26ⁿ

Prompt 46 ~ Endings

2011-12-26T03:08:00.000-08:00

It’s the last prompt of the year and also the last prompt for 26n. As we head towards the end of 2011, I thought it might be apposite to stop and reflect, if you so wish, about what endings mean to you. Never mind resolutions and where do we go from here, but really just try and be with the moments of ending. Here are some quotes to get the juices flowing, whether you agree with them or not. Might I suggest that the disagreements are the juiciest places from which to start your writing and reflecting.

“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” – Orson Welles

“The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy.” – John Galsworthy

“That’s something I think is growing on me as I get older: happy endings.” – Alice Munro

“True love stories never have endings.” – Richard Bach

“What the caterpillar calls an ending the rest of the world calls a butterfly.” – Lao Tzu

~

We may not be posting any new prompts but the site will stay up and the prompts will always be there for anyone to use at any time. If you ever want to post a response to any of the prompts, just leave us a comment and we will come over and read it.

Thanks for visiting.

Namaste.

Prompt 45 - science (-inspired) fiction

2011-12-19T00:23:00.000-08:00

I was reading through the Guardian's top 10 scientific discoveries of the year. Which made me think that so many of the headings for each of the ten were actually great ideas to inspire short stories. I google-searched science journals, and looked through some of their titles, marvelling at how they could provide some great ideas - just by reading the headings, without necessarily reading the articles themselves.

For example, over at Science Daily, I found the following titles set my 'cogs' in motion and had potential short stories brewing up...

- 'The Shadows in a City Reveal Its Energy Flow'
- 'Artichokes Grow Big in Texas'
- 'Detecting the 'Heartbeat' of Smallest Black-Hole Candidate'
- 'Immunity Against the Cold'

If you want to try out this week's prompt, try visiting Science Daily or some other science journal, look for potential short-story inspiration in any of the titles and ...well, ...write.

As ever, if you feel like sharing what you've written connected to this prompt, leave us a message to let us know.

Prompt 44 ~ kitchen action

2011-12-11T10:53:00.001-08:00

Make a list of 6 verbs. Then go into your kitchen and make a list of 6 objects you can see there.

Spend a few minutes matching up a verb and an object. Take one you fancy and use that as your writing prompt.

Here’s one I came up with – Love Measuring Spoons.

If you’d like to share what you’ve written, as ever, leave us a comment with the url of your blog post and we’ll come over and read it.

Prompt 43 - in reverse

2011-12-04T22:26:00.000-08:00

It's nearly the end of the year, and with the end of the year the 26n project will be drawing to a close. This got me thinking about endings, and beginnings. And this, in turn, made me think of this week's prompt.

Take a story or poem you've already written, and try retelling it, in a different order, ideally in reverse, from the end to the start. You might have to play about with it a bit, so that is is still understandable, but by the time you put down your pen you should have arrived at the start, with something that makes (new) sense! Or maybe not, but I hope it'll be fun playing anyhow!

26n is drawing to a close, but if you feel like sharing before the end of the year, as ever, the invite is open...

Prompt 42 ~ mood

2011-11-27T15:29:00.001-08:00

Have a look at / listen to these videos. Settle into their moods. Write from whatever inspires you, however big or small.

Murmuration

At the Hop

The Ship Song

It there's anyone out there still with us and if you fancy playing along and want to share what you've written, please leave a link to your post in the comments below and we'll come over and read you. Promise.

Prompt 41 - book titles

2011-11-22T01:03:00.000-08:00

As I'm sitting typing, I look up at the shelf of cookery books above the computer.

"Book of Soups", "Falling cloudberries", "Indian Food", "Grandmother's Herbs", "Farmhouse Kitchen", "Native British Trees", "Wild Food Yearbook", "Self Sufficiency", "Herbs on the Table", "My Orchard", "Through the Kitchen Window", "A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain"... there are lots more, obviously they're not all cookery books.

I wonder which I would choose as the title for a piece of writing. Or would I prefer another title, from one of the other bookcases around the house.

Have a look through your bookcase, try not to be influenced by the content of the book. Which title most inspires you? Jot down a few of them, then settle down to play with your ideas.

As ever, I you feel like sharing, you're more than welcome!

p.s. - Sorry I'm a day late!

Prompt 40 ~ Dark & Light

2011-11-13T14:35:00.001-08:00

Take a sheet of paper and make two lists. One entitled 'dark' and the other 'light.' Give yourself 5 minutes to write down whatever comes to mind for each one.

When 5 minutes is up, stop. Pick something(s) from each list and write.

Prompt 39 - Senses

2011-11-07T13:54:00.000-08:00

Senses. Five of them. More, you might argue. For this prompt, I'm just going with the first five (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste). ...Choose one of them, just one. And let it be your companion for the day. Or for a few days. Try to be extra-aware of that sense. Try to take note of what it notices throughout your day/night. If you like, make a list of these things.

