Tag: writing prompt

Tips from the Bar: False Yelp

Write a stylized review of a restaurant or business: something that gives the impression of being written by the owner, or perhaps a friend of the owner, after taking one too many creative writing courses.

Tips from the Bar: Jack McCarthy Prompts 1 through 3

Part 1: Write about your blind date with God.

Part 2: Write about sharing an apartment with God.

Part 3: Write about your break-up with God.

Tips from the Bar: the Living Eulogy

Write a eulogy for a poet who is still, currently, breathing. It can be a true piece of admiration, a fictional skewering (or, for that matter, a true skewering), or something entirely satirical.

We did this at The Cantab five or six years ago, and Eric Darby wrote a rather heady piece concerning Prabakar …

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Tips from the Bar: Between the Lines

Find a poem that you feel strongly about, either positively or negatively. Double space the poem, and write line
that connect the end of one line to the beginning of the next. (For example: “So much depends/upon/a red wheelbarrow,” becomes “So much depends/on the length of rope coiled/upon/the pile of manure in/a red wheelbarrow”), …

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Tips from the Bar: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Wallace Stevens

Write the same sentiment thirteen different ways: “It was cold this morning,” “I woke up to a snowman leaning over my bed,” “This morning my thermostat registered Republican,” etc.

Tips from the Bar: the Patricia Smith Prompt

Think of the person who means the most to you in the entire world: not necessarily romantically, but someone you love with all your heart. Now, dress them for their funeral.

Tips from the Bar: the Big Fish Prompt

Write a family history for your future spawn, but make it historically inaccurate and filled with hyperbole.

Tips from the Bar: No Thanks, I’m Driving

Poetically turn down an invitation from someone.

Tips from the Bar: the April Ranger Prompt

Write a love letter to a fictional figure from literature (Tom Sawyer, Hester Prynne, The Grinch, etc.).

Tips from the Bar: the Cross Media Prompt

Write a love letter from a character from a movie, book, TV show, comic, etc. to a character from another media source. You may not write a love note back and forth between two media with the same foundation (i.e. Frodo from the Fellowship of The Ring movie to Sam from The Fellowship Of The …

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