THE NUDGE

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Throughout 2023, you'll receive a thematic writing prompt as you did in 2022, but you will also receive one to two vocabulary words to add an extra challenge to the theme and the writing prompt. You look up the definitions and try to add the monthly vocabulary word(s) to your writing. Good luck in creating good writing this year.

January 2023: Theme--Permission. Write a story or poem that centers on the theme of permission, gaining it, giving it, the act of asking, the reluctance to give it, etc.

Vocabulary Words for added challenge:

1. aspirant

2. profligate

February: Theme--"Out of Fashion"

Write a story, chapter, essay, or poem that centers on the theme of an object, idea, institution, way of life, and/or person going out of fashion. Consider not what is the replacement, but the battle, the fears, challenges, and customs to keep this idea, object, idea, etc. in fashion, when it is becoming increasingly clear that it is out of fashion. 

Vocabulary Words for added challenge:

1. slough

2. dobbin

February BONUS 

Set the table for tea time and invite your characters to attend. See what happens when you serve tea and start writing.

February Novel Inspiration BONUS 

This bonus is inspired by FINDING GRACE & GRIT by Khristeena Lute. The protagonist, Meredith, is studying literature in a PhD program, specifically the work of Grace King who lived during and after the Civil War. Meredith worries about reconciling King's point of view on race and social class with the 21st century (page 235 in the novel). Similarly, scholars, readers, and authors struggle with the work of other authors. Pablo Neruda is one example, and you can read about that dilemma in The Washington Post Book Club Newsletter here. 

Taking inspiration from that, give your character a similar predicament. Maybe they are a fan of a musician, actor, director, writer, artist, etc. and then discover something that causes them to see that person differently.

March: Theme--A Meadow

Observe a meadow now, and begin a poem, short story, or longer work. Put this piece of writing aside, and we'll revisit the meadow later in the year. If you don't have access to a meadow in person, check out a webcam. Here's one from Big Creek Meadow in Yosemite. 

Vocabulary Words for added challenge:

1. conviviality

2. vitiate

March Novel Inspiration BONUS Prompt 

COOKING WITH SOMEONE FROM ANOTHER GENERATION

Inspiration for this prompt comes from THE MOSQUITO HOURS by Melissa Corliss DeLorenzo. In the novel, Tania regularly cooks with her great Aunt Anne, and in fact, Aunt Anne teaches Tania to cook. Find someone from another generation, preferably an older generation than your own, but a younger one is okay, too, and ask them to teach you how to prepare a dish, meal, and/or drink in the way that they prepare it. Use this cooking experience as inspiration for a story, essay, blog, or poem. Did you learn something about their generation while you were cooking...maybe something unrelated to the dish or drink that you were preparing? Do you see them differently after the kitchen session with them?

April: Theme--A Spontaneous Gathering

Follow a group of characters as they go about their lives and suddenly find themselves gathered together for an unplanned event. Perhaps they are friends who throw an impromptu celebration or "let us cheer you up" party, OR maybe, they're strangers who meet at a crystal expo, a parking lot carnival, or a lonely gas station alongside a long traffic jam and then have dinner together. Whatever the circumstances, write it in reverse, too, from at least two different character's point of view. Have some fun with this spontaneous gathering.

Vocabulary Words for added challenge:

1. tamp

2. bauble

May: Theme--A Nest

Write about a nest or the act of nesting. If you approach this as a personal free write topic, think about how you were taught to nest. Were you shamed into nesting in a particular way? Do you judge the nests of others? Did you have to defend your nest and fight to protect it in some way? 

In nature writing, you might think of a bird's nest right away, but consider other nests. Wasps, bees, ants, mice are some other obvious examples. Something to consider, do you think that plants nest or only hold nests and/or are the materials used in constructing nests?

Whether you're writing a poem, a work of fiction, nonfiction, or journaling, explore how your nest and acts of nesting help with your creative process.

Vocabulary Words for added challenge:

1. mystic

2. fatalism

June: Theme--Walls

You might approach this by writing about a big wall, one that is blocking access to a place and/or a group pf people. Perhaps you approach the story symbolically, showing the invisible walls that exist within societies.

