The 2022 Writing Series is a series of daily writing exercises for both prose writers and poets to spark their creative mind and to spur production of new pieces. 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 about" 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—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 series' exercises in under 30 minutes.
The Timer Method
If you're going with the timer method (which is certainly not required) I recommend setting four timers (these markers are if you're doing a 30 minute session): The First Timer for 5 minutes for a pre-writing reminder, if you do any planning or thinking on how those things can fit together or how to structure what you're doing, or to revisit your writer's notebook to remind yourself of anything you might have noted to write about 'in the future'. But mostly, to remind you not to overthink, not to delay the actual writing process. You should think at least a little about what the point of the piece will be (more in the third timer section) The Second Timer for 15 minutes which is the main writing time. Remember, don't overthink during this section. You're knocking out the piece. When this timer goes off it's not the end, but a signal that you'll be trying to wrap it up soon. The Third Timer for 5 minutes which is time to wrap up what you're writing. This is where you're making sure that you're tucking in any 'loose narrative threads' and getting to your conclusions. Remember, pieces should have some takeaway or 'point'. Some 'why'—a thing that the reader can point to if they're asking themselves "why did I read this?". The Fourth Timer for 5 minutes which is time for editing, for going back over the piece and giving it a 'once over' for typos. I highly suggest reading it aloud once at the beginning of the five minutes (or prior to starting the last timer). Then you'll use the time to fix things early on that you later changed, and to sprinkle in 'crumbs' which foreshadow or work well with later metaphors so that the piece feels more united.
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: Potholes 1. Write a short piece in which a character has become obsessed with getting the city to filling in one particular pothole. They haven't been successful yet and its been months. What do they do next, in an escalated effort.
Micro Exercise 2: Potholes 2. Write a short piece in which a pothole causes three accidents (automobiles or anything!) of escalating seriousness. Draw a thread between those three accidents whether it's something about the storyteller/narrator, a particular theme with the imagery and authorial asides/selection of details.
Micro Exercise 3: Riding a Bike 1. Write a micro piece in which a character is learning to ride a bike while they are thinking about something which happened at school that day. Make the connection of memory and the dangerous activity be meaningful.
Micro Exercise 4: Riding a Bike 2. Write a micro piece in which a parent is teaching their child how to ride a bike and they have fallen over multiple times when the piece begins.
Micro Exercise 5: Riding a Bike 3. Write a very short piece where someone is dealing either with the death of a loved one, or with the end of a long relationship while across the street from them they keep noticing a parent teaching their child to ride a bike, and the child seems to your troubled character to be both very young and determined (or hey, the opposite works too).
Micro Exercise 6: River, Canoe, Snow 1. Write a very short piece which includes these three things and have them introduced to the piece in this order.
Micro Exercise 7: River, Canoe, Snow 2. Write a very short piece which tells a sad and funny narrative about someone rowing down a river in a canoe when it begins to snow. Be sure to give us a reason why they're in the canoe, where they're going, and include at least one witty/funny observation about something they see looking like something completely absurd.
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If you'd like some ambient background writing music, try this: Dave Myler - Dancing In The Forest [1991] from background music friends of the blog, Sounds of the Dawn.
