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Teenage girls were a strange breed of animal, prone to strange trends and behaviors. – Bradley Convissar, Blink
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene, or poem that features the exotic creature known as the teenage girl.
Journaling Prompt: What is the strangest trend you have seen in teenage girls, whether in this generation or your own generation.
Art Prompt: Teenage Girls
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write a humorous piece about teenage girls and their strange trends and behaviors.
Photo Credit: Pink Sherbet Photography 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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The great majority of the parents (88 per cent) answered that they did not think that there were disadvantages for their child in having an imaginary friend. Parents saw the main reasons for having invisible friends as supporting fantasy play and as a companion to play and have fun with. Parents also gave numerous examples of how invisible friends helped their children process and cope with life events.
Younger children also used their interactions with invisible friends to test their parents’ reactions to behaviour that might be disapproved of, thus helping them learn to regulate their behaviour. -Science Daily
Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a story or poem about a child and his or her imaginary friend.
Journaling Prompt: Did you have an imaginary friend or a stuffed animal that you believed was alive?
Art Prompt: Imaginary Friend
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Tell your audience how parents should deal with a child’s imaginary friend.
Photo Credit: dospaz on Flickr
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In a recent study published in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, psychologists Gary Lupyan (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Daniel Swingley (University of Pennsylvania) conducted a series of experiments to discover whether talking to oneself can help when searching for particular objects. The studies were inspired by observations that people often audibly mutter to themselves when trying to find, for example, a jar of Peanut Butter on a supermarket shelf, or the stick of butter in their fridge.
In the first experiment, participants were shown 20 pictures of various objects and asked to find a particular one. In some trials, participants saw a text label telling them what object they should find (“Please search for the teapot.”) In other trials, the same subjects were asked to search again while actually say the word to themselves. It was found that speaking to themselves helped people find the objects more quickly. -Science Daily
Fiction Writing Prompt: Expand your character sketch. What does your character lose? What does your character do while trying to find the lost item?
Journaling Prompt: Write about what you lose and how you search for the item.
Art Prompt: Muttering
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about how you use the power of talking to yourself.
Photo Credit: See-ming Lee 李思明 SML on Flickr
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The main reason that misinformation is sticky, according to the researchers, is that rejecting information actually requires cognitive effort. Weighing the plausibility and the source of a message is cognitively more difficult than simply accepting that the message is true — it requires additional motivational and cognitive resources. If the topic isn’t very important to you or you have other things on your mind, misinformation is more likely to take hold.
And when we do take the time to thoughtfully evaluate incoming information, there are only a few features that we are likely to pay attention to: Does the information fit with other things I believe in? Does it make a coherent story with what I already know? Does it come from a credible source? Do others believe it?
Misinformation is especially sticky when it conforms to our preexisting political, religious, or social point of view. Because of this, ideology and personal worldviews can be especially difficult obstacles to overcome.
Even worse, efforts to retract misinformation often backfire, paradoxically amplifying the effect of the erroneous belief.
“This persistence of misinformation has fairly alarming implications in a democracy because people may base decisions on information that, at some level, they know to be false,” says Lewandowsky. -Science Daily
Fiction Writing Prompt: What misinformation do your characters believe? Work this into your character sketches.
Journaling Prompt: Write about an urban legend that you or someone you know believed? How did you feel when it turned out to be misinformation?
Art Prompt: Misinformation
Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Write about a current piece of misinformation and the effect you believe it has on society.
Photo Credit: Glutnix on Flickr
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Why was it that every villain had to have his obligatory speech before he blew everything to smithereens? -Tina Folsom, Amaury’s Hellion (Scanguards Vampires #2)
Writing Prompt: Write a monologue for a villain who is about to blow everything to smithereens.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a time when you heard or saw someone justifying something bad they were about to do.
Art Prompt: Villain
Photo Credit: JD Hancock on Flickr
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When I used the toilet, I sat on the front edge of the seat, watching the water beneath me, and scooted off as soon as I was done. I had seen a cartoon in a book at Grandpa Abner’s that showed a fish leaping out of a toilet bowl and a woman staring at it with big eyes. I thought that was funny and I knew it was impossible, but I didn’t think there was any reason to take chances. -Will Shetterly, Dogland (free download)
Writing Prompt: Write a scene or story about something living in the plumbing or sewer system.
Journaling Prompt: What irrational fears do you have based on an urban legend?
Art Prompt: What’s in the plumbing?
Photo Credit: Vagabond Shutterbug on Flickr
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“If I am out of my mind, it’s all right with me thought Moses Herzog.” -Saul Bellow, Herzog
Writing Prompt: Using the first line above, write a story, scene or poem.
Journaling Prompt: Do you ever wonder if you’re crazy? If so, is it all right with you?
Art Prompt: Crazy and Happy
Photo Credit: Nina Matthews Photography on Flickr
Send to KindleRelated posts:
- Prompt #204 First Line of the Week – J.D. Salinger
- Prompt #68: First Line of the Week – Anne Tyler
- Prompt #146: First Line of the Week – One for the Money
- Prompt #97: First Line of the Week – Millicent Min, Girl Genius
- Prompt #104: First Line of the Week – Still Life with a Woodpecker
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flam·boy·ant adjective
1. strikingly bold or brilliant; showy: flamboyant colors.
2. conspicuously dashing and colorful: the flamboyant idol of international society.
3. florid; ornate; elaborately styled: flamboyant speeches.
Writing Prompt: Use the word in a scene, story, or poem.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a memory involving something or someone flamboyant.
Art Prompt: Flamboyant
Photo Credit: anoldent on Flickr
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