A Headline Prompt, January 30, 2009

January 30, 2009

I clip headlines from newspapers, fold them into little squares, and deposit them in my “prompts” bowl. Looking for a prompt? Pick a headline. Here’s one from today’s New York Times, “Weekend Arts” Prompt: Gaze East and Dream

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Verbs, glorious verbs, January 29, 2009

January 29, 2009

Prompt: Read this opening paragraph (it’s one of my favorites) and write a paragraph in which you employ lively verbs. Notice how Pollan’s verbs and prose anthropomorphizes the lawn? No lawn is an island, at least in America. Starting at my front stoop this scruffy green carpet tumbles down a hill and leaps across a […]

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How They Flow, January 28, 2009

January 27, 2009

Prompt: Mozart said, “When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer — say traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep — it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best, and most abundantly. Whence and how they […]

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Mirror, January 27, 2009

January 27, 2009

Prompt: Mirror, mirror on the wall . . .

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A Dog’s Life, January 26, 2009

January 26, 2009

Prompt: Write from his point of view.(His name is Ringo.)

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What’s Inside? January 25, 2009

January 25, 2009

Prompt: Write about the uses of a big box.

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That Day, January 24, 2009

January 24, 2009

Prompt: Write about a Saturday morning.

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The Power of Hands, January 23, 2009

January 23, 2009

Prompt: Write about work your hands do and check out this poem, On the Assembly Line.

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Write A What? January 22, 2009

January 22, 2009

Prompt: Write a letter, a real letter, to somebody and mail it. How do you feel, knowing who your audience is? Start up a letter-writing correspondence as a form of writing practice. (I’m going to write to my mother, who’s in the nursing facility at her retirement community at the moment, suffering from a hairline […]

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Lost Consolation, January 21, 2009

January 21, 2009

Prompt: I have lost the consolation of faiththough not the ambition to worship.Forrest Gander, poet

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