' I ' Prompts for Writers
Do you need an inspirational boost? Something to spark your inventive imagination? Hopefully you'll find the writing prompts below interesting and useful. This post is brought to you by the Letter I—that's why it's inanely interspersed with words starting with this inestimable ninth letter.
If you get to the end, perhaps you'd be willing to inch nearer one prompt and respond to it with a few lines in the comment box below. Enjoy!
1. Invite us into your writing space—describe what you see or how you feel when you're there.
2. If it's not your ideal work space, what would you do to improve it?
3. Imagine a new project you'd love to work on this season.4. Invent reasons why you can't pursue this project—or why you will.
5. Identify the real time you'll need to work on it. How do you plan to insert this project into your current life? What will you change to make room for this new time-gobbling venture?
6. Introduce us to a Bible verse or a quotation that inspires you to write.
7. Isolate the fear or discomfort you have about writing. What's your antidote?
8. Outline that intriguing little problem you've been pondering. Does it have to do with a writing project? A situation at work or home? Why the cookie jar is always empty?
9. Tell us about a book you are reading and the feeling it invokes in you.
10. You are in your favourite place in the world—write from this imaginative spot.
11. Who or what was instrumental in you becoming a writer?
12. Describe a time when you had to stop and listen intently. Was it when you heard fragments of intimate conversation, bees humming in the flowers, leaves blowing in the trees, the Lord whispering in your ear?
13. Explain one habit or tool that has improved your writing experience.
14. Browse your bookshelf quickly for instant inspiration—which title grabs your attention?
15. Which incentive gets you writing the soonest? Watching an episode of your favourite binge watch? Reading the next chapter in a good book? A cup of tea? A nap?16. What do you consider an interloping interruption in your writing day? Are there ways you deal successfully with this intruder?
17. Do you ever wrestle with inertia? How do you overcome it?
Top Photo credit: Image by AndaDeea from Pixabay
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Fun list! On overcoming inertia, "“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything good.”
ReplyDelete― William Faulkner
Great quote! Thanks, Kathy.
DeleteI love this post, dear Brenda. Thank you for inspiring us.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to question number nine, I'm reading Dane Ortlund's book: Gentle and Lowly (The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers). It's making me feel invited and included in Christ's inner circle. I'm reading it for a second time because it's not only interesting, it's inspiring me to rest in His inclusive arms.
Blessings.
Thank you, Wendy! And thanks for that lovely book you shared - a book that makes one feel invited and included is special indeed.
Delete😂 Well done Brenda!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elizabeth! :)
DeleteWonderful, inspiring post , Brenda, as always!! Several suggestions prompted me to ponder.
ReplyDeleteThat's great, Sandi, thanks!
DeleteHa! Love this fun list, Brenda! I might even use it to INVENT my own list, but certainly for INSPIRATION!
ReplyDeleteYour list will be ICING on the cake!
DeleteI love all these prompts, Brenda! I inched along then my interest ignited even more at prompt #10. A favourite place in the world for me is the dike only a five minute walk from home. I like to walk the dike with my wife and our poodle. In the company of love I seem to sense hugs of nature more. Birds sing to us as we saunter along the dike. On one side a highway makes an easy path for vehicles to rush by. On the other side, there is no rush, only soft ground to walk on and mountains to oversee one's steps. God is with us on our walk and sends warm sunshine and a gentle bright light sealed with His smile.
ReplyDeleteAlan, what a lovely place you describe. I feel myself walking there as you describe the love, warm sunshine, and those hugs of nature.
DeleteThanks Brenda! A Bible verse that has inspired my writing since my teens is Proverbs 25:11. I learned it in the KJV version, which puts it this way: A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lovely word to live by, Michelle. I'm glad you shared it with us. Thank you.
DeleteWhat a wonderful post, Brenda. So much to think about, for which I am grateful. I will share one of my favourite posts about the writing process from Philip Roth. “I turn sentences around. That’s my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around. Then I read the two sentences over and turn them both around. Then I lie down on my sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning.”
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me it is not the quantity or even the quality of my writing but the fact that I do try to write each day. Thanks again.
Oh I do love that, Sharon. What a great quote. The author really does capture the essence. Thanks for sharing it!
DeleteI love that quote, Sharon. Thanks!
DeleteThe "incentive that gets me writing the soonest" is hearing an inspiring story about an invisible person that I'm excited to share with readers. What an intuitive prompts post Brenda!
ReplyDeleteOh, that's a good one, Bob! Thanks!
DeleteNo. 13 -- one habit that has improved my writing experience is simply reading beautiful words. They thrill me and inspire me to try to write my words beautifully. Thanks for your post Brenda. I found it fun and encouraging. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joy. I agree, it is a thrill to watch for those beautiful words when we're reading. And then filling notebooks of favourite lines to keep us inspired.
DeleteFun ideas, I'm starting a writing wordshop class next week. thx-Lin Floyd
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lin! All the best in your writing wordshop this week.
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