Category Archives: Writing Prompts

Lunch With Authors

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Prompt: Name an author that you’d like to have lunch with.

My 1st response was to this prompt was “living or dead?”  I thought I’d do both.

J.K. Rowling would be my choice for an author that’s still living.  I loved the Harry Potter series so much, and I’d love to be able to talk with her.  I’d probably be too much in awe to say anything, but eventually I’d probably say something.  I’d probably end up asking her about the series, but hopefully I’d remember to get in a few other questions.  The books are just so magical, and to be able to talk with J.K.R. would be so amazing.

Jane Austen would be my choice for an author who’s no longer alive.  I’m a big fan of her books, and just love her characters!  I haven’t read Mansfield Park, but I have read her other 5 books, and I must say that I really do love Jane Austen.  I can’t put a finger on why I love her books, but it’s a combination of her writing and the characters.  I will admit to not liking Pride and Prejudice the 1st time I read it, but I think it was because I had trouble get used to her writing style.  When I read it the 2nd time, I could appreciate it, and fell in love with it.  Emma and Sense and Sensibility are 2nd and 3rd, with Persuasion and Northanger Abbey being my 4th and 5th, if I ranked them in order of how much I liked them.

And while my answers really isn’t a surprise, given that Harry Potter and Pride and Prejudice are my top 2 favorite books, I think those are my 2 choices.

What Would I Do With $1000?

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Prompt: Here’s $1000.  Spend it in the next hour or lose it.  No online shopping allowed. 

  • I have a list of books I want to get, so a good chunk of it would go to books.  It’s a mix of cookbooks, fiction, and non-fiction.  Me wanting books isn’t anything unusual, so of course it’s going to be at the top of the list.
  • Sephora is a must, and very convenient since it’s next to Barnes and Noble.  You can never have too much lip gloss or nail polish.   
  • Food- what I like to eat is so different from what my mom and grandma eat, so I’d totally buy some stuff that would probably confuse them.
  • Let’s see…I suppose a new iPod is in order, since there’s not enough room on my iPod for all the music I have. 

I just got an idea for a story of some sort- a scavenger hunt for strange items you have to buy.  Maybe a short story, because I don’t know if I could sustain for 50k.  It could definitely be a comedy though, with a quest for the final item that cannot be find.  I suppose it could be more serious, but it screams comedy.  Maybe writing something shorter will get me going as far as writing goes.

What I Want To Know More About

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I honestly have no idea where to begin with this.  There are so many things I want to know, and there’s so much out there, that I’ll never know everything.  I think I’m going to talk about the classes I wish I had time to take.

I wish I had taken a few more history classes- I love history, so I wish I had more time to take a few extra history classes.  And actually, I wish I had taken history classes in place of some of the other classes I had taken. 

I also wish I had taken a few more English classes- I took only the required classes, and none beyond that.  I wish I had though, since English was always one of my favorite classes in high school.

Psychology- I always liked psychology, and wished I took more than Intro to Psych and Abnormal Psychology.  Abnormal Psych was really interesting- and all of the disorders that I never knew existed!  I’ve debated getting a copy of the DSM-IV-TR, which is probably the current edition.  If it’s not, then the newest edition.  Mostly because I’m weird, and because I know there has to be more than what we talked about in class. 

Sociology- I love sociology!  That should be expected though, since that’s what my degree is in.  And like everything else I’ve mentioned, there were a few classes I wish I had taken.  My two favorite classes were sociology classes- Minority Group Relations (best class ever!) and gender roles and the media.  Both were really interesting, and the professors were awesome.

Women’s Studies- I took one class, about women in the media, and I was fascinated.  I didn’t really glance at the other classes offered for Women’s Studies, but I was interested enough want to take another class.]

One day, I’m hoping to go back to school so I can take some of the classes I never got around to taking the 1st time.  Plus, I need to do some more reading, and see if I can learn anything, because I like reading, and learning new things.

Recurring Dreams

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Writing Prompt: Have you ever had a recurring dream?

There was this dream I had when I was little, but I unfortunately don’t remember it, other than Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty was in it. 

Lately, I’ve had several dreams where I get into arguments with both my mother and an aunt.  I guess you could say that it’s a recurring dream, because in the dream, I’m arguing with them (not at the same time, thankfully, because I don’t think my mind could handle it).  The location is usually at home too, and while I don’t remember what I argued about, but they’ve been really weird. 

I had a dream the other night where I saw some random person smother someone else, and then went to look out a window.  After calling 911, of course. 

I had this other dream where there was a fire, and my house was full of smoke.  I grab my magical binder, my flash drive, my laptop, and underwear, and throw it into my backpack.  There was something about being in a restaurant, and people staying over. 

