Today’s prompt brought out some fascinating writing. This prompt came from the monthly prompts published in The Sun Magazine, an exceptional journal featuring the published works, essays, poetry, and prose by top writers, helping us learn to write better.
The prompt is:
Saying No
This prompt is based upon a news story about a person wearing a controversial t-shirt at a university sports game, created by a local sports bar.
“It was pretty much towards the end of the game when things were getting pretty exciting,” said fourth-year medical student Erin Avondet, who spotted the T-shirt. “I spotted it and at first I was just totally taken aback, just completely shocked. I didn’t know how to comprehend it.”
The shirt reads “We are not responsible for lost or stolen virginity!” which appears below the Blue Jay Bar logo.
“The big thing I perceived was the use of the word stolen. That obviously implies it’s just being taken away from you without your permission,” Avondet said.
Avondet posted the picture online and it has been shared thousands of times. She said many people share her disapproval of the message.
“There are so many people that are victims of rape, and I think having that open conversation, starting that conversation is important,” Avondet said.
The prompt was to write about a situation where your character is outraged about an insensitive t-shirt, garment, or situation. Discussing the prompt, we realized that there are layers here in writing such a character driven moment. There are times when a person is offended by something but must constrain their response due to social norms. We can’t throttle everyone we don’t agree with, and protect freedom of speech while promoting responsible behavior.
The following is one of the prompts created by members of Writers in the Grove in response to Prompt: Round-Robin Writing in a Group.
Bev: The smell was familiar and touched a deep place in my heart. It was clear long before we saw it. The scent of the sea is unmistakable, but not apparent at all until you get up and over the ridge of mountains that shield the sight, sound, and scent of the ocean from the valley. We only made the trip once a year but this time it had been five years and anticipation of the wonders of the seashore.
Susan: The kids in the backseat were antsy and loud. Little Billy was especially vocal because he had been too little to remember the trip the last time. Now he was wiggling around in his car seat, causing Emma to upend her can of soda and splash Evie with orange creme all over her Sunday dress. Undaunted, I pulled the car over and pulled each kid out. All lined up against the car, I scrubbed and blotted and straightened each one until we were ready to continue on the journey.
The light sea breeze was calling. The destination close. The kids were all back into their places as I started the car.
Mary: What would they do now? We had a long drive ahead of us. Could we get there safe and sound? The kids fell asleep but I knew I’d better stay awake. It would be a long time until we got to the beach.
DK: The night before had been a mas rush to find the motel, switch rooms when the toilet didn’t work, eat a hurried snack, shower, and tumble into bed. We were all exhausted. Traveling with four kids under the age of ten was harder than I remembered. I had hidden the option for a sleep over back in the recesses of my mind, but now was so thankful that I had packed a spare bag with extra clothes and essentials.
Six AM. Bill was first to wake, screaming “Momma! Momma! I can see the ocean!” He jumped up and down on the bed waking all his siblings.
Lorelle: I was surprised at the speed the children took to get dressed and out of the motel. Back home, it could take 45 minutes to get most of them up, showed, dressed, and off to school This morning, it was accomplished at whirlwind speeds in under five minutes.
Pails, plastic shovels, umbrellas, sun lotion, towels, sun hats, all flew in wild semi-synchronous order onto bodies as if pulled in with rare earth magnets. We all traipsed down the path to the beach below, colorful and noisy, my parade of ducklings.
The beach didn’t stand a chance. The kids tore into it like it was under construction, a demolition derby of digging, building, tearing down, and rebuilding. By nightfall, the tide would come in and erase their day of labor, but for now, they were master builders and architects.
The supervisor of the anarchy, I sat under one of the umbrellas and read, until my cell phone alarm reminded me it was time for another dousing of sun lotion on the precious skin of my ducklings.
By evening, the worn out tykes were quick to shower off sandy warm bodies and drift contented off to sleep. I smiled at them as I stepped outside and closed the door. Finally alone.
Cheri: This was my time, and thanks to the bottle of brandy I had thrown into my bag, I could sit down and let myself relax. It occurred to me that my parents had probably felt the same way at one point. After dealing with all of us kids, they would tuck us in and retire to a quiet place in order to spend a little time alone with each other, probably talking about the day. But here I sat, alone, with no one to reflect with other than my brandy and the sound of the ocean. Being alone is hard, and I often wonder how I arrived here, solitary, with no one to share the events of the day. Of course, it wasn’t anyone’s fault. It just happened. Circumstances beyond my control. But it doesn’t make the loneliness any less painful.
DSO: Death of a spouse is not an easy thing. Who am I supposed to be angry at? Steve? God? The drunk driver? His boss for demanding he go that night? Am I jealous because he is safe now and I am left here with the issues of life to deal with? He was always telling me brandy can never be a good friend because it dulls the zest for life that helps make good decisions.
The prompt this week was a sort of round-robin of serial writing. Done as a group, two prompts were offered to choose from:
The smell was familiar and touched a deep place in my heart.
It was a dark and still night. The noise outside didn’t sound like the wind.
The first person chose one and wrote that down and continued for 2 minutes, then the paper switched to the person next to them for another two minutes of writing, continuing from whatever the first person started, then on to the next and next. If you have eight people in the group, eight stories will circulate through. Allow the first person to end the story when it circles around back to them, then read each story aloud to see where each went.
This technique could be done in the following ways if you are not part of a writing group.
The prompt and challenge is to write a very short story as if you were the following ages:
How does the story change? How does the voice change?
The prompt this week was:
If you only had two or three tools, what would they be, and how would you use them?
Put yourself or a character in a situation where they are restricted to using two or three tools. Describe the situation, the tools, their handling of the tools, what they are working on, putting emphasis upon the tools themselves.
The prompt this week was:
What my pet or an animal taught me.
Have you learned a life lesson from your pets or from an encounter with an animal?
Maybe this isn’t about a personal story but an encounter with a pet or animal for another character. What happened? What was the response of the character and the animal? What did they learn?
The prompt this week was a fun one.
Doodle with words.
The goal of the exercise was to break through writer’s block. Taking a blank piece of paper, write a word. Write another word attached or near it. Play with the way you write the word. Maybe draw a picture next to the word. No rules, just keep adding words one by one and see where they take you. When you are ready, start writing.
The prompt this week was:
Saying fine when you’re not.
Set yourself a scenario where your characters are in a stressful or bad situation and they have to say that they are fine when they aren’t. They have to be brave. Consider situations of bullying when a child or adult is asked but compelled to respond with “I’m fine” as some form of protection or defense.
The prompt this week involved keeping secrets.
You or your character knows something that the family shouldn’t know. Write about how you successfully or unsuccessfully hide the information.
Keeping secrets comes in all shapes, sizes, and flavors, but hiding something from family, people who know you or the character well and share a history, that’s more complicated.
How do they hide the information? Are they successful in doing so? It is important that we know what the secret is or just that something must be hidden from the others? Consider familial events such as family dinner gathers, holidays, or reunions.
Writers in the Grove 