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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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The human mind can achieve fantastic things. One of them is ‘…our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance…’ – Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Source: David Ropeik, Big Think)
Fiction Writing Prompt: What is your character ignoring about his or her ignorance? Add to your character sketch.
Journaling Prompt: What areas of ignorance do you prefer to ignore in your life?
Art Prompt: Denial of Ignorance
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about the psychological phenomenon of denial.
Photo Credit: jungmoon on Flickr
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Cause-and-effect thinking is critical to human survival, Legare said. So it’s natural for people to find logic in supernatural rituals that emphasize repetition and procedural steps. If doing something once has some effect, then repeating it must have a greater effect. For example, if a mechanic says he inspected something five times, the frequency of his actions leads the customer to overestimate the effectiveness of his work. -Science Daily
Fiction Writing Prompt: Create a ritual for your character to use and then write a scene about it. Focus on the internal monologue.
Journaling Prompt: What rituals do you use?
Art Prompt: Supernatural Ritual
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about the psychology of ritual. Include stories about the rituals used by famous people.
Photo Credit: rodolfoaraiza.com on Flickr
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Be careful whom you help, Sara. They never forgive you for it. – Consuelo Saah Baehr, Best Friends
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a scene inspired by this line.
Journaling Prompt: Write about an experience you had when someone you helped got angry with you for it.
Art Prompt: Ingratitude
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about the paradox of people being angry for receiving help.
Photo Credit: La Chance0925 on Flickr
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Research by Kniffin and Wansink measured the amount of jealousy reported by current romantic partners if one of them were contacted by an ex lover and subsequently engaged in several food- and drink-based activities.
“We consistently found that meals elicit more jealousy than face-to-face interactions that do not involve eating — such as having coffee,” Kniffin said. “These results are consistent for both men and women.”
For couples who are attuned to relationship risks, this study suggests that men and women who “do lunch” run the risk of a jealous spouse or partner at home.
“It’s key to remember that from your spouse’s perspective, it’s not ‘just lunch.’ While meals can strengthen social relationships, they can also destroy them,” Wansink said. -Science Daily
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write an arugment between two characters after one of them has had lunch with an ex.
Journaling Prompt: If you have an ex, write about how you balance that relationship with your current relationship.
Art Prompt: Lunch with an Ex
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Inform your audience about strategies for balancing past and present relationships.
Photo Credit: Ed Yourdon 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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The more afraid a person is of a spider, the bigger that individual perceives the spider to be, new research suggests.
In the context of a fear of spiders, this warped perception doesn’t necessarily interfere with daily living. But for individuals who are afraid of needles, for example, the conviction that needles are larger than they really are could lead people who fear injections to avoid getting the health care they need. -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: Write a scene with a character that has a phobia. Focus on the internal monologue.
Journaling Prompt: Write about any irrational phobia you have or someone you know has. How does it restrict your life?
Art Prompt: Spiders
Photo Credit: theseanster93 on Flickr
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The memories stored in our brain are either processed or unprocessed. If they are processed, it means that the brain has done its job and integrated a learning experience into our memory networks. Something happened that was disturbing, but I learned what I needed from it. I fight with a family member and I have a negative emotional and body reaction, but time passes and I think about it, talk about it, dream about it, and soon it doesn’t bother me any more. The appropriate connections are made in my brain and I might realize: “He’s been going through a hard time. We’ve had rough spots before and worked them out.” I decide what action to take and I feel better. In my memory network, what is useful is stored and what’s useless — like the feelings of anxiety or anger — is gone.
That is what the brain is geared to do: make the appropriate connections, “digest” the experience and store it in memory. But sometimes an experience can be so disturbing that the information processing system of the brain becomes imbalanced. When that happens, the experience is stored in an “unprocessed” form and still contains the emotions, physical sensations and beliefs that occurred at the time of the original event. So when I see the person again, instead of feeling OK, I have the same feeling of anger, hurt and anxiety. -Francine Shapiro, PhD
Writing Prompt: Write a character sketch for someone who has unprocessed traumatic memories.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a memory that continues to bother you.
Art Prompt: Memory
Photo Credit: Urban Woodswalker on Flickr
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People who are prejudiced feel a much stronger need to make quick and firm judgments and decisions in order to reduce ambiguity. “Of course, everyone has to make decisions, but some people really hate uncertainty and therefore quickly rely on the most obvious information, often the first information they come across, to reduce it” Roets says. That’s also why they favor authorities and social norms which make it easier to make decisions. Then, once they’ve made up their mind, they stick to it. “If you provide information that contradicts their decision, they just ignore it.”
Roets argues that this way of thinking is linked to people’s need to categorize the world, often unconsciously. “When we meet someone, we immediately see that person as being male or female, young or old, black or white, without really being aware of this categorization,” he says. “Social categories are useful to reduce complexity, but the problem is that we also assign some properties to these categories. This can lead to prejudice and stereotyping.” -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: Write a character’s inner monologue as they meet someone who is different from them in some significant way.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a prejudice you have and where you think it comes from.
Art Prompt: Prejudice
Non-Fiction/Speechwriting Prompt: Write about the effect of prejudice on society.
Photo Credit: Rick Camacho on Flickr
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That’s what fear does- it makes you turn away from the things you really want, away from the things you need. Then it taunts you later, it tells you that you are too weak or broken to be happy, that you don’t deserve it. Fear’s only happy when you’re not, only content when you’re hungry but as still as a deer in headlights. For as long as she remembered, she’d thought that she worshipped no God, but this was a deception. Fear was her God. She had built Him altars of emptiness and worshipped Him in temples of isolation. She’d wasted her life in his service. -Lee Doty, Out of the Black
Writing Prompt: Write a scene or story where the main character is driven by fear.
Journaling Prompt: Write about one of your fears? How does that control your life?
Art Prompt: Fear
Photo Credit: Casey David on Flickr
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