forbidden death” in his book, “Western Attitudes Toward Death from the Middle Ages to Present.” Instead of being exposed to it, which commonly happened in Europe until recent generations, people have been shielded from death. This avoidance became more popular with medical advances and increased secularization.
“Religion has always given death a frame of reference,” Hamscher said. “Absent that, death becomes a frightening topic. Death can appear frightening in that context because it has no larger explanation. It’s an existential black hole.” -Science Daily
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write the internal monologue for a character who is engaging in death avoidance.
Journaling Prompt: How do you feel about death, not just yours but the death of people you love?
Art Prompt: Death
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about death avoidance in our culture.
Photo Credit: h.koppdelaney on Flickr
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…you would think that the more people are paid, the harder they will work, and the better they will do their jobs — until they reach the limits of their skills. That notion tends to hold true when the stakes are low, says Vikram Chib, a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech and lead author on a paper published in the May 10 issue of the journal Neuron. Previous research, however, has shown that if you pay people too much, their performance actually declines.
Some experts have attributed this decline to too much motivation: they think that, faced with the prospect of earning an extra chunk of cash, you might get so excited that you will fail to do the task properly. But now, after looking at brain-scan data of volunteers performing a specific motor task, the Caltech team says that what actually happens is that you become worried about losing your potential prize. The researchers also found that the more someone is afraid of loss, the worse they perform. -Science Daily
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a scene where your protagonist earns a raise or a prize. Show how it affects his or her job performance afterwards.
Journaling Prompt: What is more motivating to you: hope of gain or fear of loss? Why?
Art Prompt: Demotivated at Work
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Inform your audience about subconscious fear of loss and how it can be overcome.
Photo Credit: dickuhne on Flickr
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It is intuitive that most people would be less likely to take risks after an unexpected loss. What happens after a surprising win?
It turns out that the very same trend applies, according to Case Western Reserve University psychologist Heath Demaree. In other words, it’s not whether you win or lose, but whether the outcome is expected. People appear to decrease their risk-taking levels after experiencing any surprising outcome – even positive ones. -Case Western Reserve University press release
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story about someone who wins and then becomes afraid to take any more risks.
Journaling Prompt: Does winning make you more or less cautious?
Art Prompt: Surprise Victory
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about the relationship of risk to success. Convince your audience that they need to continue taking risks even after experiencing success.
Photo Credit: Daadi on Flickr
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Whenever we do not learn from our mistakes, it is often because we are attacked for those mistakes. We are called names and generally downgraded by other people who discover our mistakes—good old seagull managers. When our self-concept is under attack, we feel the need to defend ourselves and our actions, even to the extent of distorting the facts. When people become defensive, they never hear the feedback they are getting. As a result, little learning takes place. -Ken Blanchard, Leading at a Higher Level
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story about an employee at an office run by a seagull manager.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a boss you have not enjoyed working for.
Art Prompt: Seagull Management
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about management styles, focusing on seagull management and why it is not effective.
Photo Credit: indiamos on Flickr
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…scientists wanted to see whether or not people could be scared to death. They looked for a likely belief, and found it in the Chinese and Japanese idea that the number four is unlucky. Obviously, finding a random sampling of subjects and attempting to scare them to death would be unethical, so the scientists reluctantly turned their attention to existing death certificates. The scientists looked and Japanese and Chinese death certificates, and those of white Americans as the control. They found that while white Americans saw no major peak for cardiac deaths, Japanese and Chinese cardiac deaths peaked on the fourth of the month every months.
Why? The stress and worry of approaching an unlucky day actually caused people to have heart attacks. The fourth of every month acted the same way a Sherlock Holmes murderer did, and so the phenomenon was called The Baskerville Effect. Worry actually can kill. So don’t worry, or you will die. -Esther Inglis-Arkell
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story or scene about someone who is scared to death.
Journaling Prompt: What are you most afraid of? How do you deal with your fear?
Art Prompt: Scared to Death
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about the effect of fear, stress, and worry on your life.
Photo Credit: Silentmind8 on Flickr
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During the night of May 18/19 of 1910, when the Earth passed through the tail of comet Halley, some people took precautions by sealing the chimneys, windows, and doors of their houses. Others confessed to crimes they had committed because they did not expect to survive the night, and a few panic-stricken people actually committed suicide. Enterprising merchants sold comet pills and oxygen bottles, church services were held for overflow crowds, and people in the countryside took to their storm shelters. A strangely frivolous mood caused thousands of people to gather in restaurants, coffee houses, parks, and on the rooftops of apartment buildings to await their doom in the company of fellow humans. -Gunter Faure and Teresa Mensing, Introduction to Planetary Science: The Geological Perspective
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story set during a time when people believe that they are doomed.
Journaling Prompt: How would you spend tonight if you knew it was the last night of your life?
Art Prompt: Awaiting Doom
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: How do you see the tendency toward doom and despair playing out in today’s world?
Photo Credit: NASAblueshift on Flickr
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I checked my watch. The cucumbers were due to start singing in about thirty minutes, but sometimes they go off early. I’m never sure exactly when they’ve gotten here, which makes the timing tricky, and that means I wasn’t about to open the door. -Susan Palwick, Cucumber Gravy (free to read online at Lightspeed Magazine)
Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene or poem about an unusual reason why your character can’t answer the door.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a time when you were embarrassed to answer your door.
Art Prompt: Singing Cucumbers
Photo Credit: Dorocia on Flickr
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