When you're satisfied that you really have noticed that sense more than before, have really noticed what it's detecting and feeding to your brain, thank it most kindly and then pick up your pen. Your piece of writing should try to incorporate that sense, whether as a character, or as the basis for most of the descriptions given.

If you decide to try out this prompt, why not share it on your blog? We would be more excited than you could possibly imagine (honest!) to find out who is playing along with 26n, and what they're writing. Go on, we're friendly - honest! :)

Prompt 38 ~ Sleep

2011-10-31T01:18:00.000-07:00

This week's prompt is sleep. And here are some quotes to get your imagination going...

I want to tell you a terrific story about oral contraception. I asked this girl to sleep with me and she said 'No.'
- Woody Allen

I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?
- Ernest Hemingway

A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.
- Victor Hugo

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can't sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can't sleep with the window open.
- George Bernard Shaw

~

Ok, now go do your thing! Poetic prose, pulsating poetry, incandescent free writing, writing in your sleep...pick your poison.

As ever, if you'd like to share, post a link to your writing in the comments below and we'll come over and read it.

Have a good week my pretties...

(Apologies for the weird font size - it's not me, it's blogger)

Prompt 37 - starting from a song

2011-10-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

Music has a way of gnawing into our souls at times, at least it does with me, quite often. Think of your favourite songs, those lines that make you think, “wow....so few words, but really well said...” Take one such line, and use it as the first line for a poem or story. Try to be sure that your poem/story is not overly influenced by the song. Make that line your starting point, allow it to take you off in your own direction, the one that you feel inside whenever you hear that line. See where it takes you.

If you want to share what you've written, let us know.

Prompt 36 ~ Cut up a poem

2011-10-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

Take a poem or two and print or photocopy them onto separate sheets of paper. Cut out at least half of the words from each poem. Then, either swap some of the words around from each poem or take words and put them together to make a new one, or two or three.

If you’d like to share what you’ve come up with, however rough or polished, post it on your blog and leave a comment below with your post's url. At least one of us will come over and read it. Honestly, we will.

Prompt 35 - over to you...

2011-10-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm going to be a little cheeky this time! :) Just a little, but here goes...

Heartful and I have been enjoying , are still enjoying, posting up prompts here... and we get excited when blogger tells us that we get several visits, and from several far-flung places too! It really does make us very happy.

Sometimes, well quite often really, we invite you visitors to write a prompt and send it to us, we could perhaps post it here one week (of course we'd say who wrote the prompt, and also link to your blog/website etc. if you so wished). As yet no-one has taken us up on the idea. That's okay, we haven't run out of ideas yet. Maybe people are shy? I guess I'd be shy. Anyhow, prompt 35 is an attempt at creating more dialogue with visitors to this blog... and if it doesn't work, then at least you might get a new writing prompt out of it... :)

So, what's the prompt? I really don't know. 'Don't have a clue. ...You tell me (or not, if you don't want to - but you have to choose a prompt this week, all the same).

This week's prompt: write a writing prompt that you would find really interesting/challenging/fun. If you'd like to share it with us, we really would be over the moon with delight. But you don't have to (though if you did, we'd be oh-so-super-dooper-excited ...oh, did I mention that already?).

Anyhow, write the prompt and then, ideally, do your piece of writing based on your prompt. If you are part of a writing group, then perhaps you could all write prompts, stick them in a nice big hat and choose them, all nice and random. Whatever, just play at writing prompts.

Have fun!

Prompt 34 ~ Forbidden words

2011-10-03T02:39:00.000-07:00

In this prompt I’d like you to think about the power that words can have and where that power comes from – specifically with words that are forbidden. These forbidden words will be different for everyone – they can range from swear words to words related to sex or sexuality, religion or even family secrets.

Are there words you were forbidden to use as a child or things you were forbidden to talk about? How do you feel about using those words now? Do you? Are there words you choose not to say as an adult? Why?

For however long you need this week, I’d like you to give yourself permission to use those words. Write something using those words or about those words – whatever the prompt evokes for you. Write as freely as you can – because you do not have to post this writing.

Once the piece is written, replace the forbidden words with other words, ones you consider innocuous and which are not related to the forbidden ones. It is this version of your writing I'd like you to post (if you wish to).

Can the meaning of the forbidden words still be gleaned even though the words have been replaced? Has the taboo been lost or strengthened? Did it feel liberating to change the forbidden words, or scary?

How did this exercise go for you? Tell us about it.

Respond to the prompt however you want to - freewriting, poem, story, etc. Whatever it brings up is fine, you don't have to follow the instructions to the letter. If you'd like to share what you've written, however rough or polished, post it on your blog and leave a comment below with your post's url. At least one of us will come over and read it.

Thank you!

