The 2021 Writing Series is a series of daily writing exercises for both prose writers and poets to keep their creative mind stretched and ready to go—fresh for your other writing endeavors. The writing prompts take the impetus—that initial crystal of creation—out of your hands (for the most part) and changes your writing creation into creative problem solving. Instead of being preoccupied with the question "What do I write" you are instead pondering "How do I make this work?" And in the process you are producing new writing.
This is not a standard writing session. This is pure production—to keep your brain thinking about using language to solve simple or complex problems. The worst thing you can do is sit there inactive. It's like taking a 5 minute breather in the middle of a spin class—the point is to push, to produce something, however imperfect. If you don't overthink it, you will be able to complete all of the exercises in under 30 minutes.
For today's writing exercise you will write a few micro-poems or micro-fictions. These will be either poems under 20 lines or stories under 200 words.
For inspiration go read some micro or hint fiction in this Buzzfeed article, at Microfiction Monday, Alba, Molecule, 50 Word Stories and Nanoism. Or also this Barnstorm blog post "How Microfiction Could Transform Social Media".
Read the full prompt twice before you start writing, because you're looking to keep it minimal, so have ideas. If your first draft is longer don't fret. Hone it down. And the piece will be what it is. I've started out with a goal of 100 words but hit on something and had to cull the end result from 1350 to 1200 for a contest because I loved the result. So each story will be its own beast, but we're ideally aiming for 20 lines or 100-200 words with these.
Micro Exercise 1: Bad Trip 1. In a very brief piece, tell of a person's vacation that is terrible via four increasingly bad incidents, begin with an 'omen' before the trip even starts.
Micro Exercise 2: Bad Trip 2. Write a very short piece in which a narrator trips at the very top of a set of stairs, the whole piece taking place in that person's head quickly before they actually hit the stairs.
Micro Exercise 3: Elevator. Write a micro piece in which someone believes the elevator they're in is about to plummet.
Micro Exercise 4: The Piano Lesson. Write a micro piece in which a character takes their first and only piano lesson. Be sure to tell us why they never have another, and if they're happy or sad about that (or indifferent).
Micro Exercise 5: Elevator 2: Slipstream. Write a very short piece in which someone enters an elevator that takes them somewhere extremely unexpected (and impossible in a normal world). Even if the narrator/main character is surprised by where they end up, it should seem expected to at least one other person.
Micro Exercise 6: Bad Trip 3. Write a very short piece in which someone takes care of a stranger who is disoriented (whether on drugs, having a mental break, post-accident/injury etc, you decide) somewhere very public. Include at least one note of potential danger to either the caretaker or both the stranger and the caretaker.
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If you'd like some background music to write to, try jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon's 1975 "Tangerine".
