prompts

Unlimited Health and Resources Were Available – Who Would I Be?

The following is by Diana Lubarsky, one of our active and prolific members. It is in response to the prompt, If You Had Unlimited Resources.

Spiral of clock.With all the funds I’ll ever need in my pocket, and health and conflict gone, I see myself shedding the skin of survival mode. I slip my thin, healthy young woman’s body from my yacht onto a kayak and paddle gently across the tepid Caribbean waters under a perfect blue sky. A gentle sun warms my back. No longer in survival mode, I am free at last to write of stars and sun, mountains and ethereal beauty; the sights I’ve been privileged to see; the God woven fabric of life.

But soon, I am bored. Inhaling beauty all day is like eating only sugar. My stomach aches. My gaze focuses beyond the magnificent harbor where I lounge, toward the teaming city; a place of dreams and despair, of fortunes lost and lives gambled.

At night I leave my silk shawl behind, scrub my face, don sackcloth, and enter the gates of the destitute. This is where I belong. Birthing babies, bandaging wounds, bringing hope … neck deep in sweat and blood.

Although the majesty of mountain peaks and orchestral music sing to my heart, the first cry of a slimy new born taking its first breath in my arms replenishes my soul.

I have learned, wealthy or not, I am a healer.

Prompt: If You Had Unlimited Resources…

The prompt this week was:

IF you had unlimited resources, time, healthy, and energy, what would you write?

What is the tentative working title?

Do you have a character that yells to you from inside that wants to be born?

IF you know what you would write, why aren’t you doing it?

What is stopping you?

Get started.

Write the opening paragraph or chapter. Now.

Prompt: Dialog

This is the prompt from Vernonia Library Writers Group prompt for July 16: Writing Dialog.

The introduction to the prompt began with reading aloud 10 lines of dialog that had no other information as to who was talking or how it was said, just dialog. It could have been a scene in a play or just a casual conversation. After reading the dialog, the group discussed if they could distinguish the characters by the lines they spoke. Male, female, young, old, local or from somewhere else, and if this was a current exchange, from days gone by, or from the future; the dialog created characters.

The class was given 15 minutes to write their own dialog. The class dissected each members dialog to reveal who the characters were by their dialog. Some were very precise to what the writer had in mind. One person had three people in their dialog. This led to a good discussion about ways to make the distinct characters have their own presence, their unique personality.

Prompt: Haiku in 3 Lines

This week’s prompt was based upon a workshop by our sister writer’s group in neighboring Hillsboro, Conversations With Writers. Their most recent workshop featured Maggie Chula, author of Living In The Moment: A Haiku Life and current president of the Tanka Society of America, a haiku association. She spoke about how to capture a moment, mostly in nature or using nature, to tell a story without describing the emotions. Called objective haiku, as opposed to directive haiku that describes emotions, the descriptions emote without the author telling you how to feel.

Another key to writing haiku this way is to have a surprise twist or ending.

Examples of her work included:

Warblers song
Welcomes me home
The prowling cat

Smell of Narcissus
My 13th Spring
And mother’s tumor

Sento Palace burnt
Again and again
Flaming azaleas

Our prompt inspired by her workshop was to not write in traditional and formal haiku as most of us are not trained to do so, but to use the haiku examples above to emulate haiku.

The prompt was to write haiku style in 3 lines beginning with the line Pebbles clatter.

Prompt: Editing Haiku

During the Writers in the Grove Monday workshop working on objective haiku, one of our members came up with the following haiku, beautiful but too wordy, which led to an amazing lesson in editing and the many variations that maybe found when multiple creative people tackle the same subject.

We’ve decided to share our member’s original work, which she has since edited, as an additional prompt this week to inspire you to work from her original concept and see where it takes you. If you would like to share your version, please share it in the comments below.

Pebbles clatter harshly
Noise provokes my attention toward the outer door
Unnerved to discover what is behind

The goal of the prompt is to edit the above to three lines with the least amount of words to convey the powerful emotion and imagery. How few words can you use? You are welcome to change the words but attempt to keep the intent of the original.

A Kaleidoscope Market

Cardamon, cumin, cinnamon, and sumac wafted, mingling with unfiltered cigarettes, rotting garbage, and urine, and the unmistakable stench of oily, perfumed bodies pushing past in search of their next meal or treasure. My foot shifted as it slid across a rounded stone in the narrow corridor, made wet by the dripping ice under the raw fish on display in one stall. Next to it, the source of the sweet scents, a ground spices carved into patterns and textures, their earthy orders turning heads to admire the edible artwork. Squeals screeched from another, brightly banded birds in gold cages matching the scarves next door of gold, blue, and red fluttering in the breeze of those hurrying by. Cut flowers in white buckets offered a momentary respite from the kaleidoscope of smells, sights, and sounds. A honking bray parted the crowds as I paused, a heavily laden mule clomping its way through a well-worn and practiced path on autopilot, unaccompanied Its baskets swayed back and forth as people inhaled to back away, then swelled together behind it, a never-ending stream of humanity snaking its way through the dark.

Location: Egyptian Spice Market, Istanbul, Turkey