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“If I could tell you this in a single sitting, then you might believe all of it, even the strangest part.” -Graham Joyce, The Limits of Enchantment
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story inspired by this first line.
Journaling Prompt: What is the strangest story you’ve ever believed and why did you believe it?
Art Prompt: Incredible Story
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about the strangest true story you’ve ever heard.
Photo Credit: stevelyon on Flickr
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Today is the anniversary of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. I thought I’d break from my usual quote sources to bring you a prompt commemorating her adventure.
During Earhart and Noonan’s approach to Howland Island the Itasca received strong and clear voice transmissions from Earhart identifying as KHAQQ but she apparently was unable to hear voice transmissions from the ship. At 7:42 am Earhart radioed “We must be on you, but cannot see you—but gas is running low. Have been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet.” Her 7:58 am transmission said she couldn’t hear the Itasca and asked them to send voice signals so she could try to take a radio bearing (this transmission was reported by the Itasca as the loudest possible signal, indicating Earhart and Noonan were in the immediate area). They couldn’t send voice at the frequency she asked for, so Morse code signals were sent instead. Earhart acknowledged receiving these but said she was unable to determine their direction.
In her last known transmission at 8:43 am Earhart broadcast “We are on the line 157 337. We will repeat this message. We will repeat this on 6210 kilocycles. Wait.” However, a few moments later she was back on the same frequency (3105 kHz) with a transmission which was logged as a “questionable”: “We are running on line north and south.” Earhart’s transmissions seemed to indicate she and Noonan believed they had reached Howland’s charted position, which was incorrect by about five nautical miles (10 km). -Wikipedia article on Amelia Earhart
Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, or poem about an adventurer that disappears under mysterious circumstances.
Journaling Prompt: If you were going to disappear, how would it happen?
Art Prompt: Amelia Earhart
Photo Credit: WikiMediaCommons
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“The one clear thing I can say about Wednesday, the worst and most amazing day of my life, is this: it started out beautifully.” -Rajesh Parameswaran, I Am an Executioner: Love Stories
Writing Prompt: Use the first line of the week to start a story or scene, or as the inspiration for a poem.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a day that started out well and then surprised you.
Art Prompt: Morning
Photo Credit: rolfekolbe on Flickr
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I record these words for a posterity that will not exist. -Zachary Jernigan, Pairs, Asimov’s Science FictionAug 2011
Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene or poem inspired by the quote above.
Journaling Prompt: Write the journal entry you would want to leave as your last entry for your descendents to read.
Art Prompt: End of the World
Photo Credit: John Althouse Cohen on Flickr
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We have tried to understand the rules by which the door operates. It appears and disappears unexpectedly. When we step through it, we do not know where we will be, or how long we will be there. When it comes back for us, it usually takes us home. But not always. -Theodora Goss, Pug (Asimov’s Science Fiction
Writing Prompt: Take your character on a trip through a door that mysteriously appears out of nowhere.
Journaling / Nonfiction / Speech Writing Prompt: If you could open a door and walk through it to anywhere, where would you go?
Art Prompt: Door
Photo Credit: Hamed Saber on Flickr
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The night that cats were wished away was a hard one full of wine, tears, and spectacle. – Laura Ellen Scott, Death Wishing
Writing Prompt: Using the first line of the week, write a story, scene, or poem.
Journaling Prompt: Have you ever wished that someone or something would disappear?
Art Prompt: Disappearing
Photo Credit: Shezamm on Flickr
Send to KindleSend to KindleWelcome to the Carnival of Creativity for February 26, 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.
The Creative Mindset
Patti Onderko presents Get Unstuck at Success. 17 ways to bring more creativity into your life and work.
Rodney Maley presents Battling Self-Doubt posted at Life-fficient. Tips on dealing with your inner critic.
Dr. Mike presents Get Creative posted at UpbeatBrain.com, saying, “Creativity covers a lot of ground, and we can all find a spot to explore it and enjoy it.”
Chrys Fey presents Yes, You Can Write A Novel! posted at Write With Fey, saying, “Writing a novel has never been impossible in the past, nor will it ever be in the future. Anyone can do it, even you!”
Pamela Jorrick presents A Letter A Day posted at Blah, Blah, Blog, saying, “Why do I participate in these crazy challenges that I find on the internet? I don’t really know. I actually don’t need any more challenge in life, but this sounded like a fun idea, so I wanted to give it a try.”
Resources/Tools
Sheila Scarborough presents How to know when your content is pinned on Pinterest posted at Sheila’s Guide To The Good Stuff, saying, “The visual bulletin board service Pinterest is getting a lot of attention lately, and it’s certainly fun, but how do you know if your own content has been pinned on someone else’s board? This post gives a quick how-to explanation.”
Sharing Our Work
Derrick Roberts presents Mid-week Ramblings: ‘Front-porch Wisdom’ posted at Writing Wrong(Handed).
Kate Croston presents 20 Biggest Soccer Tragedies and the Internet Response posted at Internet Service, saying, “The history of soccer is dotted with some of the worst tragedies ever recorded in sports. Whether by natural means, or by the hands of men, there have been numerous disastrous events throughout soccer’s past.”
Lindsay Willison presents 10 Ways to Get Even with Automated Answering Services posted at Landline Phone Service, saying, “The chances of reaching a live person when placing a call these days get slimmer all the time. Every call turns into a form of techno-gymnastics, hopping through a maze of push-button options until you finally reach a human being, if ever.”
