Category: Writing Prompt Saturday

Writing Prompt Saturday- Write a Renga Poem

Ready for some group fun?  Continuing my love of Japanese poetry, I’m so excited to introduce the Renga poetry form.  Which can basically be called a poetry party game.  So, grab some friends and play.

Here’s how it works.  The first person makes a three line stanza, with 17 syllables.  It can either be a haiku or a senryu, either one.

Then, the next person makes the next stanza, attaching it to the first.

Being a great party game, I thought it would be fun if we did it here.  I’ll start

Petals on the floor

mixed with broken bits of glass

in the morning sun

Alright, anyone who wants to pick it up in the comment section, go!

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Writing Prompt Saturday- Reject your own work

Are you all doing the Writing 101 program?  I’ve been doing it, if you can’t tell by the daily free writing posts that have been going on since Tuesday.  That’s going to be going on the whole month.  So if your not a huge fan of my unedited ramblings on the site, sorry.  If you do like it, then great, you’ve got a whole month to go.

The point is, you might be really sick of writing prompts at this point if you are participating.  If that’s the case, feel free to store this one away for May.  Hopefully this helps us all get into the free writing habit.

So, back to our theme for the month, submissions.  I’m sure you know that submissions lead to two things, sales and rejection letters.  Rejection letters are far more common.  So long as we all understand that, let’s have some fun with it, yeah?

Pretend you’re an editor for a literary magazine, or a publishing company.  Now grab your most recent piece, novel or short story.  It’s just landed on your desk.  Reject it.  Write your rejection in a letter format.  What would you, the editor, tell you, the writer, about why this piece didn’t make it to print?

You can play it funny, really have some fun with it.  Or, you can take this as a chance to do what my grandma always told me to do.  Whether cleaning my room or editing my own writing, the advice is the same, “Look at it like it was done by someone you don’t like, and you want to get them in trouble.”  In this case, look at it like a tired editor who wants to stop reading your piece, and is just looking for an excuse.

If you do get around to responding to this prompt, feel free to post it in the comments below.  Have a great weekend, everyone.

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Writing Prompt Saturday- Write a Habin

How is it possible that I have never heard of this before? What with my love of haiku, sent you and tanka poetry, you would have thought I would have found Habin a long time ago.

It’s not a poetry form, strictly speaking. Think of it as more of a prose form that is designed to complement haikus. It should, in fact must, be beautiful and poetic on its own.

When writing a habin, you want to remember a few things. First, while this is prose that reads like poetry, it traditionally is impersonal. While this is hard to master, it’s not impossible. It’s really a masterful form. Think about it; you’re trying to invoke deep emotions in the reader without imparting any of your own.

I love that. It gives the reader the opportunity to decide how they feel about an image, instead of depending on what the writer thought about it.

So let’s try it. Take a haiku you’ve written, and write a habin to go along with it. If you need some inspiration, here’s one of mine.

Wetness in the air
Grey clouds heavy overhead
Washing off old snow

It’s a simple moment in a simple day, these clouds above a rain soaked ground. While the sun might be a pleasure at this dark and wet time, if there was no rain, the dark mess of the snow might linger until it’s covered by fresh again.

Our affiliate sponsor for the week is Pen Boutique. They’re still doing a ten percent off sale. Which is a pretty good deal if you’re looking to invest in a Filofax planner, like I am.

Did you write a Habin poem? Let us see it in the comment section below.

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Writing Prompt Saturday- List character traits

So, I’ve got a thing about lists.  I really like making them, and reading them.  List the 20 best movies in the last fifty years, worst songs from the 90’s (that would be a really long list) most offensive things said by church officials.  They’re fun.

Lists are also a great way to organize thoughts and ideas when writing.  I’m going to try to incorporate at least one list every month.  This is a big writers notebook building exercise, as well a a great brainstorming technique and at least some fun.

Here, then, is our first list.  We’ll do it to 100, because that should be enough to get beyond the normal and really make you think.  List 100 character or personality traits.

Now, I think you should do this on your own, but it’s also something we can do together.  How about it?  Add ten character traits in the comment section until we get to 100.  I’ll start us off, with the first ten.

Generous, vindictive, optimistic, musical, creative, traitorous, foul smelling, faithful, grating, and finally, dependable.  What else can you think of?

This week’s affiliate sponsor is Shutterfly.  I get any pictures I have printed from them, and have never had a bad experience.  Everything I get is well priced, good quality, and gets to my home fast.  Which is good, because I’m not the patient sort. 

