How to Use a List to Generate Writing Prompts Using a list can be an effective way to generate writing prompts for yourself for poetry, fiction, or life story writing. Just like when we write a shopping list to make sure we remember what to purchase at the grocery, we can also lists of many kinds to inspire our writing times. Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels There are several ways you can incorporate writing lists in your day-to-day writing life.1. Reflect on whom you’ve significant spent time with over the last week (at least an hour) and write notes on who was with you, what you did or talked about, where you were, how you felt. You can use the people as inspiration for characters, where you were as a starter for describing your setting in your current writing, or your conversation and how you felt as prompts for practicing incorporating dialogue.2. Keep a food journal. Sometimes a nutrition coach or medical doctor may ask you to keep a food journal, too. Using it as a writing prompt generator might look like recording what you ate, how you prepared it, notes using all five senses, how you might alter the recipe, where you’d like to eat next, who was with you, what other food you thought or talked about while you ate, etc. Writing about food can inspire you because it can engage all of your senses and it’s something that most people can relate to.3. List specific events in a timeline of your last 24 hours. Start by writing 7pm, 6pm, 5pm, etc. till 6pm yesterday in a column on the left of your page. Once you’ve made the list, then you can choose one hour that stands out to you to write about in more detail. After you do that once, you might choose another hour to freewrite about, or you might choose to stick with your current prompt and select a refined moment from your first part of freewriting.For example (your 24-hour list might look something like this): 6-7pm – Made stir fry dinner, talked to Max, listened to podcast, started class5-6pm – Class prep, emails 4-5pm – Read “The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek”, talked to Sandi3-4pm – Talked to England friends2-4pm – Talked to England friends1-2pm – Worked on Em’s commission circle painting, Lucy’s birthday video12-1pm – Put groceries away, ate lunch, listened to podcast11am-12pm – Grocery shopping10-11am – Art talks with Kelly9-10am – Art talks with Kelly8-9am – Get ready for the day, drive to Kelly’s11pm-8am – Sleeping10-11pm – Watching Supergirl with Max9-10pm – Watching Supergirl with Max8-9pm – Prep and eat dinner & watching Supergirl with Max7-8pm – Strength training, stretching, showering Generating lists can help you find inspiration for characters you are developing in a piece of fiction for a novel or short story. Lists might also help you remember a moment in time and bring you back to a vivid image you would like to capture in a poem. Using your life of mundane tasks might yet inspire you to find specific details, all five senses, or moments of conversation that you might otherwise forget, but could include in a memoir piece or personal essay. However you use a list to generate prompts, I hope that you are inspired to make creativity a habit in your everyday writing life. Want free inspiration for your creative life delivered regularly to your email inbox? Sign up here. What are some other lists you could generate to get inspiration for writing prompts? Let me know in the comments! Happy writing!
How to Make Freewriting Work for You What is freewriting? Freewriting is a tool that writers often use to kickstart creative thought. It’s like doing leg swings or dynamic stretching warmups before heading out on a long run. It’s like practicing tongue twisters before a big speech or theatre performance. Freewriting is just that: free and writing. It is all about conquering the fears of the blank page by simply getting words, whether they are weak or powerful, down on the page. Sometimes we can feel stuck in our creativity, like we’re in a slimy mud pit, void of creativity. Often we can worry that we do not have anything valuable to say, so we wait until we feel like what we have to say is “good enough.” Sadly, this leaves so many profound and thoughtful ideas left unwritten, unshared, uninspired. Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom from Pexels When you feel blocked as a writer, or even on any project whether you’re a civil engineer building bridges, or a great neighbour building relational bridges, the act of writing one word after the next to get something out can release the floodgates and at the very least, bring inspiration when you have words out that you have something to work with. What are you listening to? This is a question that goes beyond the surface. Many of us have negative voices from our past that told us we couldn’t do this or we’d never accomplish that, or this creative endeavour is a waste of time because you can’t make that much money doing it. Or, maybe you listen to your own limiting beliefs and tell yourself a story that’s just as unhelpful. When we write, there can be a fight that we wrestle through each time, or we can simply get something out. We can acknowledge our Inner Critic or Inner Editor who says it’s not perfect yet and let it know you hear it and acknowledge that its ideas are valid. But, right now is time for first thoughts and fresh, crazy ideas to come out to play from your five-year-old self and that, in a little while, after the playing, then the Critic and Editor can come and hone and craft the playful words into something polished. Photo by Bich Tran from Pexels So, open up a new word document or grab a pen and notebook, set the timer for ten minutes and simply write. Keep your pen flowing, your keyboard clicking and let whatever words present themselves come out as rubbish or bizarre as they might be. Know that you can trust your instinct with words to play for ten minutes, knowing that afterward, your editor can edit. Happy Writing! For more tips on creativity regularly delivered to your inbox, sign up for my Creativity Club Email List. What are your most common barriers when it comes to sitting down to write? Leave me a comment. 🙂