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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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A soulmate’s value can’t be measured in dollars and cents, unless you get divorced. -Joel Travis, Blabbermouth
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story about soulmates who get divorced.
Journaling Prompt: Write about your soulmate, whether you’ve met that person or not.
Art Prompt: Divorced soulmates
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about the concept of “soulmate” and whether you believe it’s a valid concept or not.
Photo Credit: dark4 on Flickr
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Prof. Aquino explains that it’s natural for people to wonder how others view them, especially when social acceptance in the workplace is often rewarded with power and financial compensation.
“However, our research shows employees should do their best to keep their interactions positive and ignore the negative. As the expression goes, kill them with kindness.”
In one of the study’s experiments, the researchers discovered that people who more readily interpret interactions with others as negative are also more likely to try to root it out through such means such as eavesdropping or spying. -Science Daily
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story about a character who kills them with kindness.
Journaling Prompt: How do you react to negativity in the workplace?
Art Prompt: Kill Them with Kindness
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about strategies for dealing with negativity in the workplace.
Photo Credit: Free for Commercial Use on Flickr
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Imagine traveling to Ireland and suddenly having to drive on the left side of the road. The brain, trained for right-side driving, becomes overburdened trying to suppress the old rules while simultaneously focusing on the new rules, said Hans Schroder, primary researcher on the study.
“There’s so much conflict in your brain,” said Schroder, “that when you make a mistake like forgetting to turn on your blinker you don’t even realize it and make the same mistake again. What you learned initially is hard to overcome when rules change.” -Science Daily
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a scene where your character is having difficulty adjusting to new rules.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a time when you had difficulty adjusting to new rules.
Art Prompt: Driving on the wrong side of the road
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Inform you audience of techniques they can use when adjusting to new rules.
Photo Credit: {Amy_Jane} on Flickr
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The practice of binding feet was originally introduced about a thousand years ago, allegedly by a concubine of the emperor. Not only was the sight of women hobbling on tiny feet considered erotic, men would also get excited playing with bound feet, which were always hidden in embroidered silk shoes. Women could not remove the binding cloths even when they were adults, as their feet would start growing again. The binding could only be loosened temporarily at night in bed, when they would put on soft-soled shoes. Men rarely saw naked bound feet, which were usually covered in rotting flesh and stank when the bindings were removed. As a child, I can remember my grand- mother being in constant pain. When we came home from shopping, the first thing she would do was soak her feet in a bowl of hot water, sighing with relief as she did so. Then she would set about cutting off pieces of dead skin. The pain came not only from the broken bones, but also from her toenails, which grew into the balls of her feet. -Jung Chang, Wild Swans: The Three Daughters of China
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, or poem based on today’s quote.
Journaling Prompt: Is there a part of your life that you are metaphorically binding? Why?
Art Prompt: Bound Feet
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Inform your audience about one of the ways women have been oppressed for the sake of fashion.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia
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“Tomorrow’s NASA space program will be different,” says Wallace Fowler of the University of Texas, a renowned expert in modeling and design of spacecraft, and planetary exploration systems. “Human space flight beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO), beyond Earth’s natural radiation shields (the Van Allen belts), is dangerous.”
Currently, a human being outside the Van Allen belts could receive the NASA defined “lifetime dose” of galactic cosmic radiation within 200 days. If the Sun spews out a coronal jet of radiation in a solar storm in the direction of the spacecraft, a lethal dose can be received in a few hours. Mars does not have the equivalent of the shielding Van Allen belts, so a Mars base would also need shielding. Until we develop appropriate shielding, probably an intense magnetic field around the spacecraft, human travel, even to the moon, will likely be limited. -Daily Galaxy
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story or scene about space travel beyond the Van Allen belts.
Journaling Prompt: If you could travel into outer space, what would you like to see?
Art Prompt: Space Travel
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about the difficulties of space travel.
Photo Credit: x-ray delta one on Flickr
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Himalayan avalanches travel at horrifying speeds, upward of 125 miles per hour as they careen miles down the steep slopes of the world’s highest mountains. Even in a relatively small slide, the force and volume pack the snow and ice like cement. If climbers don’t die instantly from blunt trauma, they usually suffocate within minutes, unable to dig out of their crushing tomb. -Jennifer Jordan, Savage Summit
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story about characters caught in an avalanche.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a time when you felt life was as out of control as an avalanche.
Art Prompt: Avalanche!
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about avalanche safety measures that can be applied to more metaphorical avalanches in business.
Photo Credit: sgillies on Flickr
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It wasn’t a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance. Diana Gabaldon, Outlander
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story about a disappearance.
Journaling Prompt: If you were going to disappear, where and when would you want to go?
Art Prompt: Disappearance
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about a famous disappearance.
Photo Credit: Tets07 on Flickr
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The streets of San Francisco were jammed. A frenzy of cars, trucks, wagons, and every other imaginable form of conveyance crisscrossed the town and battled its steepest hills. Porches, staircase landings, and sidewalks were piled high with boxes and crates delivered on the last possible day before transporting their contents would become illegal. The next morning, the Chronicle reported that people whose beer, liquor, and wine had not arrived by midnight were left to stand in their doorways ‘with haggard faces and glittering eyes.’ Just two weeks earlier, on the last New Year’s Eve before Prohibition, frantic celebrations had convulsed the city’s hotels and private clubs, its neighborhood taverns and wharfside saloons. It was a spasm of desperate joy fueled, said the Chronicle, by great quantities of ‘bottled sunshine’ liberated from ‘cellars, club lockers, bank vaults, safety deposit boxes and other hiding places.’ Now, on January 16, the sunshine was surrendering to darkness. … -Daniel Okrent, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story set on the eve of Prohibition.
Journaling Prompt: How do you feel about drinking alcohol?
Art Prompt: Prohibition
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about a political decision made during your lifetime that you believe will turn out to backfire. Compare and contrast with Prohibition.
Photo Credit: dewarsrepealday on Flickr
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When Abbess Ebba received tidings of the near approach of the pagan hordes, who had already wrecked vengeance upon ecclesiastics, monks, and consecrated virgins, she summoned her nuns to Chapter, and in a moving discourse exhorted them to preserve at any cost the treasure of their chastity. Then seizing a razor, and calling upon her daughters to follow her heroic example, she mutilated her face in order to inspire the barbarian invaders with horror at the sight. The nuns without exception courageously followed the example of their abbess. When the Danes broke into the cloister and saw the nuns with faces thus disfigured, they fled in panic. Their leaders, burning with rage, sent back some of their number to set fire to the monastery, and thus the heroic martyrs perished in the common ruin of their house. -A Calendar of Scottish Saints by Michael Barrett
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story about heroic women facing danger.
Journaling Prompt: What sacrifice would you be willing to make to protect something important to you?
Art Prompt: Courageous Sacrifice
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write a story about an ordinary person who made a courageous sacrifice in the face of a great challenge.
Photo Credit: dragon caiman 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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