Coleen Torres presents 10 SOPA Boycotts That Were Impressive posted at phonetvinternet.com, saying, “The hotly contested Stop Online Piracy Act was one of the most controversial issues of late 2011 and early 2012. Lawmakers, entertainers and consumers alike spoke out vociferously against the potentially-dangerous legislation, which was eventually shelved.”
NSFW: Gracie J presents Body Counts posted at How Sweet It Is To Be Gracie, saying, “For readers with an open mind and open discussions”
Writing Tips and Prompts
C.S. Lakin presents First Paragraph, First Thoughts at Live, Write, Thrive.
Dan Wells presents How to Build Your Story (now on video) at Fearful Symmetry.
Rebecca Joines Schinsky presents 7 Surprise Twists I’d Rather Live Without [or The Airing of Grievances, Literary Style] at BookRiot.
Catherine Ryan Howard presents How (Not?) to Get Your Book Reviewed at Catherine, Caffeinated.
Liz Shaw presents The Test of Time at LizAndraShaw, asking “Will your writing stand the test of time?”
Syaiful presents The Art of Finding Ideas For Poem posted at Poetry Writing Tips.
Podcasts
Writing Excuses presents The City as a Character at WritingExcuses. Mary and Dan discuss using a city as a character with Sarah Pinborough, for whom London is an important setting and one of her favorite places.
Visual Arts
Greg Phelps presents Give a photographer a promotion… posted at Lucrative Lumens, saying, “The specific examples of marketing techniques in this article apply to pro portrait photographers but the concept discussed could easily benefit other types of photographers or even people in other lines of business who want to raise their profile in the community.”
Erica K. presents 5 Avenues for Logo Design Inspiration posted at ground up graphics
The Business of Creativity
Hannah Howard presents 10 Reasons Most Social Bookmarking Sites Suck posted at Longhorn Leads, LLC, saying, “The trouble with most social bookmarking sites is that they don’t have the proper balance that would make them as useful as they could be. Either there are too many sites that rank highly for no apparent reason, or there are too few gems to pluck from the sea of rubbish to make the effort worthwhile.”
Valaney Martin presents How to get your game noticed and get paid from it posted at Ubiquitense, saying, “Here are some guidelines for the average indie game developer to follow so that there’s a better chance of their game being noticed and making a profit from it.”
Writing Quote of the Week
Why do writers write? Because it isn’t there. -Thomas Berger
Spam of the Week
An intriguing speech is couturier annotate. I think that you should write statesman on this message, it mightiness not be a preconception soul but generally grouping are not enough to verbalise on specified topics. To the next. Cheers.
Well, thank you, I think…
That’s all for this week. Be sure to submit your article for next week’s Carnival of Creativity by Saturday at midnight!
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This reading surprised me by flipping the idea of dangerous animals into the idea of protectors.
‘Poisonous ‘ plants and creatures can be evoked as protectors, protectors of place. Within a bioregion, they protect the deeper forest and are allies to their ecologies. As allies of human beings, they protect against drowsiness and insensitivity, preventing us from charging through fragile terrain with a heavy foot and blind eye. They teach alertness and respect as we interact with place. They also evoke certain qualities within humans. One can like the jaguar stalk and enjoy the night, blend with the environment and disappear into its body. Protectors teach humans to sing like wolf, to go inside like bear, and to relax like snake. -Joan Halifax, The Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom
Writing Prompt: Write a scene showing how danger protects your character.
Journaling Prompt: Write about your feelings toward dangerous plants and animals.
Art Prompt: Dangerous protector
Photo Credit: Mike Baird on Flickr
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What would happen if something rare, and therefore valuable, all of the sudden became common?
A lovely world indeed is Galgala the golden, where myriads of auriferous microorganisms excrete atoms of gold as metabolic waste. It is everywhere on this planet, the lustrous pretty metal. It turns the rivers and streams to streaks of yellow flame and the seas to shimmering golden mirrors. Huge filters are deployed at the intake valve of Galgala’s reservoirs to strain the silt of dissolved gold from the water supply. The plants of Galgala are turgid in every tissue, leaf and stem and root, with aureous particles. Gold dust, held in suspension in the air, transforms the clouds to golden fleece.
Therefore the once-precious stuff has grievously lost value throughout the galaxy since Galgala was discovered, and on Galgala itself a pound of gold is worth less than a pound of soap. But I understand very little about these economic matters and care even less. Only a miser could fail to rejoice in Galgala’s luminous beauty. We have been here six weeks; we have awakened each morning to the tinkle of golden chimes, we have bathed in the golden rivers and come forth shining, we have wrapped our bodies round with delicate golden chains. -Robert Silverberg, The Travelers
Writing Prompt: Create a story about a valuable commodity that suddenly becomes common. What happens to your world?
Journaling Prompt: What beautiful and/or rare item do you wish were common and why?
Art Prompt: Gold
Photo Credit: miong on Flickr
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“When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning, he found that he had been transformed into an enormous bug.” -Kafka, The Metamorphosis
Writing Prompt: Try a scene where a character undergoes a metamorphosis. He doesn’t have to turn into a bug. He could remain exactly as he is physically, but turn into a young child emotionally (a la Big with Tom Hanks) or develop a super power of hearing what women think (a la Mel Gibson in What Women Want). Or he could swap places with another character (too many movies to mention). Have some fun with your character and see what you can turn him into.
Journaling Prompt: If you could undergo a metamorphosis, what would you want to change into?
Art Prompt: Metamorphosis
Photo Credit: odolphie 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!
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