For the past 13 weeks a friend and myself have taken up a writing prompt challenge. I put that challenge out there to my fellow writers online but so far we are the only consistent writers that took up the challenge. I wanted to take a moment to share my experience with this. My friend, Cherie, is not a writer. I, however, have self published over ten books and have been writing for over 20 years. Here is what I have observed.
Writing is a skill that isn’t easily learned. You just don’t decide one day to be a writer and everything works out perfectly. If you are an avid reader and love the creativity of various genres it is a big help. That is where my writing partner comes from. She is the most well read person I know. To call her a voracious reader after knowing her all these years would be putting it mildly. She decided to take up the challenge to test her own creativity. The stuff she shares with me each week on Saturday’s is some of the most creative stuff I’ve read in years. So if you are someone who wants to start writing, let this be your moment of encouragement.
Even the most seasoned writers make tons of mistakes. That is why we do not edit our prompts when we are finished. We just share them as they are. I even put some of them up on this blog page just so readers can read the raw product. In fact, since I’m a bit rushed today, I don’t think I’ll bother to edit this post. Ha!
My challenge to you is this. Pick three things out about your day. Then sit down at your table or your computer/laptop and write a short story or essay that ties the three things together. Stretch your imagination! Maybe it’s a horror piece, or something from the American wild west when the blood and the bullets were flying. Don’t make it hard, just have fun with it. The day that writing isn’t fun is the day you should stop. But here’s the little secret about that. It’s only fun if you make it that way. I promised myself back in 2000 that if it ever got boring or felt like a job I didn’t want to have that I would stop. Twenty three years later I’m writing more than ever.
Take the challenge. Find some friends and form your own writing circle. Join mine if you want to! There’s always room for more creativity and more friends. See you soon!
—Cyrus
You could just have a friend challenge you to write a short story about an obscure not celebrated anymore holiday. That seemed to kick me into gear and find fun in writing.