ICYMI: A Monday Night Writing Prompt
Experimental Expeditions
I am beginning to think Monday night Writing Prompt Parties are not a great time slot. On the other hand, maybe it’s just a Cinco de Mayo thing. Either way, I find myself here with a couple of writing prompts all to myself. And these are prompts I would like some feedback on, so I am going to share them here to see what you think.
Welcome to the very stagnant, un-live Writing Prompt Party.
Tonight’s Prompt Inspiration
Last weekend, the prompt in The Practicing Poets Club gave us the assignment of digging through our junk mail for inpiration. Junk mail, once an overflow of vibrant catalogs, magazines, ads, and more, has shifted mostly to to my digital detritis, so I was left with three categories of mail for this prompt:
political postcards (there was a special election here in Staten Island last week)
real estate postcard (begging for me to sell my house), and
the weirdly wonderful and thoroughly unexplained new travel catalog showing up in my mailbox filled with incredible once-in-a-lifetime (some with price tags it would take a lifetime to save for) trips around the world, National Geographic EXPEDITIONS (here is their website: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/expeditions/)
The last of the three has captured my imagination since its arrival, raising such questions as
Who is the target audience for this catalog?
How on Earth did I get on this mailing list?
Which page should I build a vision board around first?
As the conversation around this catalog continued, fellow practicing poet
pointed out — quite astutely — that the catalog might be the perfect writing prompt for me! As soon as the words hit my ears I realized the pictures and trip explanations would be incredible prompts not just for the poem I needed to write last weekend, but also — maybe — for our Writing Prompt Parties!So begins our first ever Experimental Expedition into Fiction based on the latest EXPEDITIONS catalog to land in my mailbox.
The Prompts
Since no one arrived at tonight’s party, I asked my son and husband to each select a number from 12 to 97 (the page numbers of the included trips in the catalog). Serendipidously, my son selected a page (61) that included a complete trip description with a photo, and my husband selected a page number (64) that only has a photo on it. You may choose wich prompt best suits your needs to write a short story with.
Prompt 1:
For this first prompt you may either use the photo alone to inspire a setting to build your story within, crafting your own cast of characters and plot, or dive into the details of the excursion to write a story specifically about an 8 day cruise (link to the trip details, is you want even more sprecificity..
If that’s not your style, check this one out…
Prompt 2:
Perhaps a party of penguins is more your speed. I present to you a photo of a Colony of Penguins from the Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica. No other details, just go and write!
Experiment Results?
Well, I foolishly spent the Writing Prompt Party time writing this post instead of seeing what kind of fiction I might create based on these prompts, so I have no personal conclusions about this experiment as of yet, but what about you? Are you feeling inspired by either of these prompts? Does the idea of a travel catalog set your imagination afire?
Let us know in the comments what you think about this Experimental Expedition!
Fun prompts, but this Monday night was not the night.
You weren’t kidding about those prices!