The August prompt-a-month for our Writers in the Grove members is:
“You opened my letter…”
Writers in the Grove members may hand in their submissions during the workshops or use our members only submission form. Check out the guidelines and instructions for submissions in the announcement.
During the 2017 NaNoWriMo event in November, Writers in the Grove members offer these prompts to provide inspiration and incentive to keep you going during the self-competition to write 50,000 words in 30 days. You may find NaNoWriMo prompts from previous years and prompts from our weekly workshops.
Today’s NaNoWriMo prompt is:
The old letter caught my eye.
If you are participating in NaNoWriMo, or wish to, Writers in the Grove offers an extensive range of NaNoWriMo tips and techniques to help you through the month long writing project.
The following is from Writers in the Grove member Ann Farley. It is inspired from the Prompt: Writing Letters You Might Never Send.
Write a letter I wouldn’t send?
Did that once, wrote a letter to a college professor, and I intended to send it, but the tone was snarky. I knew if I mailed it, I’d never hear from her. Put that letter in an envelop, but stopped short of a stamp. Stuffed it down in the couch cushions to give it time, give myself a little distance, reconsider. Perhaps rewrite it entirely.
Two days later I looked for that letter, tore the couch apart, got belly-flat on the floor looking for it.
Gone. It was gone.
Asked my husband if he’d seen an envelop in the couch, and sure enough, he had. Found it, put a stamp on it, put it in the mailbox a day or so ago.
Well, damn.
Maybe, I thought, maybe the tone wasn’t so bad. But I knew it was, and there was no pulling it back. I never heard from that professor again.
Never wrote a letter I wouldn’t send again, either.
Not worth the loss.
This week’s prompt talked about how we communicate? What do we use to communicate? Eyes, attention, body language, respect, support, and words.
You can communicate with a person and have it be a very intimate connection. You may also connect with someone and have it be a one way experience.
There are many ways to communicate with each other, as there is with your characters. How do they communicate with each other?
As a writer, how do you connect on a deeper level to your readers? Sometimes you write to a specific person, even if you are writing for many. Others say they write to and for themselves.
The prompt narrowed down to this:
Write a letter to yourself or someone else that speaks the truth, says what you really wish to tell them, no holds barred.
It could be a letter sent, or one that is written and never sent. It doesn’t matter.
If you’d like to experiment with character building, have your main character or any character in your story write that letter.
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