In the Dark
Posted by Derek Loosvelt in Writing Prompts on Oct 22nd, 2012 | 0 comments
Sometime in 1982 I was sitting in the dark in a movie theater in Pontiac, Michigan, watching a movie called “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” I remember enjoying the movie quite a bit, especially the parts involving levitating bicycles. But what I recall most about the movie occurred around the 100-minute mark when (warning: spoiler alert for the two of you who haven’t seen the movie) E.T. the extra-terrestrial appears to have died. At that point, a girl sitting next to me (whom I didn’t know) began to weep. I mean cry, and cry hard. So hard she started to shake. So hard that I was afraid, not for E.T. but for the crying girl. I was sincerely concerned. And the rest of the movie I barely watched, my eyes and mind focused on the girl. (more…)
Something Wilde
Posted by Derek Loosvelt in Writing Prompts on Oct 15th, 2012 | 0 comments
Remembered and celebrated for his comic play The Importance of Being Earnest, his gothic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his brilliant epigrams (“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you”; “A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?”), Oscar Wilde would’ve turned 158 years old tomorrow. And in honor of the late, great writer’s birthday, today’s prompt takes its inspiration from the witty world of Wilde. (more…)
Protagonist’s Pet
Posted by Derek Loosvelt in Writing Prompts on Oct 8th, 2012 | 0 comments
Lately I’ve come across some heartbreaking pieces of writing involving pets. Last week, I listened to a New Yorker Fiction Podcast featuring “The Lesson,” a heartbreaking Jessamyn West story centered around a boy and his pet cow. A couple weeks before that I read author and singer-songwriter Patti Smith’s reissued memoir Woolgathering, which involves a crushing passage about the death of a half Collie, half Shepard whom Smith owned as a child. And I also recently returned to one of my favorite Stuart Dybek stories “The Apprentice” (collected in Childhood and Other Neighborhoods), which involves a young boy, along with his pet dog named Wolfgang. (more…)
House of Cards
Posted by Derek Loosvelt in Writing Prompts on Oct 1st, 2012 | 0 comments
If you’re tired of using the same old photographs or postcards as writing prompts, I recommend heading to the game room (or game closet) in your house. That is, pull out a few of your old board games and see if you can’t use some game cards from one (or more than one) of your old board games as a writing prompt. I did this last week to great effect. (more…)
Down and Out
Posted by Derek Loosvelt in Writing Prompts on Sep 25th, 2012 | 0 comments
In George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London, published in 1933, the author of Animal Farm and 1984 describes what it’s like to be down right broke in two great European cities as a young man at the tail end of the 1920s and beginning of the 1930s. I recently picked up a copy of Down and Out and am about halfway through the book’s first section, which is about Paris. It’s my first time reading the book and, so far, I’ve been most struck by Orwell’s humor (part Woody Allen, part Larry David) and by the vivid, varied, specific details Orwell gives the reader about life under the poverty line. (more…)
