HOW TO WRITE
The Mother of All Writing Prompts
1% inspiration, the rest is shame, guilt and fear
Who doesn’t love a writing prompt?
Well, I don’t.
I’ve never been one for prompts of any kind, for that matter. Every now and then I might yell out an obnoxious suggestion at an improv show, but that’s only to remind myself, my date and everyone in the room I’m funnier than the folks we’re paying to make us laugh.
And once I assigned the words ‘mulch’ and ‘afterbirth’ to my charades opponents to pantomime for the same reasons, and with the same results: that night I drove my girlfriend home from her boss’s game night in brittle silence.
I’ve never had trouble coming up with ideas to write about on my own; never suffered from writer’s block; and definitely never felt the need to stray outside my comfort zone or to explore different styles, topics or genres.
Still, Medium is a community, right? We’re supposed to support and encourage one another, because we know writing is hard. It takes focus, discipline, tenacity, and masochism to bang our fingers, and heads, against the keyboard day after day. And if some folks need a crutch to help them write, who am I to judge?
