Wednesday Writing Prompt: Everything has a price

Everything good comes with a price tag. The price of his second chance was his eyesight.

Wednesday Writing Prompt: If money were no object

For this week’s Wednesday writing prompt, I came up with one of my own. Here’s your writing prompt for the week:

If money were no object…

And my shot at it:

If money were no object, I would buy a big old Victorian house with a wraparound porch and a wooden deck off the back overlooking the woods. Maybe there would be a lazy stream ambling through the woods, with all manner of wildlife to watch from the deck.

I would only need a bedroom, a sitting room, and a bathroom for myself (for some reason, I am imagining this happening after my kids have grown up and moved on) and my cat. We would live at the top of the house, and I would turn the downstairs into a sleepy little bookshop/café. Money would be no object, so I would be happy for it to not be a busy business. In fact, if it were too busy, that would defeat the purpose of my master plan.

In the morning, I would get up and cook whatever baked concoction I was in the mood for at that day. (As I write this, I have a blackberry lemon loaf in the oven. I hate to cook but love to bake!) I wouldn’t need to make much since my shop isn’t that busy. Who wants to spend that much time in the kitchen anyway?

I can’t make just one loaf when I own two loaf pans. Where’s the sense in that?

I’d get the espresso bar cranked up and ready to go for my morning rush and then chat with my neighbors as they stop in to get their morning cups on their way to work. On the weekends, my good friends and neighbors would get their cups and stay, lounging around in the giant stuffed couches and arm chairs that are scattered about the place.

Wednesday Writing Prompt: Two years later…

Two years later, everything still reminds her of him.

Wednesday Writing Prompt: A snatched lunchbox

I got mugged this morning. He snatched my lunchbox right out of my hand.

Write on this prompt, then share your work on your blog or website. Post a link to the comments below.

Wednesday Writing Prompt: A Day in the Life of a Shadow Consultant

For some reason, this article gave me a ton of story ideas while I was reading it. For today’s Wednesday writing prompt, choose a title below, or read the article and come up with a new one of your own.

• Life in the Shadowlands
• A Day in the Life of a Shadow Consultant
• The Geometry of Sunshine
• Where Shadows Would Fall

Write a story, post it to your blog, share a link here in the comments.

Wednesday writing prompt: Men are like puppies

How about a flash fiction challenge for today’s Wednesday writing prompt? Write one thousand words of flash fiction on the following writing prompt. Share it on your blog and link to your blog post in the comments below. Don’t forget to go read each other’s stories and provide feedback.

Men are like puppies, she realized. It turns out all you have to do is offer up a knowing smile—maybe throw in a raised eyebrow—and the next thing you know, he’s slobbering all over you, begging you to pet him. Perhaps this wouldn’t be as hard as she had once thought it to be.

Wednesday writing prompt: Mark Twain and Margaret Atwood

Write for fifteen minutes on the following prompt:

If Mark Twain and Margaret Atwood were to get together and write a book…

Post your work in the comments below or post it on your own blog and share a link to your blog post below.

A Wednesday Writing Prompt

Write  for fifteen minutes on the following writing prompt:

She refuses to admit she’s not okay.

Post your work in the comments below, or share them on your own blog and post a link below so we can read what you’ve written.

Writing prompt: The haunted restroom stall

Beware: That last stall in the restroom is haunted! | A plastic female restroom sign in an office building in Palo Alto, California. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There’s a stall in the basement restroom of my office building that I swear is haunted. It always sounds like there is someone in that last stall, rattling the toilet paper dispenser or shifting around on the toilet seat, even when you know for a fact that you are in the restroom alone.

Write a story about the haunted restroom stall and share your story in the comments below (or on your blog with a link to the post below.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An analysis of “Plaintext” by Nancy Mairs

This image has nothing to do with my post. I just think it’s pretty. And soothing. It’s my blog and I’ll do what I want. | The silhouette of a large saguaro stands at sunset in Saguaro National Park on the east side of Tucson, Arizona. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The following is my third course autobiography for the course I am taking on women’s writing. I just have to write one more of these and then a 20-page final paper, and my homework will be done for the semester! In this piece, I wrote about how I would use this text to create a framework for a creative nonfiction essay assignment. I think this would also make an excellent writing prompt!

The Embodiment of Labels

In Plaintext, Nancy Mairs explores how individuals embody the labels that are placed on them by society. In her essay, “On Being a Cripple,” Mairs chooses to define herself as a “cripple” regardless of the fact that others may wince at the word. She says, “Perhaps I want them to wince. I want them to see me as a tough customer, one to whom the fates/gods/viruses have not been kind, but who can face the brutal truth of her existence squarely. As a cripple, I swagger” (9). She challenges the politically correct euphemisms that others use and would have her use to describe herself. In many ways, she refuses to meet society’s expectations of her as a cripple, even seeking to change the meaning of the word. I would like to teach this text in a writing course where I could ask students to examine their own labels, how they embody their labels, and how societal expectations based on these labels impact the individual, as well as how the individual can impact society by either meeting or shattering those expectations.