There’s a video in that post and the man in the video begins with the words of A. E. Houseman:
High upon the hill of summer,
Lazy with the flow of streams,
Hark I hear a distant drummer,
Drumming like a sound in dreams,
Far and near and low and louder on the roads of earth go by,
Dear to friend and food to powder,
Soldiers marching,
Soon to die.
War has been a writing prompt since humanity first spawned authors.
Peace, not so much…
My recently published short novel used Peace, and the road to get there, as its incentive for existence.
That post from April said:
“While I absolutely don’t feel and certainly can’t imagine that all creative writers Must labor to weave social issues into their work, I deeply hope more of them will—I think our Human Family deserves it…”
Do you feel Global Peace is the most important social issue?
Even if you feel it’s the most pressing social concern, do you feel creative writers should use it as a Prompt?
In response to one of the Comments on that post, I said: “My personal feeling is that most folks have the attitude that world peace is completely impossible so why read a book about it…”
And, if folks don’t want to read books about how to establish peace, why should writers create such books?
Out of a sense of Social Responsibility?
The author Jane Watson commented on that post with these words:
“I think that mankind has been concerned with writing about social issues since we began putting pen to paper, not to sell books, but because writing is a way of connecting and letting people know about issues that are important to the writer—and before the invention of the printing press perhaps we used song and epic poems sung by the bard to talk about these issues.
“Now because of our greater access to the wider world, writers have more global concerns to deal with. The meaning of the word ‘responsibility’ surely implies that you ‘respond’ and take on the consequences of that response and act accordingly.
“Responsibility is an internal process for the individual, it cannot be forced upon them, but it cannot also be ignored by the authentic individual. I guess the question here is, as individuals, should writers still in this day and age read their own hearts correctly and ‘respond’ appropriately to their surroundings? And I would say: Yes.”
So…
Since children can be considered to be the Future of Humanity, I offer you a video that might serve as a writing prompt—an incentive for you or one of your friends—a motivator toward the creation of stories that humanity just might desperately need…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-) For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com * Google Author Page
Some folks feel “Writing Prompts” is an overused phrase, suggesting “Self-Assignments” is a “nicer” way to indicate that many writers need a jolt to get over the dark depression called “Writer’s Block”.
“Prompting can come from more than a word or two. It may be a sentence heard or read, an article or essay, or even a complete book that Prompts the writer to take things in their own literary direction…”
There’s a fascinating site referenced in that post that has full stories that can be used to get the creative writer moving.
One response to that post is worth replicating here:
“I have blocks on rare occasions, but they’re never lacks of ideas so much as a lack of inspiration to work on the ones I have. All a prompt is going to do is add another idea to not write about to the list — lol”
Perhaps that writer needs more “Reason To Write”—more confidence in their ability to say things that are valuable to others…
Of course, a writer doesn’t have to imagine they suffer from writer’s block to use writing prompts; and, the wide world outside the writer’s cave has a plethora of prompts—moving, breathing, blooming, careening prompts…
But, I do understand the situation, most deeply and personally, of a writer who would rather stay in the cave and reach out electronically.
So…
Even though it’s easy enough to put “writing prompts” into Google and become deluged with options, here are a few of my Picks:
The Time Is Now — from one of my Best Friend’s favorite Sites, Poets & Writers—with Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Non-Fiction Prompts; plus, a side-bar with various writers’ methods of inspiration.
Have any favorite writing prompt spaces or techniques?
Do, please, share them in the Comments :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-) For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com * Google Author Page
World News
Notes from An Alien 