Creative Writing--Prompt #5

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Keep in mind that you are NOT required to use these prompts for your drafts. They are just brainstorming tools. However, you MAY use these prompts to develop your drafts. In short, it is up to you. You can also use them at another time during the semester, not just this week.

Option #1 (200-250 words):

Starting with today's date, begin a 7-day journal. In this journal, you should make important and vivid observations about the world around you, recalling conversations/scenes with friends and others, offering background information on yourself and others, recounting activities done for that day, and noting mini-epiphanies experienced throughout the week.

After one week, refer to this mini-journal and write an essay that spotlights the high or low points of your week.

Option #2 (200-250 words):

Read the “found” poem called “The Coffee Fortune Wall of Shame” (see below). I “found” this poem by collecting these coffee fortunes from my various café excursions throughout Skopje and also swiping them from coffee drinkers who left these cute brown slips of miswritten (albeit charming) bits of wisdom behind. There is no rhyme or reason to this poem—I am simply the note taker.

Select one bit of wisdom from this “poem,” and write an essay, using one of the fortunes (misspellings, odd grammar, etc.) as the title. OR make up your own coffee fortune and build an essay around it.

The Coffee Fortune Wall of Shame—A Found Poem

You are wonderful.

Flert.

Don’t fish on a tree.

Unexpected meeting.

Govern without being present.

Pick your words.

Whatever you make, that’s it.

Breathe.

Jealousy is selfishness.

An empty pocket is a load.

Be punctual.

Stand out, don’t be out.

The tired make mistakes.

Help! I’m trapped in an espresso machine!

(Sorry. I made that last one up.)

Option #3 (200-250 words):

Interview a stranger (a store clerk, café server, plumber, etc.) or someone you don’t know very well, and find out some basic information about that person. Then, based on what you have found out, write an essay in that person’s voice. (For an example, see “The Bell Ringer,” by Greg Hershey, which I have emailed to you. After you read this essay, these images will make sense).

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