Think about walls that are defined by shock (for pets) and electrical current (electric fences), walls to hold water in a dam, walls to hold a road, walls to separate, walls to protect. 

Think about the walls that are the result of natural processes--sand dunes and walls of water, bluffs of stone, for example.

If you're journaling, maybe you look at mental walls and barriers, those that block your creativity and/or those that help your creativity to flourish by making you feel protected and safe in the creative process. 

Vocabulary Words for added challenge:

1. opaque

2. dinky

July: Theme--Keys

Maybe your character locks his keys in the car, or perhaps she finds the keys to a door that was locked for years.  Is the act of having the key(s) or getting them more stimulating than what happens once the keys are in place?

If you're journaling, think about the new keys in your life--where they led, how you felt when you were entrusted with them, what awaited you in life? And, how elusive have certain keys been?  

Vocabulary Words for added challenge:

1. tuft

2. leeway

AUGUST: Theme--First Memories

Pull out all of the details from your first known memory. Do you recall images, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings? Which is the strongest, and which do you think that you have remembered the longest? Sometimes relatives and friends will tell stories that coincide with our first memories. Do you have any incidences of family or friends telling you about a time that you recall as one of your first memories? Why do you think that you held onto this memory?

If you're writing fiction, create the first memories that a character retains and make those significant to the overall story in some way. Have fun exploring the various ways that you can reveal a character's original and/or resurfaced memories to your character and the reader. 

Vocabulary Words for added challenge:

1. ascription

2. manifold

SEPTEMBER: Theme--Another planet, real or imaginary

Learn about another planet. Make up one. Incorporate knowledge about another planet into your story by creating a character who is interested in Jupiter. Perhaps you create a star-gazing and planet viewing evening in your romcom story. Get creative and learn about the planets out there, other than Earth.

If you've never done it, experiment with science fiction and write a flash scene. Incorporate multi genres and really play around. Have some fun out there! 

Vocabulary Words for added challenge:

1. fellowship

2. undauntedness

OCTOBER: Theme--Local Legends

We've visited the theme of local legends in years past for the writing prompt, but this time deliberately write a short work placing a local legend in contemporary times. Consider more well known examples, the Wood Booger legend (aka Bigfoot) in Appalachia and the Bell Witch in Adams, TN. While these two examples have inspired international Bigfoot hunters and ghost hunters, almost every town has a ghost story or local creature legend that hasn't been made famous, and perhaps some of them are about creatures from out of this world. So, dig into your town's local scary stories and/or legends and write a spooky short story.

Washington Irving's famous, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is an example, though most adaptations have left the story firmly centered in the past. You might intersect history and modernity, just as Irving did in his time. 

A fun, children's story that adds a twist to classic characters, the witch and the dragon, is the book, Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Schleffer.

Get creative!

Vocabulary Words for added challenge, 1-2 from Irving's short story and 3-4 from Donaldson's children's book:

1. marauding

2. akimbo

3. plait

4. shriek

NOVEMBER: Theme-- A Porch Conversation

The porch, how much transpires there? Deliveries, drop offs, pick ups, chance encounters, surprise packages, guests received, goodbyes expressed, boxes and presents and mail. 

If you're writing fiction, place your character on the porch, having a conversation. What type of porch? Are your characters on the steps leading to the porch? Is it a stoop? Or, does it wrap around to a balcony? Do they seek the porch for retreat? Do they use it to listen to the outside world, to the inside of the house coming out? What does the porch contain?

Is your character talking to a stranger? To herself? Does she take someone's calls on the porch for privacy? 

If you're writing nonfiction, describe a porch that was important to you or a moment in your life. Look around and notice how other people use their porches.

Vocabulary Words for added challenge:

1. colonnade

2. portage

DECEMBER: Theme--

TBD

Vocabulary Words for added challenge:

JANUARY 2024

NEW YEAR 

NEW THEME!

FEBRUARY 2024

MARCH 2024

April: 

May: 

June: 

July: 

AUGUST: 

SEPTEMBER: