1000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and ...

Story inspiration can come from many places, but there are days when it?s down-right impossible to find one good idea. When it comes to non-fiction writing, such as for my writers? blog, I?ve been known to hit bedrock at the bottom of the idea well.

That is, until today.

I received a review copy of Bryan Cohen?s ?1,000 Creative Writing Prompts? a few weeks ago, and I must admit I didn?t have very high expectations. Regular readers of my blog know I?m not a big fan of writing prompts. Most of them are isolated exercises that, like free-writing, are designed to ?prime the pump.? Such exercises feel wasteful of my creative energy. I want to be able to use what I write, and that isn?t always possible with the average story prompt.

Cohen?s introduction immediately dispelled my doubts. It is well-written and lays the foundation for how to use his story idea questions effectively. (Very practical!) I personally found this instructive, and I?ve been at this for a lot of years! But I?m getting ahead of myself.

When I set out to review ?1,000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More,? instead of reading every word in this 100-page volume, I did what I expect an average reader would do ? devour the introduction and skim through the prompts until a category, sub-category, or individual prompt caught my interest.

My evaluation: Bryan Cohen?s prompts are pure genius in their construction.

Please don?t misunderstand. I don?t mean that I liked ALL the prompts. There were many I didn?t care for, but that will be true for anyone. There were subcategories, for example, that rubbed me the wrong way. Such reactions, however, should not rule out using those prompts. On the contrary, writing about a topic you are passionately opposed to could turn out to be some of your best writing, because you?re speaking from your heart.

The thing I love most is that his technique for creating these 1,000 prompts is truly inspired. They are written as questions.

What?s inspired about that? Our brains, when presented with a question, immediately begin to find an answer. Cohen has organized these question-prompts into 12 categories that should resonate with nearly everyone. From holidays to seasons, from memories to ?the weird,? there is something for even the pickiest writer.

So you?ll have to excuse me now. I?m heading back over to his mystery and fantasy prompts, hoping to find some story inspiration of my own. You could be writing up a storm within a few minutes yourself.

If you?re a writer who needs a boost in the creativity department at least occasionally, don?t pass up this bargain of a book! It should be on every writer?s Kindle.

Source: http://www.123blog.us/1000-creative-writing-prompts-ideas-for-blogs-scripts-stories-and-more/

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