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- May 18, 2025 Writing Prompts for the Week
May 18, 2025 Writing Prompts for the Week
Happy Sunday! I’ve notice recently that I’m consuming books at such a speedy clip that…I forget many of them nearly as soon as I finish them.
Can you relate? Have you, similarly, found yourself considering buying a book only to realize that you’ve already read it? I can’t help but feel that reading like this is kind of missing the point.
After all, if I let myself forget a book so quickly, aren’t I doing myself a disservice and even kind of wasting the time I spent reading that book? So, going forward, I’m going to make time after I complete a book to just savor it. Let me know if you’re open to giving it a try, too.
And, in between books, how about some writing?
This Week’s Prompts*
It struck her as odd that no one else seemed to have much urgency in their exiting as the fire alarm shrieked on.
How to explain this near-total desperation for butter?
He gripped the cat close to his chest; no one told you taking a cat through airport security was even more of a hassle than it looked.
Describe someone receiving a piece of mail that makes them instantly paranoid.
As the teapot began to whistle, Sid's blood began to boil.
One—no, two!—two dozen red roses that he aught to have known she would absolutely despise.
"It's starting," he whispered to himself.
*How to Use These Prompts: The italicized prompts let you create your writing entirely from scratch; the non-italicized prompts are intended as your first line and jumping off point. But, at the same time, there are no rules. Write on!
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Book(s) We’re Reading This Week
Heartwood by Amity Gaige
When a hiker on the Appalachian Trail goes missing, the Game State Warden begins the arduous process of trying to find her. Meanwhile, a retiree in Connecticut is simultaneously following allow with the search and may just have something to contribute. (At least, I assume so: Haven’t gotten there yet.) It’s holding my attention so far, so I’m giving it a tentative thumbs up.
Grab it on Bookshop.org (and support local bookstores!)
Grab it on Amazon
Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. It is a seeking that he who wishes may know the cosmic secrets of the world and they that dwell within.
Links We Like (And Think You Will, Too)
📚 Writers tend to be readers, and readers tend to have fond feelings for public libraries. This documentary, called “Free for All,” tells the story of how our libraries came to be an how they continue to shape our societies.
🧐 What does it really mean to “know thyself”? This article in The Atlantic digs into how to be self-aware, as well as the ways in which knowing yourself enhances your life.
🦜 Artist Thomas Deininger creates mind-bending artwork that looks real but, with a change of perspective, is revealed to be a complicated and multi-layered combination of, well, junk. Really: You’ve got to see this to believe it.
Top (Published) First Line of the Week
Think of generations as a chain, one link leading to and binding the next, and all of them—even the most distant—forever connected and inseparable.
From The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie
Grab it on Bookshop.org (and support local bookstores!)
Grab it on Amazon
What's your preferred book format? |
P.S.
Making any kind of change—even one you really want to make—is a rollercoaster ride of expectations and emotions. This podcast episode gets into the five emotional stages of change and how you can best ride them out to get the results (and life) that you want.
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