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Writing Prompt Saturday- Write An Abecedarian Poem

This post contains an affiliate link at the bottom

For those of us who have little ones, this is a poetry form that you can share with your kids. Especially if you’re kids are little enough that they’re still learning there alphabet.

Like so many other poetic forms, this poetry form started in Greece.  Ah, Greece, you’ve given us awesome food, great poetry, and an amazing collection of mythological stories.  Thank you.

An abecedarian poem will have 26 lines, because each line starts with a letter of the alphabet, going in order from A to Z.

As always, I love poetry that has rules, making your carve your creativity around natural borders like a road carved around a mountain. I think it makes you think beyond your first idea.

Here’s a great example of an abecedarian poem. It’s only an excerpt, though, because the whole text is rather long. Here’s a link to the whole thing.

Nonsense Alphabet
Edward Lear, 1812 – 1888
A

A was an ant
Who seldom stood still,
And who made a nice house
In the side of a hill.

a
Nice little ant!

B was a book
With a binding of blue,
And pictures and stories
For me and for you.

b
Nice little book!

C was a cat
Who ran after a rat;
But his courage did fail
When she seized on his tail.

c
Crafty old cat!
So try your hand at an an abecedarian poem this weekend.

What do you think about abecedarian poetry?  Did you try writing one?  Let us know in the comments below!

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Writing Prompt Saturday- A twist on the journal prompt

Alright, so this is a classic writing exercise. There’s a reason you’ve heard the advise before to write a journal entry for your main character, so that you can learn their voice. Do that, do it more than once. Write a journal entry for a normal day, the day after the climactic scene. Hell, write a mock bullet journal, if you think it’ll help you.

That’s not today’s prompt, though. No, that wouldn’t be the best advise. Remember, if the thing you’re writing’s been done before, twist it. Make it different, better, harder, or just give it a new ending than has been done a thousand times.

So, I don’t want you to stop with writing a journal entry for your character. Write a journal entry for a secondary or tertiary character. But it can’t be just any character. He or she should dislike your character. Not like the bad guy. Just a regular character, probably an ally, who just is rubbed the wrong way by your protagonist. Why?

Writing this kind of journal entry will allow you to explore the flaws your character has. Everyone’s got flaws, after all. Your character shouldn’t be any different.

Don’t forget to join us for the conversation every week on Facebook.

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Write prompt Saturday, Write a Eulogy.

When you think of a eulogy, the first thing that likely comes to mind is a long, tearful, inspiring speech given at someone’s funeral.  I know that was the first thing I thought of.  This is, however, an actual poetry form.  And it’s a beautiful one, at that.

Like so many other good things, eulogy poems are Greek in origin.  Their set up is standard, three stanzas made up of four lines each.  The first and second, then third and fourth lines in each should rhyme.

The stanzas of a eulogy poem are broken up by topic; the first should be a lament, the sorrow and grief of the loss.  The second stanza is a praise of the one who’s passed away.  The final stanza is solace, something good that can be taken away from this loss.

As always, I won’t subject you to my own terrible eulogy poem.  Here’s one by my favorite poet of all time, Emily Dickenson.

So Proud She Was To Die

So proud she was to die
It made us all ashamed
That what we cherished, so unknown
To her desire seemed.

So satisfied to go
Where none of us should be,
Immediately, that anguish stooped
Almost to jealousy.

If any of you get a chance, tell my husband I want that read at my funeral.

Afterthought- I wrote this post a week ago, like normal.  I had no idea when I wrote it that it would post the day after one of my favorite actors from my childhood passed on.  The world is a poorer place now that Lenard Nemoy has left us.  Let’s remember to pray for his family and friends, and thank him in our hearts for the hours of joy he brought us on stage.

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Writing Prompt Saturday- What do you love about your first draft?

We’ve talked about what you hate about your first draft. In fact, I believe I asked you to write a great big hate letter to your first draft, and what a big disappointment it was.

Now, I want you to switch it up. While you’re reading your first draft, what did you love? What parts surprised you? Was there a scene, or a line you’d forgotten about but it just shocked you how good it was? Somehow, when I read my first draft again, I seem to have easily remembered all the terrible things I did, plot holes I forgot and terrible fight scenes. I sometimes forget the times I got the writing to sing. Thankfully, I do find at least some of these moments when I read my first draft.

Write a list. Just start writing. Try to get at least 20, but don’t stop there if you don’t want to.

And don’t forget to join the conversation every Thursday on our Paper Beats World Facebook page!

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