What I find really interesting is that I tend to dream more vividly, and have dreams that mirror real life when I write in my journal before I go to bed.  Perhaps it’s an easy way of dealing with my thoughts and feelings if it appears in a dream, like writing about it opens the door for me to think about it.  A dream  could be just a dream, and there could be nothing behind it, but it’s still an interesting connection.

Overall, I don’t have very many recurring dreams, other than the ones where I’m arguing with family.  If I do, I don’t remember having them, which wouldn’t be that unusual.  While I don’t remember every dream I’ve had, I do remember a fair amount of them.

Reading Minds

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Today’s Prompt: If you could read minds for a day, would you?  Whose? What would you want to find out?

I would definitely jump at the chance to read minds if I could. 

I think I would start off reading some of my family’s minds, just to see what they’re thinking.  If they’re as bad as I think, and what motivates them to do and say the things that they do.  It would mostly be to see if I can trust them, which I’m positive I can’t anymore. 

It’s definitely geared towards one person in particular, although it would be nice to see where the rest of my family falls.  I’m pretty sure they don’t think of each other the whole day, so if I could pick the day, it would definitely be when the whole family’s together. 

I’d also like to read the minds of some of the people I work with, just because they’re all really interesting, and it’d be cool to see what goes through their head.  They all seem like they would have interesting thoughts.  But don’t tell them I said so!

And definitely some of the visitors who come into the museum!  Mostly to see if some of them really are as stupid as they sound.

It is a pretty fine line though.  On the one hand, it would be interesting to see what the people around me think…but on the other hand, I could end up finding out a lot of stuff I don’t want to know.  And I would never be able to take it back.  I could never unknow something once I find out about it, and I’d have to live the rest of my life knowing what they really thought.  If it were silly and mundane things, I think I’d be fine, but with so many people on my list, I’m bound to find out something I don’t want to know, and I honestly don’t know if I could live with that.

I suppose a lot of it depends on what parameters are set in place, but it does bring up some interesting questions.

When I Can’t Sleep

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Writing Prompt: What do you think about when you can’t fall asleep?

I have a lot of trouble sleeping, so there’s a lot I think about when I can’t sleep.  Mostly I worry and stress out about stuff when I can’t sleep.  Sometimes I think about why I can’t sleep and when I will fall asleep.  I think about why I can’t have a normal sleeping pattern.

I also think about things I need to do and things I should do.  Like go to the gym, or work on my novels.  Lately it’s been about how I’m ever going to read 100 books this year, and also how I’ve been putting off finding places to volunteer.

And like I said before, I tend to do most of my worrying at night.  I do worry/feel anxious throughout the day, but for whatever reason, it’s just terrible at night, and while journaling helps to a certain degree, it doesn’t completely make it go away, so I’ll still be awake at 1 or 2 in the morning, worrying about how I can’t go to sleep.  Perhaps I need to journal before I go to sleep instead of the middle of the night when I can’t sleep.  Knowing me, I probably need to change my getting-ready-for-bed routine.

We all know sleep is important, and when you’re writing, or in my case, attempting to write, getting a good nights sleep is a really good idea.  This is especially evidenced in this post I wrote back in November.  While it makes rereading my writing entertaining, it makes writing a bit harder.  I’m more distracted than normal, and it’s harder to focus on writing when I’m trying not to fall asleep.  It’s definitely a lot easier for me to get my thoughts onto paper if I’m well-rested.

3 Things I Can’t Live Without

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Today’s Prompt: Three things you can’t go without.

  1. Lip gloss/lip balm: I always have it with me,  Always.  I think I have around 5 or 6 different things of lipgloss.  It’s a bit of a problem actually, because I always feel the need to buy more, even though I have more than enough.  And sometimes, they go missing, but because I also have a slight addiction to Sephora, and therefore pay around $10 or so for lip gloss, I tend to make sure it doesn’t go missing.  There’s no way I’m going to lose a $10 lip gloss.  I did once, and it was terrible, because it was one of my favorites.
  2. Nail polish: I love nail polish as much as I love lip gloss, although nail polish is a lot hard to lose than lip gloss.  Nail polish is so fun!  You can coordinate it to whatever’s going on; and I will admit to wearing red and green at Christmas, red and blue for 4th of july/memorial day/labor day, and orange at halloween.  And again, I always feel the need to at least see the new shades at Sephora, and test them out.  Which is why I only go when I actually need something and when I have money.  Because otherwise I’ll get sucked into the vortex that is known as Sephora-land.
  3. this is a hard choice: it’s a tie between my iPod and my flash drive.  My life is on my flashdrive, although I tend to be rather obsessive about backing things up, so if i were to lose it, I think I’d be okay.  Most of my novels are password protected…not that they’re any good, although I suppose someone could figure out the password and edit them and such, although I don’t know why they’d want to.  And with some of the songs/artists on my iPod *cough*MileyCyrusHannahMontanaHanson*cough* they might want to return it.  But that is a post for another day.

