Workshop:
Six Conversations for Writing Creative
Journals
“Location pertains to feeling; feeling
profoundly pertains to place; place in history partakes of feeling, as feeling
about history partakes of place.” Eudora
Welty
Brainstorm Fiction
Prompts Part Two
List: Make a
list. Set timer if you want. Minimum two minutes, but I suggest five.
Exercise
three:
List ten to twenty cities you have visited that you absolutely loved, or would
love to visit again if you had the chance. (Can also repeat for hated too.)
Go
back through the list and next to each city write one word that captures that
city’s memory for you—why you love it. Architecture, food, felt free, fell in
love, etc.
Scratch
List:
Make a few categories and combine common factors under each.
Exercise
four:
Look at your city list so far and see if there are any common factors. Separate
accordingly. Does one category contain many and another a few? Why? Make a note
of what makes two favorite cites land in different categories.
Share: How many
creative breaks were you able to add into your week?
Questions: Who, what,
when, where, why, and how.
Exercise
five: Go
back to your free-write and apply these questions to the character of the city.
View it as a person. What do you know—what don’t you know? Make a list for
further research on missing parts.
Letter: Write a
short letter either from your character or to your character.
Exercise six: Choose the
city you loved the most from the earlier list and have your character write to
a person in that city, or again receive a letter from a friend visiting that
city. Or make it impersonal as if a business assignment.
Action
Steps: Application
Writing
Assignment:
Choose
a few details from each of all your exercises, from Part One and Part Two,
mixing and matching theme, setting, and memory. Now write up a short episode as
a brief memory for your character. It can be either from the POV of this was
once her home, or as a visit to a strange place.
Your
city now has descriptive footprints with a personal emotional connection that
relates to your travel journey. Now share your our own story in your own voice.
Share: Which
brainstorm techniques worked best for you? Which were the most difficult? Why?
Read deep, marcy
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