Although I’ve developed a fairly consistent habit of turning up to the page each morning (or at least most of them), thanks to Julia Cameron’s idea of morning pages (three pages, longhand, daily), I still find myself procrastinating instead of just getting on with it.
It got to the point where it was getting rather boring to again be writing, “I don’t know what to write about today” as my opening sentence. Perhaps, I wondered, I needed my own series of writing prompts handy that could give me a focus when I was struggling to start.
That’s how this month of one-word prompts came about. There are a couple of different ways you can make use of these words.
1. For each day of the month, select the word that corresponds with the date. Begin writing, whether that be an anecdote or story that comes to mind, or a more stream-of-consciousness approach and see where it leads you.
OR
2. Once or twice a week, select three to five words from the list and write a piece that includes all of those words.
Feel free to use a synonym of any word e.g. departure could become leaving
Furthermore, if you are not a writer but prefer some other form of creative expression (sketching, painting, sculpture, photography), then go ahead and adapt it to suit your own art.
1. joy
2. fear
3. birdsong
4. ocean
6. departure
7. arrival
8. home
9. candles
11. wine
12. teapot
13. painting
14. book
16. adrift
17. contact
18. telephone
19. journey
20. flight
21. flowers
23. renovation
24. hospital
25. transfer
26. mother
27. city
29. dog
30. ball
31. t-shirt
Over to You
Start at the beginning or with the one that grabs your attention the most.
And just begin.
