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 250 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".
Check out all of the prompts and pick a couple to write. Once you've done that, focusing on one at a time, 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 100-250 words with these. And if they grow into something much larger, hey, you've got something longer!
Micro Exercise 1: Trees 1. Write a short piece in which a newly married couple go to cut down their first Christmas Tree together, when things get very surreal.
Micro Exercise 2: Trees 2. Write a very short piece in which a person climbs a tree and ends up staying there for a full week for some reason (be sure we know why they stay up there).
Micro Exercise 3: Trees 3. Write a micro piece from the perspective of a tree which spans at least 80 years.
Micro Exercise 4: Comic Books 1. Write a micro piece in which two characters pretend they have superhero powers like those of their favorite comic book characters, at the ending we discover that they're either in juvenile detention or they've been kidnapped and are imprisoned, but write it in a way so that the second time it's read there are at least three subtle clues to the twist.
Micro Exercise 5: Comic Books 2. Write a very short piece where a comic book writer with writer's block is brainstorming new superhero abilities while their significant other is either moving out of their home, or their child is doing something very dangerous like playing on the roof or playing with a handgun.
Micro Exercise 6: Shoplifting 1. Write a piece which is under 150 words which details the someone stealing luxury items and selling them to purchase necessities.
Micro Exercise 7: Shoplifting 2. Write a short piece which includes good friends shoplifting and getting busted, with them both running and one getting caught.
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If you'd like some background music to write to, try this "Sound of The Ancient Root" lofi mix.
