Caution: 'All advice is autobiographical' Austin Kleon This woman is about to give advice that will unintentionally reveal who she really is. Write her life story as it becomes evident in this phone call. photo: Bill Branson
words on words
from ruins
This is the front door of the Dalmore House in Scotland, completed in 1881, deemed uninhabitable in the early 1960s, and destroyed by fire in April 1969. Life is short, and we are transient. Walk through these doors and discover who lived here, retrieve their stories, reveal who they were by what they believed and what they … Continue reading from ruins
bub·ble
A bubble can can look like a world. Bubble: 1) a thin, liquid sphere, filled with air or another gas; or 2) time limited good fortune that is isolated from reality. Writing prompt: create a 150 word story titled The Bubble, in which the character(s) have been living a seemingly idyllic life, isolated from reality - … Continue reading bub·ble
“let them eat cake”
Why has this phrase been attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette, when there is no record of her saying it? Apparently because Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his autobiography, Confessions, wrote this: "I recalled the stopgap solution of a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread, and who responded: "Let them eat brioche." Wikipedia People assumed. … Continue reading “let them eat cake”
crepuscular
adj: resembling twilight. or: birds, insects, or animals active at twilight. This is a word that doesn't sound like what it means. Crepuscular sounds faintly menacing or like a medical condition. Forget the definition, in a 10 minute free-write respond to what this word evokes, and discover the foundation for a speculative fiction story.
final
There is only one 'first kiss', and there is a last time for everything. List ten things you have done for the last time. Then, write a story that begins with 'first kiss' and ends again and again, until the last time.
truth to fiction
Translating life into fiction can be a way to externalize our inner apocalypse... photo: Jon Sullivan ...and reading our fiction can lead us to an understanding of what we have locked away. Write about a Thanksgiving that became a turning point in your life, locate it in an exaggerated world of your creation, and animate it with people who enact … Continue reading truth to fiction
thanksgiving in orbit
Speculative Fiction is at its best when based on enough factual details that it feels not only possible, but likely. So imagine, instead of 'over the river and through the woods',living in a world in which traveling to grandmother's house meant leaving from a spaceport to attend Thanksgiving dinner in orbit. Read Ted Talks about … Continue reading thanksgiving in orbit
table manners
Some say you can know a great deal about a person by observing their table manners. Here is the children's table, imagine the larger table for adults in the next room. Bring us to a Thanksgiving dinner in which table manners dominate the conversation - and the subtext is driven by one character's belief that Thanksgiving is a time when … Continue reading table manners
Underwood no. 3
William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Jack Kerouac all used Underwood typewriters. Writing Prompt: Take a paragraph you've written and translate it into the style of a writer you admire. This helps to identify and experience how fluent writers harness the power of words. The point here is not to write 'like' someone else, but to … Continue reading Underwood no. 3
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