Using Writing Prompts

There's many Insta / Tumblr pages now that focus solely on giving vague writing prompts for people, and although they do well in regards to likes/comments, they can be quite limiting.

I feel that whenever I see a writing prompt, I make a quick idea in my head and it goes no further, but who is to say someone else didn't immediately follow the same thought? It's a little exercise to get your brain going, but personally, I definitely wouldn't risk trying to base a story around one. It's a bit of quick fun at best - but it does have it's benefits - writing prompts can trigger other story ideas, or lead you on a train of thought that could help with other projects on the go.

If I ever see a writing prompt that leads my brain on a thought - I run with it and see what I can create - but the ones I have come across seem very limiting, or uninspired, or just completely wild and I feel I can't do anything with it. They would be a good jump off point for high school essay projects or as a creative ice breaking task before writing something else - but I've never got too far with a writing prompt idea, if I ever do, I'll be sure to tell the world.

The positive about writing prompts, is that it could lead you in a completely different direction - which could inspire a project that's a safe enough distance from the prompt that you can go anywhere with it. I'm yet to see one that's inspired me.

I suggest exploring writing prompt pages, to see if anything sparks your creativity. Best of luck.

Creative Writing - Word Salad

Whilst looking for writing jobs, I found a lot of notes for 'Word Salad'.
I checked out the job and found it to be a lot of fun constructing sentences and a storyline.
See, Word Salad requests poetry, short stories, novels etc. but you have to include a list of certain words.
This is an amazing writing exercise and I want to take this on as a regular writing exercise before I start work. You can be given three words, and you've got the freedom to make it any genre you want.

For my first practice, I was given: Hollywood, Bowling ball, and Reputation.

I wrote a little idea about a fictional person moving to Hollywood to make a life for herself as an actor, but due to poor choices and relationships, her reputation was twisted and run into the ground by the people she trusted the most. It ended with her throwing a bowling ball through her agent's window after a break down.
It's nothing special, but it definitely sharpens your ideas and was a brilliant writing exercise.
You can use a word generator to make your own Word Salad!

Taking A Writing Course

Am I a writer, or am I just writing?

I often get overwhelmed with imposter syndrome - as if I'm playing 'writer/author'.
To overcome this, I recently found some free online courses in literacy. I didn't go to university to spark my interest in writing, I just fell into it, and now it's my dream career.

And I want to gain as much knowledge as possible to help my creative writing, as well as improving my confidence. I have experience, but having a course down will be some knowledge to make me feel more comfortable when I tell people what I do for a living (well, what I do).

You don't NEED formal qualifications to write, but for me, it's helping me overcome doubts that I'm in over my head and chasing the impossible.
I like learning, so I'm happy to gain as much as I can through understanding different aspects of creative writing. If you're interested - check the FutureLearn website.

Writing A Comedy Poem

I recently came across a writing job looking for a comedy poem.
I've written comedy sketches, a screenplay, and have experience ghost writing stand up sets.
A comedy poem sounded interesting.
I've written political, or serious poetry in the past, so a humour poem would be a challenge.

Most of my time went on deciding a topic - it's all good and well having the freedom to write comedy and go off on tangents, but I wanted to stick with one for my first attempt at comedy poetry.
I went with relationships as a theme, they're easy to write about, and even easier to be comical with. It's basically about a tragic date night - we've either all experienced disaster dates or we love hearing about them being cringey!

The deadline is April - so I'll share it after then, possibly on a publication.. Fingers crossed!