Underneath what? Underneath the blankets, the ocean, the river, underneath society’s gaze? There are so many things going on ‘underneath’!
Looking up from underneath? Author’s photo
A good journalist knows this, and hunts down the things happening down where we ordinary citizens won’t or can’t explore. All writers, though, whether non-fiction or fiction writers, can find some of the most interesting things whey dive in and go ‘underneath’.
This writing prompt could assist any writer, I would say. Going underneath any subject can find the interesting things not normally portrayed in writing. So whether you write poetry, fiction books, or non-fiction books, or blogs, of course, think about going underneath your subject matter. Your readers will thank you!
What could be going on underneath the sea? author’s photo
Exploring the hidden things in life brings hints of welcome mystery and intrigue to your writing, get in there and get writing about what goes on Underneath!
What is it that’s coming, and yes, are you ready? What is it, and what is entailed in ‘getting ready’ for it? Is it a road trip, your retirement from work, birth of a child, or moving into your new home?
Or could it be a holiday, Christmas, Easter, or a birthday, yours or that of a significant other? These events can definitely cause a bit of emotion, excitement or stress, and the need to get things organised for them. Going to school, uni, or your child doing one or other of them for the first time, more things that need a lot of thought, perhaps.
Or could the ‘thing’ that’s on it’s way be a sad or bad thing? Getting divorced, or your child leaving home. Or could it be the anniversary of the death of a loved one, that can be an emotional time, that requires emotional readiness.
So this writing prompt may inspire tears, so take care – hanky or tissues at the ready, and hopefully someone close by to help, if needed.
Getting emotional is not always a bad thing, necessarily, but it can be, at times. We all must take care for ourselves, and look out for our emotional well being. Getting to the guts of things, in our writing though, that’s an important thing too. It’s a matter of weighing things up, and thinking hard about it all.
Looking at this photo, maybe this man has to get ready for the hay fever season, and needs to make sure he has his appropriate meds, and tissues, lots of tissues! That’s not funny, for sufferers, but it is still funny, if not affected … Or maybe he’s forgotten to get flowers for his loved one on Valentines Day and now that he’s remembered, hasn’t got the money to pay for them … Who knows? Take a guess, and write about it!
So the writing prompt for today is the phase: “It’s getting closer! Are you ready?”
I hope this writing prompt is useful to you, in your writing, and please, if you are enjoying these prompts, and finding them useful, why not share the good news with some writing friends!
One prompt will never lead to exactly the same response, from my quite broad experience. The poetry reading event I help organise on the last Sunday of every month, has a small competition, using five words, with a bottle of wine for the winner, with the winner chosen by our Guest Poet, always a fun time!
This prompt today, is one that could well bring some lovely poems into the world. Emotions are important in poetry, and the prompt for today sure has emotion, love?, hate, a bit of jealousy, but one hopes, with best of friends, mostly respect and much affection, bordering on love.
There’s not much more intense than the relationship you might have with friends. As kids we learn about taking turns, sharing, and these things remain into adult friendships too, but ‘big kids’ have many more emotions happening in friendships. Love is a much nuanced thing.
Is is it wrong to call our pets ‘friends’? Can humans be friends with animals? I know what I think, what do you think? And the relationship animals have with each other, is that friendship? Dogs together, is that a pack or are they friends, what things make that friendship. if you think it IS friendship? And what if you throw a cat in there too? Friends?
What are friends, and do acquaintances become friends in time, or are they tow different things. Does shared experience make people friends, and if so, why? Shared understanding, appreciation, helping each other, being successful together, all good things, or can some of those things make a friendship sour, go off? Or even end?
Lots of things there, and here’s some more – Did you have a best friend as a child? Are you both still friends? If so, what’s that like, and if not, the same … Can we be friends with our parents? Or is that relationship just not the same? Can we morph from child and parent, and then become friends with a parent when we become adults? If so, when? Nuance, nuance, nuance, I say!
Have a friendly time, thinking and writing about friendship.
(oops, in my excitement with the writing prompt, I accidentally posted it a day early!)
Are there limits to what you might do, how high you may climb, how far down you may dive? Are there limits to what you’d do for someone else? Could you ever give your all to a charity, political party, refugee seeking a home?
Could you ever do the biggest thing a person can do? For this writing prompt, take a look at what some others have done, the heights they’ve reached, the fullness of their giving – a kidney, a lifetime of service, a child …
Or look at the reverse side, could you ever go against your own moral code, and do bad things? Could you ever steal? Or hurt someone else, or a pet? Could you ever be the kind of person you despise for their nastiness?
Giving, bravery, taking, cowardice, all of these and many more ‘big things’ could come into your thinking for this prompt. There are wonderful people in the world doing awesomely good things. Write about that, perhaps focus on one and use them as your prompt, looking at whether you may one day do something similar, or why you think your couldn’t do that …
Or could you ever be the person who beat their dog, child, spouse? Or who stole from a loved one, the government, their employer, and used the money for funding your own guilty obsession … Could you ever be that person, hated by others, and inwardly, by yourself?
What are the limits of your physical abilities – could you ever run in a marathon, and do well? Could you ever lift your own weight? Could you ever climb a tree, a mountain? Could you ever break through, and become rich and famous? Could you ever become a nun, priest, politician, criminal, actor, stand up comedian, rock star, best selling writer?
Could you, should you, will you, or won’t you? If you think you could, what will it take? Or the opposite, why could you never … whatever? Why not? Write about it, creatively!
Are your morals and ethics strong enough to prevent the bad things? Have there been times you ever acted against your own moral code? How did it feel, what was the thing, and the reason for it?
These things and so much more, are all part of the writing prompt for today: COULD YOU EVER …
Senses – see, hear, smell, touch, taste. As the song refers, our senses working overtime! Who remembers the XTC song, from the seventies?
Those five senses are not the only ones referred to these days though. Intuition is perhaps a sense, certainly it is held to be so.
What about a sense of direction? Some people, if they’re outside, always know which way is north, useful sense to have at times, for sure. Another one is a sense of time.What about a sense of decency, or even a sense of occasion. I could go on and on with these, using Google, but you could do that for yourself, if you wish to explore it further …
So, a poem about the most delicious smelling meal ever, or the glorious sight of a rainbow after rain. The taste of that delicious smelling meal! What was it, anyway, your favourite meal, use all of your senses, the sound of cooking steak, yum!
And of course, the feel of fur, on a soft and warm pussy cat, sensuous and lovely! I love the sound of rumbling thunder, and I also love the sound of wind rushing through tall trees. I hear that sound quite often at home, because we have some tall pine trees on the western of our front yard.
some of our pine trees, my photo
How about a sense of unease? That may be interesting to write about poetically … that gut feeling that something is wrong, but you don’t know what it is, or you know exactly what it is, but can do nothing about it …
Do any of these writing prompts spark any ideas for you? If they do, that’s great. If they don’t maybe a sense of unease might be writing, making you wonder if you’ll ever write creatively again. Write about that!
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 