writing memoir

I hope that you’ve left behind a healthy and creative June, and that you’re beginning the second half of this year with lots of plans for new stories or for finishing those you’ve begun.

I’m on a deadline for a freelance contract, so I won’t be posting a blog or new prompts in August. To give a creative boost to your summer writing, check out your July and August writing prompts below.

Use one, some or all of the words in one of these groups to inspire a story or poem:

• Table, gloves, fog, chill, red
• Bag, glasses, door, step, green
• Hat, chair, sun, mosquitos, yellow
• Truck, flag, open, road, white
• Cedar, shadow, dead, under, black
• Umbrella, storm, cold, keep, blue
• Beach, sunset, bench, sorrow, orange

Here are some opening sentences:

• I don’t care if you’re tired. Dig.
• The restaurant seemed deserted.
• No one writes letters anymore.
• Don’t open that!
• Cold fog rolled up from the lake.
• Two in the morning was the wrong time to see lights on the hill.
• Even the sound of rain on the tin roof couldn’t keep me awake.
• I liked to think I was immune to Henry.
• I’d been desperate to hear an approaching car, but this was the wrong car.
• A man shoveling dirt always makes me think of Henry.
• As usual, Helen did not say thank you.
• Saving Henry’s life was getting to be a habit.
• Lightning never strikes birch trees.
• I couldn’t stop myself from laughing, which didn’t help me make a friend.
• Why are you so sure that it was murder?
• Karos pulled his robe tightly around him and swept from the room.

Try one of these titles:

Adjoining Rooms, Camp Leopard, Life is Good, Tables Turned, The Welcome Harbor, Those Meddlin’ Kids, Pike’s Peak, The Jasmine Secret, The Window, The Ghost Ferry, Biding Time, Resurrection, Door Number Three, Keeping Faith, Secrets from the Past, Ley Lines, The Crimson Sword.

Here are some dialogue excerpts that might inspire a scene or a story.

He wants to see you now.
What happens if I don’t want to see him?
I wouldn’t risk finding out.

Henry doesn’t seem to like Helen very much.
It’s not what it looks like.
You mean, he likes her?
No, he hates her.

Helen need you to do her a favor.
Well, why doesn’t she ask me?
She knows how you feel about her.
I can guarantee that she doesn’t.

Henry just did the stupidest thing.
No, what was stupid was letting you find out about it.

I hope you’re pleased with yourself.
No, not really.
Then, why did you do it?

What’s that noise?
I didn’t hear anything.
Liar.
Okay, I heard something.

Have a writerly summer! See you September!