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That nice looking black car in the front is an Enzo Ferrari. It will run you a cool mil (American $) to walk off the lot with one. Take two; they’re small. Oh, and don’t forget to order a yacht while you’re here.
…you can’t outearn dumb spending. Just ask all the millionaire celebrities, professional athletes, and lottery winners who end up broke. Let me repeat for emphasis: You can’t outearn dumb spending. -Gregory Karp, The 1-2-3 Money Plan: The Three Most Important Steps to Saving and Spending Smart
Writing Prompt: Create a character sketch for your protagonist showing how he or she makes financial decisions.
Journaling Prompt: How do your emotions affect your spending habits?
Art Prompt: Luxury
Photo Credit: Damian Morys Foto on Flickr
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A universal truth:
“There is never a way to fully outrun our beginnings.” -Christopher Barzak, Smoke City
Writing Prompt: Write about a character trying to escape their beginnings.
Journaling Prompt: What would you like to leave behind?
Art Prompt: Outrun
Photo Credit: ~Shanth on Flickr
Send to KindleSend to Kindle![Take my hand [sept 8 - reloaded june 6]](http://www.thewritingreader.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/flickr_backup/371912_1d7467eacd_m.jpg)
What kind of man cheats on his wife? The results of this study may surprise you.
For men, significant predictors of infidelity are personality variables, including propensity for sexual excitation (becoming easily aroused by many triggers and situations) and concern about sexual performance failure.
The latter finding might seem counterintuitive, Milhausen said, but other studies have also found this connection. “People might seek out high-risk situations to help them become aroused, or they might choose to have sex with a partner outside of their regular relationship because they feel they have an ‘out’ if the encounter doesn’t go well — they don’t have to see them again.”
For women, relationship happiness is paramount. Women who are dissatisfied with their relationship are more than twice as likely to cheat; those who feel they are sexually incompatible with their partners are nearly three times as likely.
“All kinds of things predict infidelity,” Milhausen said. “What this study says is that when you put all of those things together, for men, personality characteristics are so strong they bounce everything else out of the model. For women, in the face of all other variables, it’s still the relationship that is the most important predictor.” -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: Write a scene where your character is considering cheating on their partner where the character is a female. Write the same scene where the character is a male.
Journaling Prompt: Write about your personal experience with infidelity, temptation, or betrayal.
Art Prompt: Betrayal
Photo Credit: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino on Flickr
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We’re all growing older. When we’re young, we can’t wait to be older. But as we age, that changes. Suddenly we would do anything to stop aging. I’m in that second stage, and that is why I disagree wholeheartedly with Clovis in today’s quote. I think that’s the whole point of growing older 
…it’s no use growing older if you only learn new ways of misbehaving yourself. -Saki, The Chronicles of Clovis
Writing Prompt: How does your protagonist feel about growing old? Write a soliliquy in his voice decribing his attitude.
Journaling Prompt: How do you feel about aging?
Art Prompt: Aging
Nonfiction / Speech Writing Prompt: Write a humorous article or speech about your aging process.
Photo Credit: SpaceShoe [Learning to live with the crisis] on Flickr
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Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person. -Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups: A Novel
Writing Prompt: Write a scene, story, poem, or haiku using this first line as an inspiration.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a time when you felt that you might have taken a wrong turn in life.
Art Prompt: Mistaken Identity
Photo Credit: Megyarsh on Flickr
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I love reading the dictionary. There are some rockin’ words that I’ve never heard of that I should have heard of. This is one of them.
adultescent n. INFORMAL a middle-aged person whose clothes, interests, and activities are typically associated with youth culture. 1990s: blend of ADULT and ADOLESCENT. -Oxford Dictionary of English (comes free on current generation Kindles)
Writing Prompt: Create a character who is an adultescent. What made him or her this way?
Journaling Prompt: Write about an adultescent you know.
Art Prompt: Adultescent
Photo Credit: extranoise on Flickr
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Movies are a fun way to escape our everyday existence with their larger-than-life heroes and thrilling special effects. We can forget that the people who make the movies are not the characters they play, but real people with real problems. We’ve of many actors breaking down from the pressure or ending up in rehab from trying to cope with drugs or alcohol. And we’ve witnessed some go off the deep end in very public fashion.
I have a bust of Abraham Lincoln in my office, and it’s not because of the greatness he did for our country, but it’s because that whenever I look at it I have to remember an actor killed him. —Richard Donner, director of the Lethal Weapon films as quoted in The Rude Warrior by By Peter Biskind
Writing Prompt: Write about a bigger-than-life personality (the Actor archetype) who loses it in a larger-than-life way.
Journaling Prompt: What lessons have you learned from watching someone famous struggle with pressure?
Art Prompt: Celebrity breakdown
Photo Credit: Tony the Misfit on Flickr
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You know that guy, the one with the red sports car. What message is he trying to send with that thing anyway? Here’s some research:
“Just as peacocks flaunt their tails before potential mates, men may flaunt flashy products to charm potential dates. Notably, not all men favored this strategy — just those men who were interested in short-term sexual relationships with women.” -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: Write about a guy on the prowl and what he uses to signal he’s on the make.
Journaling Prompt: How do you react to a show off?
Art Prompt: muscle car
Nonfiction / Speech Writing Prompt: Write about your own midlife crisis (or that of someone you know).
Photo Credit: Reportergimmi 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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