Prompt 33 - Headlines

2011-09-26T02:27:00.000-07:00

Take the newspaper (paper copy or on-line), and leaf through, without reading the articles, trying not to look at the photos. Just read the titles. When there's one that jumps out at you, one that you want to write about, then copy it down (resist the temptation to read the article, or follow that story on the news until you've done your writing).

What you write is up to you. Non-fiction. Poetry. Prose. You decide. Afterwards, if you like, you can read the original story.

If you decide to have a go at this prompt, don't forget to mention the source of the original title.

Also, if you do decide to play along, why not let us know in the comments section? If you post your writing on your blog, we'd be really excited to come over and read it. Let us know? (Blogger stats kindly tell us that we do have visitors, which we're ever so giggly and pleased about - why not stop and say hello, we'd be really ever so happy...)

Prompt 32 - the weather

2011-09-19T03:40:00.000-07:00

They say the Brits talk lots about the weather. I'm not one for stereotypes, and I wouldn't have thought it true, but when I do get back to the UK, I've started to notice that lots of people do, indeed, make small-talk about the weather. At the bus stop, in the bus station, over breakfast with the family sitting at the next table in the guest-house dining room in Whitby. The weather. Is it a security blanket? ...Something to say? Or is it really a true passion for the weather?

Write whatever you like, a poem, a short story, you decide, but the weather should play a very central part in it somehow.

If you decide to try out this prompt, and if you decide to post up what you write on your blog, then leave a comment or e-mail us to let us know. We'll be over to read it with pleasure!

If you have any ideas for other prompts, do let us know - if we use your prompt we will, of course, say who it came from.

Happy writing!

Prompt 31 ~ Play with a poem

2011-09-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today I found this wonderful interpretation of Emily Dickinson's Poem, "I'm Nobody".

This week's prompt is to find a poem and play with it. Do whatever inspires you. There are no such things as mistakes. Or rather, mistakes are encouraged because mistakes are charming.

If you want to share, post what you've done on your blog and leave us a comment with a link to the post. One of us will come over and read it.

Ta!

Prompt 30 ~ Live with a poem

2011-09-05T03:50:00.000-07:00

This exercise was inspired by Fiona & Kaspa’s podcast on poetry.

Pick a poem – any poem as long as it’s by someone else, not one of your own. It can be one you know and love or one that’s completely new to you.

Now, this is important: once you’ve picked the poem, you cannot go back and pick a different one, no matter how much you are tempted to. Try to live with whatever feelings come up – even resistance or sudden dislike for some aspect of it, expected or unexpected. Let the feelings come up, take note of them and then let them be.

Over the week, take the time to read the poem slowly, meditating on the meaning of each line. Try not to get too caught up in the literal meanings of the words but focus more on the images or feelings that emerge when you read the lines. You might want to write down the things that come up for you during this process.

The idea is to live with the poem for a few days, until you’ve learned it by heart, until you can feel each line.

Once you’ve done this, take the title of the poem and write your own poem in response to that title.

If you’d like to share what you’ve come up with, however rough or polished, post it on your blog and leave a comment below with your post's url. At least one of us will come over and read it.

Ta!

Prompt 29 - patterns

2011-08-29T05:21:00.000-07:00

I have a 'thing' for patterns ...especially visual ones, patterns in nature, the way fields are ploughed, clouds, the washed up sand on a beach... patterns in architecture, geometric forms.

As I was sitting at my computer, looking out the window in distraction, I pondered the ploughed fields on the hillside opposite. I realised that I had my next 26n prompt.

Play with patterns in your writing. It could be a pattern intended to be seen. It could be a pattern intended to be heard. Or both. Play with patterns in your writing.

Please feel free to take part. If you post your writing on your blog, leave the link in the comments section and at least one of us will be over to read it, all happy that other people are playing along at 26n!

I hope your summer was good! It's good to be back here!

Insert witty title here

2011-08-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

As previously mentioned, Na & I are taking a break from posting prompts this month. But, we didn't want to leave you high and dry, so here's some cracking writing to move and inspire you and maybe give you a kick up whatever appendage you want kickage for to enable you to write like your head is on fire...

In no particular order and chosen by me for it's "MUST READ"ness...

Teething by Matthew Brady Klitsch at The Dirty Napkin

Stamp a Little Thankfulness by Jo Gatford (I know her :-)) at Everyday Genius

In the Duck Light by Jo Gatford (yeah, her again, just read her, she's good) at Pank

Gestures by Megan Roberts at Smokelong

Leaving the Garden by Steve Ramey (I know him too, what can I say, I rub binary digits with the cool and talented) at Journal of Compressed Creative Arts

Plus, a fabulous blog I discovered recently...Danielle Davis

And, a book recommendation! Maira Kelman's The Principles of Uncertainty which started life as a column for the New York Times.

