sur-real-ly

Monday, July 28, 2014  •  Prompt #85

DSCN5996_2

 

Today’s Prompt

Write a poem or short fiction piece in a surreal or magic realism style. This genre introduces supernatural or unbelievable events or abilities into in an otherwise everyday realistic environment. (However you define that!)

Option #1: Write a new piece.

Option #2: Take an existing piece and add a supernatural element to it.

 

Need more inspiration?  Try one of these options.

  1. A child comes home from school to discover his twin brother in his bedroom. When he left for school that day, he didn’t have a twin brother.
  2. An urban community garden produces vegetables no one planted and no one recognizes. What happens when an 80-year-old woman takes some home and makes vegetable soup?
  3. A janitor spills a new cleaning solution on her hands and discovers she can read people’s thoughts. Or heal people’s illnesses. Or …?
  4. A character wakes up to find he’s turned into a cockroach. (Oh wait, that’s been done.)

Looking for surreal realism inspiration?  Read work by these two authors: Aimee Bender and Frankie Elizabeth Rollins.

 

Button Holed

Sunday, July 27, 2014  •  Prompt #84

black buttons

 

 

Today’s Prompt

Write about buttons.

 

 

 

 

Instructions

  1. Find two or three buttons.
  2. Hold them in your hand.
  3. Describe their weight, color, texture and material.
  4. What is your response seeing or touching these buttons?
  5. Write for 20 minutes.

Options and Springboards

  • Write about a button found on the sidewalk.
  • Write about an absent button, missing from a coat or sleeve.

Writing Group Options

  1. Each group member brings several buttons to writing group.
  2. Put them all in the middle of the table.
  3. Choose one to write about.
  4. Fashion a poem, story or creative non-fiction piece around it.