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: Leaves 1. Write a piece that uses falling leaves as a metaphor for your narrator's entire family dying within five years.
Micro Exercise 2: Leaves 2. Write a very short piece in which a child is hiding in a pile of raked leaves and their parents start freaking out when they can't find the kid.
Micro Exercise 3: Sandbox 1. Write a micro piece in which a child is playing in a sandbox with a building burning directly behind them.
Micro Exercise 4: Sandbox 2. Write a micro piece in which a character is building a sandbox in their backyard for a child that will never be born, in which you jump in time at least twice.
Micro Exercise 5: Leaves 3. Write a very short piece in which at least three types of leaves are described and a married couple have a very damaging fight.
Micro Exercise 6: Sandbox 3. Write a piece that is exactly 100 words in which two kids fight in a sandbox over a stolen lunch (or lunchbox).
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If you'd like some background music to write to, try this "Being alone in a 1950s Private club on a Rainy Night, Cozy Rain sound and Bittersweet jazz" playlist.
