My apologies for not getting to this sooner. I’ve been getting ready for the Baltimore Book Festival this weekend. I will post my schedule later tonight or tomorrow morning. In the meantime, let’s get down to business. Here is today’s Writing Prompt.
Da Prompt:
Music is quite possibly the oldest storytelling device known to humanity. Its appeal is universal and our ancestors were singing and dancing long before pen and paper every arrived on the scene. That being the case, today we’re going to celebrate with a song-themed prompt.
You’ve heard of Billy Joel’s hit “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” right? No? Okay, lyrics are here.
Your task is to write a single stanza of lyrics for this song from a pre-1900 perspective and then write a specfic story (length is your discretion) based on one of your new lyrics. Here’s a hint: Most of Billy’s lyrics takes 1-3 words to sum up a total event. So things like “Henry 8″ or “Black Plague” would acceptable phrases. Also, since you’re not actually publishing the lyrics (unless you quote them at the start of your story), the words only have to have meaning for you. You don’t have to have a zeitgheist word connection.
There you go. Now get writing.
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Writers are frequently asked the question “Where do you get your ideas?” The question is a hard one to answer because we all find our inspiration in different places. Some people need to be given prompts, little snippets of ideas to spark their imaginations.
With that in mind, I am posting Writing Prompt Wednesdays. The goal is to inspire writers with exercises meant to train their skills and fire up the creative juices. There are rules. Most prompts will have associated word counts or style instructions. These are not meant to restrict the writer, but give the writer a chance to explore different ways of writing.
If you are an author in search of that one juicy idea, I hope these posts help. If you have ideas for writing prompts, please let me know.
Da Rules:
1) Anything goes so long as you stick to the spirit of the prompt.
2) I ask that if you do publish something based on one of my prompts, that you post the good news (and the link) in the comments of the prompt that inspired your success. You want other people to help you celebrate, right?
