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Married for over 20 years, Shellie and her husband have four wonderful kiddos and two goofy greyhounds. Shellie writes because it keeps her away from her husband’s power tools and because every now and then, she doesn’t have the choice, it just takes over. Her best inspiration comes from God and the occasional walk along a country road with her greyhounds. Shellie is the founder of NextGen Writers, a free on-line writers conference for teens, and the author of several books, including Driven. Her latest release is Grudges Not Included, which you can learn more about here.
Hey Go Teen Writers! **Waves**
I’m really excited to talk to you all about writing prompts for a couple reasons. First because sometimes we just need to know why we do the things we do. Are you responding to Stephanie’s writing prompt contests because you love writing? You’re competitive and are dying to get that top spot? Because you’ve made great friends and connections through the challenges and can’t give that up? Or is there another reason? And second, we’re going to take a moment and give back to Stephanie for all the hard work she’s done for us.
First, why do we bother with writing prompts? Or rather, why should we? Let’s take a step back from writing and look at biology for a second. While the brain is considered an organ and not a muscle, mental exercises have been shown to enhance the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain that improves with learning and controls logical thinking, anticipates events, considers decisions, and regulates social control) similar to the way physical exercise benefits a muscle. With that in mind, let’s look at ways those mental chin-ups can improve your writing…
Prompts widen your writing horizons by exposing you to new topics. As writer’s we’re always encouraged to find our niche, write what we know, brand our genre; but prompts give us the freedom to write outside our preferred genre. They expose writers, even seasoned ones, to worlds and subject matters we otherwise ignore.
Because prompts provide new landscapes for our writing brains to play with, they rip through writer’s block like a runner through the finish line. They provide new focus and new questions which we can bring to our other writings. If we save them, prompt writing can become our go-to scrap file. You know. That place where we keep our favorite descriptions, our pet phrases. Why those prompts may even inspire an entire storyline. It worked for me. Grudges Not Included, my recent Christmas release, started with a prompt from a new friend. The prompt: every year in Boerne, TX, a nostalgic Christmas event takes place—The Dickens Event. What happens when The Dickens Event gives life to classic Dicken’s tales? The results: old world Christmas meets modern-day Texas. Cake Boss meets David Copperfield.
As prompts permit us to write through unfamiliar territory, it refines our preferences and style. Think of it this way, if we didn’t try new foods, we’d never know we hate Brussel sprouts, but love peppermint-stick ice cream (ok, my discovery…you may love sprouts and hate ice cream…it could happen). Our food preferences narrow. Similarly, our writing style sharpens. Remember that Texan Christmas novella? An odd story for a non-baker from Ohio to write, but I’ve since learned I enjoy writing comical characters and have expanded my writing to include romance (but only a little :)).
Writing prompts encourage free writing without self-edits. Sometimes that inner editor squashes the best ideas, metaphors, plot twists, and creativity. Regular free writing teaches us how to bind the inner editor, if for only a moment, and it permits our imaginations to fly. The resulting creativity is the very thing agents and editors are looking for in fresh manuscripts.
Best of all, frequent writing through prompts polishes our writing skills. They provide literary practice for us to hone our grammatical rule usage, to enhance our descriptive writing, and to wrestle with imagery. So whether you submit your writing prompt answers because you’re competitive or because you itch to receive first place accolades, you and your writing will benefit from participating in Go Teen Writers’ prompt challenges.
But it takes so much work from the judges to the organizing to creating the prompts themselves. Let’s give back to Stephanie. Call it our Christmas gift to her. Let’s make up next year’s writing prompts for her. In the form or comments section below, submit your most creative writer’s prompt (keep it to 25 words or less). Who knows, maybe you’ll see your prompt in the next Go Teen Writer’s challenge.
Stephanie here – While I feel like you all give me a gift just by being return visitors to Go Teen Writers, I love the idea of hearing your suggestions for future Go Teen Writers challenges. If you’re like me and you’re a bit shy, you can utilize the form below and it’ll be just between you and me. If you’re blessed with boldness (how I envy you!) you can leave your suggestion in the comments section.
Thanks, Shellie, for such a wonderful post!