Category: tips from the bar

Tell a story about a book you find on the street/in an airport/on the shelf of someone you don’t have much in common with.

A recent archaeological dig in Melbourne unearthed more than a thousand teeth extracted by a 19th-century dentist’s office.

What horrors will future investigators discover in your own ruins?

Consider the duct tape recently painted over at the Cantab Lounge. Now consider a time when you thought you had made some real self-improvement, maybe enough to tell somebody about. Did it go as well as you dreamed?

Try and find a piece of writing that stumbles over objectification of a person (or somehow makes the act of objectification seem lovely) and let it inspire you to write about something you are passionate about. Express this without mentioning a person in any way.

Wait for a moment when you are completely exhausted. Try writing down a few lines, or ideas, or an outline for a piece of writing. Once you are more rested, pick up where you left off; start with these key lines or ideas and work to finish the idea.

Explain a scar you don’t remember getting.

This week, you may have noticed that your phone provides a very loud and emphatic emergency weather warning (even if you are one or more counties away from the potentially dangerous weather). Imagine another alert you really wish your phone would give you to help you avoid disaster.

Guest workshopper Sara Brickman offered a two-part prompt in a workshop before her show:

FIRST: Write down your most recent nightmare. If you can’t remember it, write down an anxiety dream, or a recurring nightmare you can remember.

THEN: [Highlight this text only after you’ve completed step 1.] Imagine you are on a dinner date …

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