Ok, I think you've got enough to keep you going for a couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Prompt 28 ~ I can't write....because.....

2011-07-25T02:43:00.000-07:00

Is there some aspect of writing about which you often think, “I can’t do that.” For me, for a long time it was, “I can’t write descriptions.” And then, “I can’t write about things that aren’t based in some way on my experience.” And then, “I can’t write short stories.” And then, “I can’t write really short stories.” Do you know how I managed to prove myself wrong each time? By sitting down and writing. So, I’d like you to complete the above sentence. Then sit down and write. By the end of it, I want you to have proved yourself wrong.

If you want to share the fruit of your labours, please leave a comment with the link to your post and at least one of us will come over and read it.

Ta!

We're going to be taking a break from posting prompts in August. If the thought of this makes you wail, then please go ahead and submit a prompt idea or more to us at write26n (at) gmail (dot) com by the end of this month. If we like it, we'll use it for the month of August or beyond.

*** I've just realised that we've given you the wrong email address in previous posts for submitting a prompt! Eeeek. Apologies. So if you have submitted a prompt by email to us, can you please resubmit it to the correct address which is write26n (at) gmail (dot) com ***

Prompt 27 - Representing you...

2011-07-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

- If you were a colour, which colour would you be?
- If you could listen to any piece of classical music, which would it be?
- If you could live in any city, which would you choose? (It doesn't matter if you've actually been there or not.)
- Which do you prefer, day or night?
- If you could catch any smell accidentally drifting through the air, which would it be?

...take the colour, the piece of music, the city, the time of day and the smell and go write something that includes them all. Create atmosphere; atmosphere that is somehow representing you.

Have fun!

Please feel free to take part. If you post your writing on your blog, leave the link in the comments section and at least one of us will be over to read it, with glee!

We're going to be taking a break from posting prompts in August. However, we'd like to invite you to submit a prompt idea (or two or more) to us and if we like it, we'll post it up in August giving you full credit and linking to your blog or website. To submit a prompt please email us at write26(at)gmail(dot)com by the end of this month.

Prompt 26 ~ 26 lines

2011-07-11T01:15:00.000-07:00

I was told by treeshadowmoon that since I have the 26th prompt, I'd better do it with style. Hmmmm. I don't know about that. First I thought I'd post 26 prompts but that would be overkill. So here's what we're going to do. This week, you choose the subject to write about. Then, write a 26 line poem, story or list without naming the subject. Would a reader be able to tell what you've written about?

If you'd like to find out, post a link to your writing in the comments below and at least one of us will come over and read it.

Thanks!

PS We're going to be taking a break from posting prompts in August. However, if this saddens you, then we'd like to invite you to submit a prompt idea (or two or more) to us and if we like it, we'll post it up in August giving you full credit and linking to your blog or website. To submit a prompt please email us at write26n(at)gmail(dot)com by the end of this month.

Prompt 25 - it's all around you

2011-07-04T06:29:00.000-07:00

Sit down, empty page in front of you and a pencil in your hand. Don't listen to your mind or heart, your inner voice. Chart what your senses are perceiving around you. Down to the small details. The sounds, the smells, the sights, the tastes, the touch.

Wait as long as you like - for a set time, or for a set page-space, or simply until you grow tired...but generally the more you wait, the more you'll begin to notice.

Enjoy your microcosm.

As usual, feel free to participate. The more, the merrier!

Prompt 24 ~ take flight

2011-06-27T00:35:00.000-07:00

...whichever way you can

~ You know what to do! Go!

Prompt 23 - direct opposite

2011-06-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

Lately things are so busy that I often end up needing that e-mail nudge from Heartful, "Remember to post up the 26n prompt - it's your turn" - thanks Heartful - you're fab!

So, as I know that tomorrow is going to be a hectic day, I'm being good for once and posting up a day early - which is unusual for me! I'm being early to avoid being late.

I've been carrying a birthday card around in my bag since the end of May - it's for a friend, her birthday is at the end of June. On the back of the envelope I wrote, "Don't open until 27th June!" as I fully intended sending it early - the thought was there, fully, fully...

...the card is still in my bag. I lie. The card is now sitting on the kitchen table. I took it out of my bag today, put it on the table in an attempt to remind myself to take it to work in my HAND tomorrow, so I remember to get a stamp and post it.

Sometimes we mean to do/say one thing, but instead we do the direct opposite. Sometimes we try to do the direct opposite, just to avoid what we hope we won't do. Does that make sense?

This post is a direct opposite. The card I wrote early was an attempt at a direct opposite (which is going decidedly pear-shape, with only a few days left to get that card to its overseas destination in time!).

Direct opposite - this week's prompt. Make of it what you will. If you decide to participate (and we'd be ever-so excited if you decided to - whoever, wherever you may be) and want to share then post up on your blog and let us know - we'll be over to read and if you like can link to it here too!