I would like to point out that while 2 of my choices are beauty products, I’m not really into make-up.  Mostly because I’m not only too lazy to actually take the time to put it on, but also because I’ll forget to wash it off.  I do have a weakness for lip gloss and nail polish, and I feel weird without either one.

The Olympics!

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Writing Prompt: If you could participate in an Olympic event, which one would you choose and why?

That’s a hard question to answer, mostly because there’s a few answers.

  • gymnastics: gymnastics has fascinated me for a really long time, and I would totally love to be able to do that!  Unfortunately, I’m nowhere near coordinated enough to do balance beam or the uneven bars.  But for the sake of the question, let’s pretend I am that coordinated.  It’s definitely one of my favorite sports, so it’s one of my top choices.
  • ice-skating: again, it’s another sport that I’ve been fascinated with since I was little.  And like gymnastics, I’m nowhere near coordinated enough to be able to do all the jumps.  Half the time, I can barely walk without tripping or running into something.  But it’s also one of my favorite sports, and they’re definitely graceful.
  • softball: I used to play softball when I was little, so that’s why I’d want to be on the Olympic softball team.  Although since softball’s not in the olympics anymore (or at least for the 2012 olympics, I can’t remember if it’s going to be in the 2016 olympics or not), I guess softball would be out.
  • swimming/diving: swimming doesn’t get enough tv time, except during the olympics.  It’s sad, but what else can I do?  I did group swimming and diving together, because they’re both water sports, and for some reason, I always associate the two together.  I love water, and even though I grew up in San Diego, I never spent enough time swimming or at the beach. 

So those are my four choices- or 3 if you count out softball.  But if softball were to be magically included in the Olympics again, it would be 4 choices.

Shampoo!

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Writing Prompt: Do we really need more than fifty kinds of shampoo?

No.  Seriously, it’s really overwhelming when I have to buy shampoo, lotion, bodywash, hair spray, or…pretty much anything.  The options are really overwhelming, and how hard is it to have just a few options? 

Of course, I only wash my hair about 3 or 4 times a week, so I don’t use that much shampoo.  I have settled on a good shampoo, that I actually love, so I’m set on shampoo.  The thing with my hair is that it’s curly, and I honestly don’t need to wash it that often.  Actually, I can usually get away with washing it just 2 or 3 times a week, if nothing’s going on. 

But still, there’s shampoo for everything- curly hair, straight hair, thin hair, brown hair, blonde hair…whatever’s going on with your hair, there’s probably a shampoo for it.  In fact, I think it would be safe to bet that there’s a whole line of products made just for your hair!

And the dizzying array of options extend to lotion, body wash, soap, toothpaste, and any beauty product that’s currently out there.  It’s frustrating, because all I want is some moisturizing lotion with no scent in it!  I don’t want scented whatever lotion that’ll make me look young (because I am young, and I really don’t need to look any younger), I just want some plain old lotion.  Is that too much too ask for? 

It does make me glad that I have my favorites, because it means I no longer have to spend 10 minutes trying to figure out which product to buy.  But I do have to pick up something for my grandma every once in a while, and I will admit to just picking something for her, mostly because…trying to decide on something is too annoying.

Fear of Death

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Today’s Prompt: Are you afraid of death?

Yes and no.  The actual thought of dying doesn’t scare me, because death is inevitable.  Unless a way to live forever comes along.  But how I die…that is what scares me.  I hope it’s not painful, and I don’t suffer.  I want it to be quick and painless.  With my luck, it’ll be painful and drawn out.  Or something stupid.  Although I have to say, I’d take stupid over painful and drawn out anyday. 

I don’t how accurate my answer really is, because I’ve never had any near-death experiences or anything (thankfully), although there was the one time when I had food poisoning and thought I was going to die.  Which was me being dramatic, but it was not a pleasant experience.  Anyway, I’m right in the middle, but my answer could change over time.

And Another Writing Prompt: What do you think about ghosts?

I definitely believe in ghosts.  I think it would be cool to see a ghost or have some other encounter with a ghost.  So a couple years ago, I went to the Whaley House in Old Town San Diego, and I have to say, it was pretty cool.  And there are some places you know have to have a lot of ghosts, like the Tower of London.  And you know the White House has to have a few ghosts running around.  I do like ghost stories.  And anything paranormal is interesting.  Perhaps I have another plot bunny on my hands.