• Found Prompts

    Prompts are everywhere. We just have to be able to spot them and know how to use them. Take receipts, for instance. Ever pick up a random receipt someone left in a shopping cart or tossed away and give it a close look? You should. What did this stranger buy?…

  • Using Prompts

    Usually prompts are used to generate a new piece of writing — often through a timed, free-writing exercise. For example, you set a timer for ten minutes and write whatever pops into your head using the prompt. Fiction, real-life memory, poem, country music lyrics, recipe… whatever rings your bell. In…

  • It’s Never Too Late to Start

    Awhile back someone posted his concern on a writer’s forum that he was starting too late. I’ve heard it now and again from older writers: they’re in their sixties or seventies, and they’re worried that they shouldn’t even give it a try, this novel writing thing. If that’s your particular…

  • A Fortune in Writing Prompts

    Fortune cookies, that is! Let me back up and start at the beginning. I recently started leading a weekly writing group after its founder passed away. She’d established a great group that meets weekly for two hours, doing ten minute free-writing activities. I was honored when asked to continue the…

  • Finding Time to Write

    “I can’t wait until I’m done with high school so I can spend more time writing,” confessed several of the young writers I worked with some years ago in Ohio. They had been selected to participate in a week-long writing intensive at a state university. They were creative, avid writing…