Summer Vacation or View from Your Window Writing Prompt Reactions

Summer Vacation or View from Your Window Writing Prompt Reactions by Debra H. Goldstein

Writing classes often include exercises with prompts like “Write the view from your window,” or “Tell us what you did during your summer vacation.”  The idea is to provide something that can get the creative juices flowing by having the student connect with simple and concrete images they are familiar with. The writings can veer in different directions emphasizing setting, activity, characters involved, or whatever strikes the writer’s fancy.

When I’m in a writing class and a prompt has been given, I watch the people sitting on either side of me scramble to finish pages of words before time is called. I watch because I’m sitting there, with a word or two jotted down, frozen. My mind shuts down when given a writing prompt in a class.

Things are a little better when the prompt is part of a submission call. Then, I try to twist my thoughts into interpreting the prompt in an imaginative manner different than the path other people will choose. Bending my thinking is what unlocks my creativity.

But, for your benefit, here are my answers to the writing prompts above:

“Tell us what you did during your summer vacation.” – Nothing. We were locked down because of

Covid-19.

“Write the view from your window” – Until a few days ago, there was no view. The curtains were drawn. I sat with my laptop, facing a TV, with the window to my back. If I wanted to use my desktop computer, upstairs, I saw grey-shingled housetops, a black-topped street, and a few lawns. It was a pretty view when it snowed.

We moved this past week. The room that I have chosen to be mine (off limits to anyone else) for writing is called a Florida room. It has one wall that is sheetrock; two that are glass windows; and a fourth with paned glass doors I can open or close to the rest of the house. Because there is an easement behind the house, the trees stand tall beyond my yard. Although we fenced the yard traditionally on the sides, we used a faux wrought iron fence along the back of the yard. That way, from my window, I see the trees in the splendor of their full height.

There is one tree, though, that has died. It stands, a third of the height of any of the other trees, bare leafed with a part of its trunk jutting to the side. Although a storm should have knocked it down, it hasn’t. This plucky tree is my favorite because it reminds me that amid a beautiful forest, there can be one thing that is different.

As authors, we strive to write that one different thing. When we do, we accomplish something that makes us proud, happy, and a bit tentative wondering if readers will like it. I’m hoping that in my new Florida room, I will write many pieces that resemble the tree I love.

To win a free copy of Three Treats Too Many (one U.S. winner picked randomly), the newest Sarah Blair mystery from Kensington, leave a comment about what you did on your summer vacation or the view from your window.

A Reclusive Author Asks - What to Write?

by Shari Randall

I’ve been gearing up for the January 2018 publication of my debut novel, CURSES, BOILED AGAIN! Along with setting up appearances at libraries and bookstores, I’ve been invited to do guest posts on several blogs. Many thanks to those who extended invitations! My publisher was as thrilled as I am by these opportunities for readers to get to know me better. But as I’ve begun writing those posts, I’ve gotten a bit stuck.

True confession: I have always aspired to be a reclusive author.  Those of you who know me are laughing, but it’s true. Writing for me is a very personal business. It makes my inner introvert assert herself. Interview? No thanks. I, uh, have to wash my hair.

Plus, I’m boring. Honestly, when was the last time I piloted a fighter jet, found a dead body in my woods, or drove in a Grand Prix race? Ran a triathlon, frolicked with dolphins, or whipped up a Baked Alaska?

I have tons of librarian stories, but since I’m bound by the librarian code, I can’t share those with anyone outside the cardigan sisterhood/brotherhood.

It’s a conundrum. How do writers, most of whom identify as introverts, deal with the demands of marketing and social media? And how do we come up with fresh content for getting-to-know-you blogs?

My last blog was about defeating writer’s block. Experts say that the key to get writing is to “prime the pump” with a prompt. But where to get a great prompt, a great question to get me started?

Many of a certain age will remember the infamous Barbara Walters interview question, “If you could be a tree, what kind of tree would you be?” I think I’ll give that prompt a pass.

As I was contemplating this, I received an email from Clarissa Goenawan, a fellow member of a writers group called Authors 18, authors with debut works coming out in 2018. It’s a support and celebration group. As each of us learns a new skill for navigating the waters of publishing, we share it with the group. Clarissa, whose book Rainbirds will debut in March 2018, shared several interview questions that are great writing prompts for guest blogs. With her blessing, here they are:

- What’s the story behind the title of your book?

- If you could spend a day with one of your characters, who would it be and what

would you do?

- Are your characters based on real people, or do they come from your imagination?

- What kind of research did you do for this book?

- Are you a plotter or a pantser?

- What is your favorite part of your writing process, and why?

- What is the most challenging part of your writing process, and why?

- Have you ever gotten writer’s block? If yes, how do you overcome it?

- If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

- How did you get into writing?

- What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

- Which book influenced you the most?

- What’s your favorite writing advice?

Inspired by these questions, I came up with some more that I’d like to have an author answer – and that I think will be fun to answer myself.

My question for you is – what question would you like to ask an author? Please share in the comments below. And also, if you are in the mood, If you could be a tree, what kind of tree would you be?

I’ll go with magnolia.