Writing Prompts

Working at a high school is fantastic because I've been able to sneak in time to write, even for just ten minutes every day. I don't have quiet at home so by creating a Young Writer's Group at school I've been able to connect with the kids and make creativity deposits in my emotional bank. Here are a few of them I've done in the last few weeks or will do in the next few weeks.

• Water has been recently found on Mars. Write a story about the day that NASA finally begins taking applications for volunteer colonists.
• It's a normal day at school until a table of girls begins laughing a little too loudly, they begin to draw attention, because soon the joy on their faces turns to fear as they try to stop but can't. Soon the next table and then the next begins to laugh until the entire room is laughing uncontrollably. Slowly but surely the laughing is creeping towards you. You then....
• Write a story about a town where the old saying "step on a crack and break your mother's back" is real.
• Rewrite the story of Hansel and Gretel in your own neighborhood in 'hood Atlanta. Who is the witch? What is her house made of instead of gingerbread?
• A wizard has offered you a fortune if you agree to give up one of your senses. Tell the story about the day you gave up your.....
• It's your 18th birthday. Tell a story about a city where poor people have been engineered to live only 18 years.

On Creativity

Creativity is an essential function of living to me. I heard something today that rang so true to my spirit. It was Elizabeth Gilbert, and she said that she finds it cruel (I'm paraphrasing here) to tell some people to follow their passion, because few people are truly passionate about just one thing, those that are tend to work in the field their passionate about. A better alternative is to tell people to pursue whatever they are curious about. Isn't that lovely.

I'm curious about a great many things, but pinning my survival on my passions (which could change or may not be very lucrative) seems reckless. I'm curious about plant-based diets, yoga, books, editing, uplifting my people, world peace. and a great many other things. I'm excited about getting older because of my curious nature and it is that curiosity that fuels my creativity.

I've been on a break for the last few days and as a young Mom I'm moving all the time and never have any time for myself, but in that chaos I've had epiphanies. Creativity is essential to sanity. Writing in my journal is a coin in my sanity bank. Trying a new ab workout and blogging is a coin in my sanity bank. We draw from our sanity banks through stress at work, through family obligations, through the constant reminder of student loans. If we don't make deposits then we run ourselves into emotional debt, which can kill you if you let it. So write a poem, do a dance, bake a pie, write something, even just for a second, or one minute.